This column was originally about the Orlando Magic retiring Shaquille O’Neal’s No. 32 jersey he wore for them during his four year stay before leaving for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat, which both have retired his jersey already, before bouncing around the league.

Then my idea shifted toward Pete Carroll leaving the sideline of the Seattle Seahawks, followed by Nick Saban retiring from the University of Alabama, capped off with Bill Belichick parting ways with the New England Patriots and its owner Robert Kraft.

Until, the moment I was embarrassed to be a Chicago Bulls fan happened.

On Friday, Jan. 12, the Chicago Bulls played the Golden State Warriors at home, the United Center in Chicago, and held a special ceremony for its inaugural class of the newly formed Ring of Honor.

In hindsight, a Ring of Honor or Hall of Fame for a team is awesome and sometimes more than not gives players from the franchise recognition they don’t receive from the rest of the league or nationally.

I was all for it.

We, as in all Bulls fans, knew Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Bob Love, Artis Gilmore, and Phil Jackson were locks to be in the first class and receive yet another ovation for what they did for the franchise over the years.

Especially, Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, and Jackson for being key cogs in the dynasty years of 1990-1998, which brought in the only six championships the franchise has to this day.

Others were named to the Ring of Honor, including former Bulls General Manager Jerry Krause.

Krause passed away in 2017 at 77, so he was represented by his widow Thelma Krause. The Bulls fans in attendance booed when Jerry was initially introduced into the Ring of Honor where Thelma’s face was on the jumbotron shaking her hands in reaction. They showed her again, the fans booed, and she began crying.

What a shameful, dispicable way to treat people.

Whether you hate Krause or not for dissembling the dynasty Bulls, there was no reason for him to be booed almost 30 years later or for his widowed wife who was asked to be there by the team you’re supposedly a fan.

And maybe at first, Krause deserved some criticism for the team being dissembled. But, so could Michael Jordan for his attitude and behavior. Scottie Pippen for his ego and greed. Dennis Rodman for his crazy antics and placing Hollywood events over basketball or the team who pays him and made him a star. Phil Jackson for his ego and demands. They were all to blame, not just Krause.

So, in 1998 when the team disintegrated, it was understandable for Krause to get booed, heckled, slammed in press, and talked harshly about by every Bulls’ supporter. And to some level, the rest of the names associated also.

At the same time, Jackson isn’t hired as the Bulls coach without Krause.

Jordan remains a great player on a mediocre team because Krause wouldn’t have made the moves he did to build a team around the superstar.

Pippen stays with the Seattle SuperSonics, who originally drafted him before Krause traded his pick, Olden Polynice, to Seattle for Pippen.

Rodman stays a underperforming player on the San Antonio Spurs roster because Krause wouldn’t have made the trade for him.

Krause didn’t play a second of basketball for the Bulls, but he was the mastermind behind the mixing and matching, the piecing, the pressure, the stress, the financial decisions which made the Bulls dynasty possible.

There are only three franchises who have more championships than the Bulls - the Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Golden State Warriors, who won most of theirs after Krause wasn’t with the Bulls.

After almost 30 years later, Krause deserves respect for giving the Chicago Bulls and its fans the dynasty to be proud of and talk about in the first place.

I’ll end this with my words on Facebook, which actually had someone unfriend me because my opinion differed than his. He said adios, I say peace.

From my Facebook: Of course, I know Krause ended the team. Everyone knows. I’m not defending everything the man did. However, at the end of day in 2024, there is negative surrounding every positive in sports. There is absolutely no reason our society, a fan base should be as petty as it was to loath someone who made the Bulls what they were in the first place.

If someone asked every player and coach currently in the NBA, would you sign a contract to win six NBA Championships in eight years, but the end result is the team being dismantled and everyone associated going their separate ways.

Everyone would sign. Absolutely everyone.