I’m a bit too young to have been conscious of the underbelly of the Bulls’ two title runs (especially the first one). I just saw Michael Jordan dunking a lot and Dennis Rodman’s wacky hair and was pretty excited about it all. I do know this, though: Bulls GM Jerry Krause and Michael Jordan butted heads.

And as Roland Lazenby at Hoops Hype (via Docksquad, via TrueHoop) points out in an excellent read today, it’s because Krause didn’t give a hoot that Michael Jordan was Michael Jordan. Nobody seemed to stand up to Jordan — not even Phil Jackson — except Krause. He made the moves he wanted to with player personal, and largely was not swayed by MJ.

Jordan, you may recall, was the most intimidating presence in the history of the game, on and off the court. That was his gift and his curse, all rolled into one. It was his gift because he rode that Alpha Male nature to the heights of the sport, scaring everybody in his path along the way. The curse was that his talent transformed those around him into fawning groupies and sycophants. Everywhere Jordan turned, he encountered people eager to tell him what he wanted to hear.

Even Jackson, hugely intimidating in his own right, chose his words carefully and stepped softly around His Airness.

Krause, on the other hand, charged right in like the bull that he was, cocksure in his own view of things.

This is pretty ballsy of Krause. I’d think that if Michael Jordan asked me to get rid of some dead bodies and maybe shore up some gambling debts for him right now, I’d be on the first plane to South Beach.