Jordan Carries Big Load in Chicago--Just Like Payton

Michael Jordan is to the Chicago Bulls what Walter Payton used to be to the Chicago Bears -- their only offensive weapon.

There was a time, before Jim McMahon and Willie Gault and William Perry, that the Bears relied solely on Payton’s talents for most of their yards and points.

The Bulls now are in a similar situation, expecting Jordan to score a majority of their points, as he did in the season opener against the New York Knicks when he had to put in 50 for Chicago to win.

But, also like Payton, Jordan remains remarkably optimistic, refusing to see his club’s obvious shortcomings as a reason to give up. In the waning moments of Chicago’s season-opening victory, Jordan kidded Chicago reporters about their preseason predictions that the Bulls could not win with their present lineup.

“We’re too small! We’ve got to get some big guys in here!” Jordan yelled sarcastically, thrilled as he was with his team’s performance.

Jordan’s attitude notwithstanding, the former NBA Rookie of the Year is by himself on this year’s Bulls’ club. The team has less in offense than it did last season when it was 30-52 while playing without Jordan for more than 60 games because of a broken foot.

Jordan is being asked to make up for the loss of Orlando Woolridge and Sidney Green. He is asked to start with Earl Cureton, Granville Waiters, Charles Oakley and Steve Colter.

Although he probably would rather be playing with more talented teammates, Jordan accepts the challenge of making this rag-tag combination into at least a playoff team.

“You’ve got a lot of unique basketball players here,” said Jordan. “They are guys who have been somewhere else and now they are here and we have to get them together.

“The key is chemistry. You can’t win without chemistry and we can get it. We haven’t had any gripes, no flareups and no fights.”

Woolridge and George Gervin reportedly had problems getting along with Jordan and are now gone. Through trades and free agent moves, the Bulls have three first-round picks for 1987 but they also have no outstanding centers.

General Manager Jerry Krause refuses to admit the club is rebuilding but Jordan knows the club is starting all over again and he is the cornerstone.

“I hope we rebuild quick,” he said. “I’m 23, but I feel like 29 sometimes. But I can already see the foundation forming with myself, Oakley, Gene Banks and Colter and even (coach) Doug Collins himself.”

There has been talk in Chicago that Jordan will get fed up with the way the Bulls are run and demand a trade. Jordan was upset when last year’s coach, Stan Albeck, got fired, even though the two were not especially close. He wanted continuity, something to build on and center around.

Collins, a rookie NBA coach, invited Jordan to his Phoenix, Ariz., home and discussed his plans for the club and suddenly Jordan was a new man.

“I’m psyched, man,” Jordan said after a summer of playing golf and pickup basketball. “I’m miles ahead of the last two years. I’m even more hungry now than I was my rookie season.”

The opening game victory had to help, but no one knows whether the one-name Bulls can play and win against the better clubs. The key question in Chicago is how Jordan, a winner all of his life, will handle still another year of frustration and unacceptable results.

“From what I know of Michael,” Collins said. “I think it would have to be the absolute darkest, darkest moment for him to feel that we had no chance here.”