Confused in Chicago : Jordan Has Left, Possibly Forever, and the Bulls Can Only Wonder About Direction of the Team

A lot of people doubt this team because of my retirement. I just think when a father sends his kid off to college, the kid has to stand up on his own two feet . . . .

I know this team is prepared to step up and take what they want. . . . I told all the guys, “You have the ability to achieve what you want to achieve. You just gotta believe.”

--Michael Jordan, Oct. 7, 1993

Jerry Krause says he wants to win a championship without me. Good luck.

--Michael Jordan, Feb. 12, 1993

*

Oh, brave new world!

The unfinished United Center, the house that Mike was building, sits across the street from the Chicago Stadium, a monument to glories yet to come, if any.

Michael Jordan is on a golfing safari to stay but as another exhibition season opens in the ancient barn on the other side of Madison Street, the rest of the lovable cast carries on, almost as before.

Scottie Pippen is sidelined, having postponed his ankle surgery from July to Aug. 31. If Jordan hadn’t retired, he would have gotten his usual waiver for the first weeks of camp and Pippen didn’t feel like being the only superstar in two-a-days.

“It probably would have been good if I had it earlier,” Pippen says of the surgery. “I just wanted to have a summer for a change.”

Horace Grant, who says he was dreading camp until Jordan retired, is rejoicing over his new scoring opportunities in this, his free-agent year. He says he won’t talk to the Bulls after the season starts. The Bulls say he can test the market and good luck.

Bill Cartwright isn’t doing anything. The old plan was to embalm him for the regular season and unwrap him for the playoffs. Under the new plan, they are wondering what to do with a creaky, 36-year-old they used to pay $2.4 million to push Patrick Ewing and Brad Daugherty away from the basket in April and May.

Life goes on.

General Manager Jerry Krause reminds everyone all the time, even if he doesn’t seem to relish the prospect.

The Seattle SuperSonics are in town and another sellout has the stadium rats scurrying for cover. The Bulls have sold out every game including exhibitions for seven seasons, even with courtside going for $325.

The Bulls cut season tickets off at 13,000 and there’s an 11,000-name waiting list.

Everyone wants to see who takes Jordan’s shooting guard position.

Here’s a piece of trivia: John Paxson.

As Mark Twain’s character facing hanging said, if it wasn’t for the honor of the thing, Paxson would gladly pass it up. He’s 33, his knees are shot and this is his last season. He has made a living by spotting up while Jordan drew the defense. This is the first time anyone has guarded him in eight years.

The other starters are Scott Williams, B.J. Armstrong, Stacey King and Toni Kukoc.

The SuperSonics pounce on them like a lion on a lamb chop. The Bulls are behind by 20 in the first quarter.

*

“I mean, it wasn’t fun out there because Seattle obviously is a very good team on top of it,” Coach Phil Jackson said last week. “And so we looked bad and they made us look bad, too.”

The Bulls then embarked on a series of games in non-NBA cities: Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, New Orleans, all sold out before Jordan’s retirement.

Referee Mike Mathis, who lives in Cincinnati, bought 112 tickets--$5,000 worth--for friends and relatives who wanted to see Jordan.

Expectations once raised ebb away slowly. Jordan might be gone but Da Bulls are still Da Bulls, heaven help them.

“You know,” Jackson said, “the Cincinnatis, the New Orleans and the places we’ve been, there’s a tremendous amount of following that comes along with the Bulls. The anticipation from our fans is, we’re going to do well because they want to see us do well. So there’s still that expectation.

“The other thing is the reality of it. Well, no one knows what the reality of it is until some time in November it starts setting in, what kind of team we’ve got, how we’re filling the bill and what are our chances to step into this.

“We’re right now just sort of getting ourselves into position to find out what life’s all about.”

Right now, things could be better.

MICHAEL’S MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR

There was never anything like him, so there was never anything like them.

The Bulls were like rock stars on tour. Everyone wanted to see him, from the kids in the street to the lords in their castles.

In Washington, D.C., a few years ago, the Crown Princess of Saudi Arabia came to a game against the Washington Bullets and sent word she would like to meet Jordan. She was told no.

Said Bull publicist Tim Hallam: “There’s a crown princess in every city.”

And there was, right up until Oct. 7, when Jordan sprang the news that he was retiring. That day President Clinton came out of a meeting and asked his press aides, Dee Dee Myers and George Stephanopoulos, if it was true.

One way or another, Jordan’s teammates had to reconcile themselves to his greatness. It was a love-hate relationship, but it worked.

Said Jackson: “I’ve always felt it’s very hard to have a superstar of the abilities Michael Jordan has, to be the thing that generated the prominence of the team.”

