He was, as usual, looking good. Designer suit. Sharp shoes. Not a hair out of place. (Then again, that’s easy when your dome is clean-shaven.) Some people might be joking about how Michael Jordan is the “Washington Wheezer,” but they forget that a 38-year-old man is approaching his prime—off the court. Dress him up, and he looks like he could take over the world. Oh, MJ has already done that? Well, on to Mars(1), then.
A flock of anxious microphones, tape recorders and TV cameras has crowded around the gentleman. This is his first trip to Philadelphia this season, so everybody in town wants to check out the Jordan Show. The Wizards had played in Cleveland the night before, so Jordan didn’t do a post-shootaround press conference on the morning of the Sixers game and this postgame feeding frenzy is the news hounds’ only opportunity to hear him speak. They won’t be denied.
 Jordan leads the Wizards in scoring and assists this season. Mitchell Layton NBAE/Getty Images |
Things were better a night later. The Wizards had smacked the Sixers, 94-87, thanks to 30 from Rare Air. Washington had been focused. Committed. “If the effort comes out like it did tonight, we’re going to win some games,” Jordan said. Earlier, he had backed off his “stink” statement, choosing instead to concentrate on the frustration that the Cleveland loss had generated. “The thing I didn’t like was that when we have one win, we tend to relax and think we accomplished something,” he said.
Jordan may have been peeved at his teammates’ inability to play consistent basketball, but he couldn’t be too upset with the line of questioning that night in Philadelphia. The talk was about basketball, about winning and losing—and not about whether Jordan should have come back to play ball in the first place. Queries came about the team’s effort, about Jordan’s jumper—“I got in a good rhythm and had my legs under me,” he said—and about how he would handle a stretch of four games in five days on a cranky right knee that had been drained four days earlier. “I just come out and see how I feel,” he said. “I leave it on the court and see what happens.” Ah, basketball.
Fifteen minutes earlier, Sixers coach Larry Brown had issued the latest defense for Jordan’s return, lampooning all those who believed the star’s Finals-clinching jumper in ’98 was the perfect exit and that his comeback was ill-advised and (perhaps worse) a threat to their hallowed memories of the Great One. “I think all you guys are idiots,” Brown said to the assembled media. “[Jordan] hasn’t played in three years, and here some people are actually calling him a punk and saying he shouldn’t have come back. He completely controlled the game tonight.”
Jordan had done just that—2001 style. Instead of dominating with aerial heroics, he had mounted a mid-range attack that included generous helpings of turnaround jumpers, pull-ups and layups. He passed effectively out of double-teams; played smart, sneaky defense, and made few (if any) mental mistakes. If this is the game of an aging superstar who should have stayed in the boardroom and off the hardwood, there are about 28 other teams that wouldn’t mind having it.
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“I expected him to be better than he’s playing right now, but there’s no limit to what a guy like that can do. He’s done so much for the League.”
The contrast between that night’s competing superstars was striking: Jordan is slick and corporate, while Iverson represents the hip-hop generation. In fact, AI’s career has almost mirrored Jordan’s: When MJ first entered the League, he too was criticized for being too flamboyant, resented by older stars and accused of being selfish. And now that Iverson is winning, like Jordan before him, he is far more acceptable to fans and the media. In fact, he will likely be starting alongside Jordan in the 2002 All-Star Game in Philadelphia. “It would be a dream come true,” Iverson said. “I think everybody who plays basketball would like the opportunity to start in the same backcourt as Michael Jordan.”(2)
That goes for the ’01-02 Wizards, who regard their new teammate with a combination of awe and confusion. They worship the Jordan legacy and his talent, but some are struggling to find a comfortable spot in the new Washington order. “For me, personally, it has been difficult to find my rhythm,” second-year guard Courtney Alexander says. “I’m sure the other guys have experienced the same thing. Until we get on the same page, it’s going to be tough.”(3)
It’s hard not to defer to a personality as strong as Jordan’s and a legacy that includes so much (six championships, 10 scoring titles, five MVP awards, two comebacks). But that’s not what Jordan wants. He knows the Wizards can’t win if everyone stands around and watches him save the day again and again. That’s why he was so upset after the Cleveland(4) game. In Chicago, he scored every night, took the big shots and carried the team; Scottie Pippen was a great second option, and everybody else filled their roles. Now, Batman needs more than just Robin. The entire Justice League has to show up, and that’s not easy on a team filled with young players. Some nights, Alexander (or Rip Hamilton or Brendan Haywood or Kwame Brown) goes into the phone booth and comes out a caped crusader. Other nights, they’re just looking for a quarter to call for help.
