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FRIDAY, JAN. 8: At 5 p.m. the NBA allows owners to call agents. There are many busy signals. NBA security officials are sent to every team's practice facilities to prevent management from talking directly to players before Jan. 18, the first official practice day. The Bulls' war room, a large conference space with six phones and a fax machine overlooking the practice court, is empty. From his house, outside Chicago, Krause calls Pippen's agent, Kyle Rote--because he's not yet allowed to talk to Pippen directly and also because Pippen despises Krause and hardly speaks to him. Krause then makes cursory calls to express interest in every player on the 1998 roster, including Dennis Rodman, whom he does not want if Jordan doesn't return.
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, JAN. 9-10: Krause continues to call virtually every agent of everyone who has ever played a game of basketball in which score was kept.
MONDAY, JAN. 11: The Bulls' second draft pick, Corey Carr, takes his first practice in the Berto Center with 15 other NBA players, including ex-Bull, now Charlotte Hornet, B.J. Armstrong. Luc Longley practices, but sits out the scrimmages. "I'm a free agent," he shrugs. "I don't want to get hurt."
At noon Jordan phones Reinsdorf to say he's retiring. Jordan then calls commissioner Stern. At 10:45 p.m., Associated Press reports the news.
TUESDAY, JAN. 12: For a while, Krause and Reinsdorf take a break from the phone, in what they call a mourning period. "When you finally hear Michael Jordan is retiring, you don't just shake that off. That's 13 years of your life. You don't just go to Plan B," says Bulls p. r. director Tim Hallam.
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 13: During his press conference at the United Center, Jordan, sporting a bandaged finger that he hurt while cutting a cigar, says he made up his mind to retire at the end of last season, but kept quiet in order to support the union, which would have had a weaker position if it couldn't shake its premiere moneymaker in Stern's face. In the serious, unemotional, professional manner that characterized his career, Jordan says, "Right now, I don't have the mental challenges I've had in the past." His wife Juanita says he will do more car pooling.
THURSDAY, JAN. 14: The four Bulls work out with other NBA players. Longley no longer comes to practice. Kerr is at a speaking engagement. Krause is trying to sign Pippen, who under the new rules can be paid more by the Bulls than by a different team. Reinsdorf would then probably trade Pippen to another team, like Los Angeles, for some young talent, like Eddie Jones. Good luck. Krause is in more promising negotiations with free agent Brent Barry of the Miami Heat. Barry is a 6-ft. 6-in. white guy who can dunk. Kids in Chicago will probably not want to "be like Brent," but the free-agent market is shrinking quickly, with Jayson Williams re-upping with New Jersey. Meanwhile, Pippen is close to signing with Houston and Longley with Phoenix. Rodman's agent is talking to Los Angeles and Orlando. No word yet from the World Wrestling Federation.
FRIDAY, JAN. 15: The signing deadline is pushed back to Tuesday, mostly because someone figured out that Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the league doesn't need any more bad publicity.