Jordan Also Likes Role as a Kind of Statesman

Celebrities arrived by the limo-ful Tuesday night to pay the respects stars reserve for royalty, the rich and famous gathered to pay homage to the one, the only . . .

Mike Brown?

Get real. It was Michael Jordan. Heir to the kind of make-my-night expectations once reserved for Julius Erving, but just getting over a virus, Jordan turned in a human first half and an otherworldly 22-point fourth quarter. He traded baskets down the stretch with Magic Johnson as the Bulls tried to erase a 20-point Laker lead. They erased 16 points of it, pulled to within 101-97, and lost.

“He felt like a leader who didn’t want one to slip away,” said Jordan. “I felt like a leader who was trying to pull one out.”

Expectations, that’s all Jordan has heard since Erving retired, to leave basketball looking around for its next warrior/statesman.

As Jordan would protest, and events would prove, however, Jordan was Jordan. Erving was a natural diplomat with an artist’s vision of a game, beloved by friend and foe alike. Jordan’s game is not a whit less beautiful but his acceptance hasn’t been as automatic, nor has his reactions been as subdued.

Item--There are reports of a freeze-out of Jordan, organized by Isiah Thomas, at Jordan’s first all-star game.

Item--A Jordan quote in Sports Illustrated suggests he thinks Michael Cooper’s reputation is keeping him on the all-defense team, ahead of Jordan.

Item--Jordan says in the same story that he didn’t play in Magic Johnson’s all-star charity game last summer because he’d heard James Worthy wasn’t invited. Jordan notes that Magic once pushed for a Worthy-for-Mark Aguirre trade. “James is getting too good for Magic’s taste,” said Jordan.

Jordan, about to lead his modest little band against the mighty Lakers, discusses all these matters before the game in detail, patiently, pleasantly and unflinchingly. It’s not that he has nothing of the statesman in him; he is just a more colorful one.

“I don’t want to be controversial,” he says. “But I don’t want to be passive.

“Sometimes you have to speak your mind. I realize, with the position I’m in, by speaking my mind, it creates a controversy.”

How did all this start? Try the 1986 All-Star Game at Indianapolis, when the rookie Jordan shows up in a specially-designed Nike warm-up suit for the slam dunk contest. Eyebrows are said to have been raised.

It’s ironic, since Jordan says he was trying to soft-pedal his appearance.

“I was trying to guard against that,” he says. ‘I didn’t want to go in there with a big head, acting a certain way. I was quiet, not really the outgoing person I like to be. I didn’t want anyone to think I was cocky or arrogant.

“I got that from my parents. They told me, ‘This will be your first time there, take care of yourself, don’t get big-headed.’ ”

Maybe Jordan’s big contract with Nike had provoked some resentment?

“I hope not,” Jordan says. “I’m not one of the big salary people in this league.

“I feel Magic was cheated. He had the same situation I had--he took the league by storm. He should have gotten the endorsements I got. That wasn’t my fault. I shouldn’t be judged on that. His attorney should be judged on that. His financial adviser should be judged on that.”

It took two years for the ripples from the ’86 All-Star game to smooth out. Jordan and Thomas sat down last season to talk it out. Jordan says everything is fine now.

Maybe he can sit down with Johnson this summer. Last year he passed up Magic’s all-star game, he said later, to protest what he interpreted as a snub of Worthy.

“I kinda took offense,” said Jordan. ‘It’s more or less by invitation only and I got word James wasn’t invited. I didn’t think that was right, James is his teammate.

“Later on, I found out James had some other commitments. Certainly that dismisses the issue for me.

“Last year I had commitments. Hopefully this year I can participate.”

What kind of relationship do he and Johnson have?

“I think we’re more-or-less casual friends,” said Jordan. “We haven’t spent too much time off the floor together.

“Hopefully, my playing in his game will help, or we can do a commercial together. We have different endorsements, so I guess that would be kind of difficult.”

Of course, great stars have a tendency to circle their opposite numbers warily. Bill Russell befriended Wilt Chamberlain for all their playing days, and then as soon as he retired, ripped him for leaving the seventh game of the 1969 finals with an injury in a speech to a University of Wisconsin sorority. The two haven’t spoken since. Johnson and Larry Bird, rivals since their college days, took several years to become friendly.

Tune in next summer to see what kind of warm-up outfit Jordan wears.