“I think that Michael’s hopes were that his competitive spirit, his competitive instincts, his ability in the locker room—him being there on a daily basis—would help lift guys up,” Washington coach Doug Collins says. At presstime, the Wizards had won eight of their last 10 games.
Those intangibles don’t necessarily excite people, and that’s part of the reason some people are upset that Jordan is back. They’d rather remember the tongue-wagging human space shuttle who didn’t begin games with a jumpball as much as with a launch sequence. Midway through the second quarter of the win over Philly, Jordan swept from the key to the hoop down the right side, tongue dangling free, and laid it in. Ten years ago, he would have tomahawked in some poor sap’s face. But two points are two points, aren’t they? With 1:09 left in the game, Jordan snuck into the lane to intercept an Iverson pass. He threw it ahead to Hamilton for the win-clinching jam. In the old days, Jordan would have taken it himself and punctuated the triumph with an emphatic stuff. Again, the job was done. “He’s still the smartest guy on the court,” veteran Wizards forward Popeye Jones says. “He’s outsmarting people. He’s not going to get to the basket and elevate the way he used to. That’s obvious.”
But the mind can only take a player so far in a game like basketball. Jordan found that out in early December, when lingering tendinitis in his right knee forced him to miss a game—something he had vowed not to do this year. The naysayers chuckled and blamed age, as if younger players aren’t felled by injuries every day. Collins pledged to reduce Jordan’s minutes, which is not the easiest thing to do. Money played 38 against the Sixers and 45 two games earlier, in Boston. He was averaging 37.7 through the first 16 games of the season. Jordan may not be his old amazing self, but it’s clear that he is the heart, soul and mind of the Wizards and the key to any success they’ll have this year. Collins has a tough job. He must keep Jordan relatively fresh, but he knows the team needs its leader on the court.
“A couple times early in the year, I took him out, but he’d say, ‘I want to keep playing,’” Collins says. “I’d say, ‘Michael, you have to come out.’ I did err on the side of letting him play too much. He played 45 minutes the other night against Boston, because we had an overtime game, and his knee got sore. He wasn’t able to practice for a couple days.
“I don’t know how he stays as sharp as he does, because it’s hard for him to really practice, because he has to watch his legs.(5) And then for him to come out and try to play when everybody is gunning for [him]. He’s an amazing man.”
That’s one thing that hasn’t changed. Jordan may be 38 (39 on February 17) and fighting age, but he’s getting everybody’s best shot. The two battles he has waged with Boston’s Paul Pierce have been epics. Against the Sixers, forward Matt Harpring tried to knock him around, something that could never have happened 10 years ago—Jordan would have just jumped over the brazen defender.
He can’t do that now, so he must rely on his instincts, smarts, experience and a body that is more rugged than it is turbo-charged. The results are still impressive. “He’s not going to dunk and be a highlight film, but he controlled the whole game,” Brown said after the Wizard win. “I’m just amazed. Here’s a guy who takes three years off. I can’t imagine anybody who can take three years off in anything and play at the level he is.”
That’s Michael Jordan, 2002. His game has changed. So has his uniform. He’s fighting to teach a group of young players how to win without the same physical abilities that helped him lift the Bulls to greatness. Is he frustrated? You bet. Will he have nights where he’ll struggle? No doubt. But don’t question whether he should be playing. Michael Jordan belongs on a basketball court.
Even if he looks terrific off it.
STUFFING
1. Actually, MJ has conquered Mars already—Mars Blackmon, that is—in his earlier Nike
ad campaigns with Spike Lee.
2. A Jordan-Iverson pairing would add up to more than 50 ppg.
3. After being traded from Dallas, Alexander averaged 17 ppg over 27 games with the Wizards in '00-01. But Courtney has struggled this season at 5.1 ppg.
4. Perhaps Jordan was upset because he routinely knocked the Cavaliers out of the playoffs during his days in Chicago.
5. MJ’s personal trainer Tim Grover recommends leg presses, leg-curls and leg extensions as some basic leg-strengthening exercises geared towards basketball.
