THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Suddenly, Jordan Is Not Bullish on Defense

Was that the year of the Bulls or the year of the bull?

The Chicago Bulls thought this was their season, but they’re off to a shaky start. There’s even the prospect of tarnishing Michael Jordan’s demigod status.

Coach Phil Jackson wants Jordan to shoot less. Jordan is not bursting with enthusiasm. Is that behind Chicago’s 1-3 start?

Jordan, the annual all-defensive pick, has been torn up by Bernard King (for 44 points) and Tony Campbell (26). Are opponents tiring him out and pinning him down by going right at him?

And how about his supposedly reinforced supporting cast?

Dennis Hopson, whose career 42% shooting was ascribed to the poverty of his New Jersey Net surroundings, has yet to prove he can shoot any better in Chicago. In four games, he averaged 4.3 points and shot 40%.

Stacey King showed up overweight again, missed nine of his first 10 shots and had four blocked. As a rookie he began zero for nine and had four blocked. Forget the weight. Next season he should bypass that first week and show up for the second.

After the home-opener loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, Jackson said: “It just means we can only win 81 games.”

After another home loss to Boston left them 0-3, Jackson said: “The players are totally stunned.”

It’s early, but they aren’t yukking it up any more in the Windy City.

Introducing the Denver warp effect, or the top 20 doesn’t mean all it used to:

Paul Westhead’s high-speed offense has produced no victories, but two Nuggets made the list of leading scorers: Laker castoff Orlando Woolridge (averaging 30.3 points) who should be asking to re-negotiate any day now; and 36-year-old Walter Davis (24.3). Todd Lichti (22.8) is just outside the top group.

The Nuggets, of course, are the second-highest scoring team ever with their 139-point average.

The highest?

Their opposition, at 152.

Add Nuggets: Dallas’ Derek Harper asked Lichti if they can hold up.

Said Harper: “He said, ‘Talk to me in February, I’ll let you know.’ ”

Last add Nuggets: After their 161-153 loss at San Antonio, George Gervin, 38, said:

“I would have come out of retirement for that one.”

Charles Barkley high-lowlight of the week, or, they’ve never seen a male chauvinist porker the size of this one.

After the 76ers needed overtime to beat the Nets, he noted:

“This is a game that if you lose, you go home and beat your wife and kids. Did you see my wife jumping up and down at the end of the game? That’s because she knew I wasn’t going to beat her.”

Wasn’t this tasteless and sure to offend?

“Nah,” Barkley said. “Print it. (Anger) the women’s groups.”

Add Barkley: The 76er-Net game wound up in overtime only because referee Joe Borgia incorrectly ruled that Derrick Coleman had goal-tended Barkley’s last-second airball and scored it a three-point goal.

Said Barkley: “I’m a nice guy. I deserve a break every now and then.”

NBA vice president Rod Thorn later reviewed replays and agreed it was an error. The Nets protested, but since it was a judgment call, it isn’t reversible.

Said Barkley: “How long are (the Nets) going to brag about one game?”

NBA Notes

Commissioner David Stern on possible NFL plans to take the Super Bowl from Phoenix: “We wouldn’t have scheduled it there in the first place.” . . . First dispatches from the Knick-Patrick Ewing front: Ewing can become a restricted free agent whenever his salary falls out of the top five in the league. It will as soon as Indianapolis’ Reggie Miller signs his new $3.3-million-a-year contract. Ewing says the Knicks’ first offer was “an insult to me” and added: “Who knows? You might see me in a Bullets uniform.”

Executive of the year: 76er owner Harold Katz says he rebuilt his team when “I got rid of every piece of . . . we had.” . . . Keep thinking, Chuck, it’s what you do best: Piston Coach Chuck Daly, fearing a media crunch in advance of a return to Portland, encamped instead at Vancouver, Wash.

For those who weren’t excited by New Jersey’s Derrick Coleman as a top pick in the draft, he’s averaging 11 rebounds a game. On a per-minute basis, he’s ahead of league-leader Ewing. . . . Larry Bird, after new coach Chris Ford kept him on the bench through most of the Celtics’ fourth-quarter rally in Chicago: “I’m not complaining. I like winning.” The Bird-Ford relationship is watched closely, because Bird reportedly had problems with Jimmy Rodgers, which may be one reason Rodgers no longer works there.

Watch out for Dallas, which won in New York and Philadelphia. Last season, the Mavericks got their only consecutive road victories in Miami and Orlando. . . . Houston’s reclamation coup, Kenny Smith, is averaging 23 points, shooting 58% and taking charge. When Akeem Olajuwon got in foul trouble regularly, Smith said: “All of us, the coaches and the players, have been expressing to Akeem how much harder he’s making it on the rest of us.”

All-unemployed: Adrian Dantley, Joe Barry Carroll, Robert Reid, Purvis Short, Dennis Johnson, Mitchell Wiggins and Gerald Henderson. . . . Another young rebounding fool: Seattle’s Shawn Kemp took down 23 in 43 minutes. Coach K.C. Jones will continue to bring the 20-year-old off the bench. “He still has a ways to go on the offensive end,” Jones said. “But on the defensive end, he’s there. He has the look of a great one.”