Michael Jordan being fired as General Manager of the Washington Wizards may not be as huge a surprise as it is a slap in the face to the basketball and marketing megastar, but the Chicago Tribune's Sam Smith hints that there might be an insult to follow the ignominy.

According to Smith, recently unemployed former Bulls GM Jerry Krause might be in the running for MJ's old job, and not as shooting guard. Some of you may recall, way back when the Bulls were a winning team, that Krause took a big chunk of that credit, and then fully dismantled that championship team in the wake of Jordan's second retirement, brimming with the hubris that he could attract free agents and draft someone other than a power forward. Four years, two coaches and at least four power forwards and an Eddie Robinson later, the Bulls still suck, although with a glimmer of promise thanks largely to the coaching of Bill Cartwright.

Meanwhile, Krause very suddenly resigned his post, to be be quickly replaced by shoe-in candidate and notorious final-shot taker, former Bull John Paxson. The cited reasons were for health and family, but if the rumors about the Wizards (and the Portland Trailblazers, for that matter) are real, the aroma of Jerry's departure becomes even more suspicious.

Jordan had an active, and very public disdain for Krause, and the conventional wisdom was that a trained, or perhaps even untrained, monkey could have found a supporting cast to surround Jordan and Scottie Pippen during the glory years of the franchise. Now, the guy some allegedly call "Crumbs" may get the last laugh as he's brought in to clean up the mess that Wizards owner Abe Pollin believes Jordan made. Of course, with Portland being another option, Jerry may not be able to pass up the opportunity to trade longtime critic Pippen away again.