Entire Game Is a Play for Jordan, and Critics Call It a Masterpiece

Until 2 games ago, Michael Jordan was a man without a play.

Had Jordan bothered to peruse the Chicago Bulls playbook in training camp, he would have found himself missing.

“Hey, Doug, where am I ?” Jordan might have inquired of Bull Coach Doug Collins.

Collins probably would have made a sweeping gesture indicating the entire basketball court. Or the entire world.

Laboring under the handicap of having no plays designed specifically to set him up for a shot, Jordan is eeking out a 36.9 scoring average, hitting 60% of his shots, up from last season’s 54%.

Michael Jordan don’t need no stinking plays. Michael Jordan is beyond plays. He’s above plays. He knows that.

“I get my points off broken-down stuff, and when we can’t get the ball into Bill (Cartwright),” Jordan the junkman said with a shrug. “I get a lot off the fast break, defensive steals. I’m not worried about plays.”

Actually Jordan does have his very own play now. Collins put it into the official team repertoire 2 games ago, gave it a name and everything.

“It’s called ‘Pow,’ ” Jordan said Wednesday night before the Bulls played the Clippers at the Sports Arena. “It’s a double screen.”

Why Jordan would need a double screen is a mystery. The human beings haven’t yet been invented who can stop Jordan 1-on-1 or 2-on-1, without a screen.

This season, before he got “Pow,” Jordan scored 52 points against the Knicks at Madison Square, scored 52 against the 76ers at the Spectrum, scored 54 against Boston at the Garden.

In the game against Philly, Jordan hit 24 shots and missed 5.

When he’s going good, by Jordanesque standards, Collins calls time out and makes up a play for Jordan, like you would do in a schoolyard pickup game. Nothing elaborate is needed.

“He’s going to create his own things,” said Collins, who never seems to tire of talking about Jordan, the game’s most talked-about player.

“The thing I respect,” Collins said with no prompting, “is the way he plays every night, the mental tenacity with which he approaches every game.

“Some guys are workman-like. In 3 years, I’ve only seen 4 or 5 instances where I thought Michael was laboring, where the game wasn’t fun for him.”

That’s 4 or 5 instances out of about 350 games.

“And we’ve been talking all this time and you haven’t asked me about his defense,” Collins said. “At Boston, the Celtics have 8 turnovers at the half and Michael’s got 8 steals. Hersey Hawkins (76er rookie) comes in, he gets 9, Michael gets 52.

“We’re talking about a guy who disrupts the game at both ends.”

We’re talking about a guy who makes fans jump and scream and come out to a Clipper game in the driving rain. We’re talking about the best basketball player ever.

At age 25, Jordan appears to be at the very peak of his already Mt. Everest-like talents.

He’s so good that Collins, who played alongside Julius Erving in his prime, compares Erving and Jordan and the kid wins.

“With Dr. J, you could get off him (sag defensively), unless he had the angle for the short bank shot,” Collins said. “That’s not the case with Michael.”

That’s because Jordan has improved his outside shot this season. Even he admits he’s a better player this year than last season, when he averaged 35 points and was named MVP and defensive player of the year.

“I still don’t think I’ve peaked yet,” Jordan said before the game. “I feel I am starting to get better all around. I’m playing better than last year, shooting better, rebounding and passing better.”

Tuesday night the Bulls were in Sacramento, beating the Kings. Jordan took 20 shots and made 16 of them, had 11 rebounds and 8 assists.

Coming back strong one night later, he said, would be no problem.

“I love back-to-back,” Jordan said. “It doesn’t give you a chance to think, you just go out and play. If you play bad the first night, you got a chance to make up for it; if you play good, you got a chance to do it again.”

As Collins said, “Michael’d play doubleheaders if you wanted him to. He’s like Ernie Banks.”

Coincidentally, Ernie Banks, old Mr. Let’s-Play-Two himself, was in the Sports Arena crowd Wednesday, as were O.J. Simpson, Jerry West, Gary Jeter. Anytime the Clippers draw that many celebs, you know it’s a big night.

Jordan and the Bulls play Los Angeles only twice a season, so if you miss him it’s like missing the circus.

And everyone in the house, with the possible exception of Gene Shue and some of his players, came hoping to see Jordan go off like a Roman candle.

They wanted to see Jordan go for 50, stick out his tongue and rain pumps and dunks and twists.

Clipper fans wanted the Clippers to win, with Jordan getting his 50.

He didn’t do it Wednesday.

He had 26 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals, and threw down 1 Jordan sidewinder dunk over Benoit Benjamin. But he didn’t get 50 and the Bulls lost, so it was a tough night for basketball’s consummate showman.

But he’ll be back. They can’t stop him now. He’s got his very own play.