[SlimParticipant]

‘George loves to tell me that I screwed him’

“One time we made a bet. I don’t remember what the bet was but I think it was $100 bet on something and he sent me $100 worth of quarters.

I don’t know what I did with the quarters. I think I took them to the bank.

But my best story about him is not a funny story.

It was because of him that I bought the Bulls. Going back to, I think, 1972, he owned 8% or 10% of the Bulls along with some other people. We were having dinner one night in New York in the summer of ’84 and he was whining to me about the fact that the Bulls lost money every year and he was tired of writing checks for capital calls. And I remember saying to him that I really don’t understand why you guys lose money, I think that this is something that could be very good, and I’d love to buy the Bulls.

And that was the end of the conversation. I never thought anything of it.

About a week later one of his partners, Lester Crown, called me and told me that the Bulls were for sale, or at least most of the partners wanted to get out, except for Lester and Lamar Hunt. So we made a deal and shook hands on a deal in September of ’84, which got memorialized into a legal contract in January of ’85.

Now, two interesting things are that Michael Jordan had been drafted, but hadn’t played yet. So I always believed that if they had known what they had in Jordan, then we never would have made that deal. But when we made the deal, I told George, “Stay in, stay in, this thing is going to be fine, you’re not going to have any more capital calls” and he said “Nah, I want out. I’m tired of this. It’s a bad deal. I want out. I want my money.” So he got out, and of course, the rest is history, as far as what Jordan did and all the championships we won. Years later, with all the success the Bulls had, George loves to tell me that I screwed him. That he really wanted to stay in the Bulls deal, but I wouldn’t let him. He would say this, it didn’t matter who was present, he would bring this up from time to time.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2010/07/17/2010-07-17_jerry_reinsdorf_george_loves_to_tell_me_that_i_screwed_him.html

[BasketballGuru24Participant]

R.I.P George But Who cares Geroge Got Enough Money Off The Yankees And Built an All Start Team

[Author]

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