There’s Magic to Michael’s Air of Conquest

This . . . is . . . Mike’s kind of town . . . Chicago is . . . Mike’s kind of town . . . Chicago is. . . .

And Scottie Pippen’s. . . .

Chicago is. . . .

And Johnny Paxson’s. . . .

Chicago is. . . .

“We started at the bottom, made it to the top!” shouted Michael Jordan, wine and teardrops streaming from his bald dome to the most valuable player trophy’s cold chrome. Comforted by his wife, Juanita, to his left and his father, James, to his right, Jordan broke down continuously in the Chicago Bulls’ locker room Wednesday night after they won the heavyweight basketball championship of the world--something the raging Bull never did once in any of five games against the Lakers.

When Magic Johnson embraced him afterward, Air Jordan sobbed on his shoulder.

“You got one,” Magic said.

“Oh, thank you so much, so very much,” Michael whispered, resting his face on his adversary’s arm.

Detente between the superpowers.

“I’m happy for you,” Magic said, then made a quick and quiet exit--something he and the Lakers never did.

The golden boys made do with what they had and damn near got away with it. Elden Campbell. Tony Smith. Terry Teagle. Men who rarely did more but observe the climax of any NBA game suddenly were called upon as stuntmen for James Worthy and Byron Scott in the game of games. And they were warriors, every one of them. This was a night for their diaries.

In the end, though, there was too much Pippen, with his 32 points and 13 rebounds; and too much Paxson, with his 20 points and Laker-breaker jump shots; and particularly too much Jordan, whose 30 points and 10 rebounds punctuated Chicago’s season like an exclamation point. Matter of fact, that’s the way they ought to sew the man’s surname on the back of his uniform:

Jordan!

Chicago is no longer Second City, and Jordan is no longer second-best, if indeed he ever was. At last, Michael has moved into a wing of Magic’s castle, winning a championship professionally to go with his collegiate crown and Olympic gold. He came to Chicago with the wingspan of Picasso’s statue and enough vertical jump to clear the Sears Tower in a single bound. Michael Jordan today is the cause of all the noise in Illinois.

He slept fitfully Tuesday, Juanita said, and paced the floor like a maternity-ward father. She went shopping in Beverly Hills, staying out of his way all day. James Jordan was considerably cooler than his son, or at least claimed to be.

“This is the one game I never worried about,” Air Dad said. “Other games this season, I wasn’t sure about. But I knew the Bulls weren’t going to lose this one. I knew it because I knew he wouldn’t let them lose. You could see it in his eyes. He would not let them lose.”

At which point Michael lost it again, leaning over to his father, face against his forearm.

“I’m glad you thought so,” Michael said.

He became ringleader of a band of Bulls who won 15 of 17 playoff games. Who began selling out Chicago Stadium the day he arrived. Who partnered at guard with the likes of Ennis Whatley, Kyle Macy and Steve Colter in the starting lineups of his first three season openers. Whose front line in his rookie season consisted of Steve Johnson, Orlando Woolridge and Caldwell Jones. Who joined a team with a record the previous season of 27-55.

What a difference it made when Air came to the City of Wind. Last week, before Game 2, George Steinbrenner gathered a couple of friends in Tampa, Fla., at 5 p.m. and hopped aboard his private jet for a game that evening in Chicago, where he joined Bulls’ owner Jerry Reinsdorf in his private box. All Steinbrenner could talk about on the flight from Florida was how much he regretted listening to the business partner who persuaded 10%-owner George to sell their shares of the team to Reinsdorf.

“A long seven years,” said Jordan, unanimous choice as series MVP. “A long, long seven years. A lot of bad teams. A lot of improvement. Step by step, inch by inch.

“And now, well, there’s a lot of emotion I’ve been holding back. I had to. I didn’t want to show what I was feeling, because I didn’t want to give anybody the wrong impression. You know what my dad was saying about not letting us lose? Well, it wasn’t that easy. We underestimated the Lakers, if anything. Those guys were great. They wouldn’t give up. Magic, he’s just the greatest.

“But I told people if we got to the finals, we’d win. I really believed it. We shocked a lot of people, I know. But we earned it. We deserved it. We took it. No one gave it to us. That’s what I’m proudest about. We took it, and we took it as a team. Me and my teammates.”

From Mike’s kind of town.

NBA Finals MVPs

1991 Michael Jordan Chicago 1990 Isiah Thomas Detroit 1989 Joe Dumars Detroit 1988 James Worthy Lakers 1987 Earvin Johnson Lakers 1986 Larry Bird Boston 1985 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Lakers 1984 Larry Bird Boston 1983 Moses Malone Philadelphia 1982 Earvin Johnson Lakers 1981 Cedric Maxwell Boston 1980 Earvin Johnson Lakers 1979 Dennis Johnson Seattle 1978 Wes Unseld Washington 1977 Bill Walton Portland 1976 Jo Jo White Boston 1975 Rick Barry Golden State 1974 John Havlicek Boston 1973 Willis Reed New York 1972 Wilt Chamberlain Lakers 1971 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Milwaukee 1970 Willis Reed New York 1969 Jerry West Lakers