“Because he had to score so much, and usually scoring is seen as a selfish act. Where Magic (Johnson) or (Larry) Bird, even though they scored, were always giving the ball up, the perfect passers, always doing what they did for their teammates that made them better. And so that kind of hung on Michael’s back a little bit.

“The other thing was, he was kind of a media supertsar, not just a superstar in our league. He was a hero to kids and to politicians. . . . There was that kind of thing.

“This group was capable of seeing that and adjusting to that. The first time we had a meeting, I said, ‘I would like everything to be fair all the way across the board, even-steven, but it’s not that way.’

“This guy can’t go down to the coffee shop for a hamburger before a game. He can’t order room service because there’ll be five people waiting when he opens the door to get room service, to step in his room. . . .

“I mean, I’ve been on the same floor as this guy in hotels and the hotel service staff would be in the hallways, knocking on his door. So he almost had to travel with a bodyguard when he went on the road.

“It was like you almost had to set up different rules right away to exist, to have this guy have peace of mind. I think the team understood that after a while, that it was not just a blessing but it was also a heavy burden. And from that standpoint, they allowed him some liberties as a person so it wasn’t always bickering and back-biting.

“But there are people that wanted to get their shot in and felt they had to be assertive so we’ve had our differences.

“But they could always spout off and Michael never said a word and just let them know he was above that type of activity and if they wanted to dicker or they wanted to be jealous or they wanted to pick apart little things, that they were dealing with petty issues.

“And most of them grew because of that.”

In retirement, Jordan is bigger than ever.

His agent’s office says he has had five “serious” offers to do movies and 30 for sitcoms.

While the Bulls have to tell everyone nightly what they think it might be like without him, Jordan rises late, golfs often and makes a short round of the talk shows to promote his $50 coffee-table book, “Rare Air.”

He does Oprah, Larry King, “Today,” and a live appearance at his Chicago restaurant. He turns down Barbara Walters and Connie Chung.

“Rare Air” has already sold out its first printing of 300,000. If the whole world were like Chicago, it would outsell “Gone With the Wind.”

Jordan came around to see the Bulls practice once and left after 30 minutes.

What are the Bulls to do?

Do they keep this team intact in the hope he returns some day or do they put him behind them?

Said Jackson, holding out hope: “That’s a decision this organization is going to have to make at some point in December, I think, or some point down the road.”

Said Krause, holding out none: “I don’t think we’ll ever see him again. I think he’s done.”

THE LOCKER PASSETH, IF NOT THE TORCH

Pippen returned the last week of exhibition season to claim Jordan’s locker.

The home team’s dressing room in Chicago Stadium is postage-stamp size, so small the TVs used for game tapes are mounted on rolling tables and kept in the hallway. Jordan was allowed a double locker, the closest thing to a perk.

Pippen, moving in, discovered that Jordan hadn’t cleaned his stuff out of the drawers. So while an equipment man gathered up the T-shirts, candy bars and cologne, Pippen went through the leavings, claiming what he wanted.

“He can leave this hairbrush,” Pippen said, laughing. “Ain’t like he’s going to miss it. He doesn’t have any hair.”

You’ve got his locker, someone said, do you want his role?

“I need his Nike contract now,” said Pippen, laughing.

Life does go on, in whatever form. The Bulls don’t have a real point guard, only shooters Paxson and Armstrong. Their center is a committee. Their shooting guard might have to be Pippen, who doesn’t want to play there, or Paxson, or one of the free agents on the roster.

The Bulls are looking for a guard, but with the Nets having lost the late Drazen Petrovic and signed Kevin Edwards, and the Celtics having lost the late Reggie Lewis and signed no one, there aren’t a lot of candidates sitting around. Jackson calls it “a thrice-picked-over lot.”

But at least Pippen and Grant are back, and they can start sorting things out.

“The situation is going to come down to a number of games early in the season where the clock is winding down,” Jackson said. “They’ve got to find somebody on the court.

“They find somebody on the court--Pippen, Kukoc, B.J., name it. He makes a move, misses the shot. We come down to the locker room and now what happens?

“Do they say, hey good shot, way to go? Or are people starting to go, I should have had the ball. Because it was always very easy with Michael. Hey, this guy is decidedly the best player in clutch time for us, he should have the ball.

“And he produced. And when he didn’t produce, everybody said, hey, we gave it our best shot.”

They went out to play the Clippers. Sure enough, with 1:30 left in regulation, the game was on the line and the clock was winding down.

Pippen had the ball.

He assayed his chances and passed to one of the free-agent guard candidates, Al Somebody. Al missed a 15-footer.

It happened two more times.

The second time, Pippen missed an 18-footer.

The third time, he shot an air ball.

The Clippers won.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land, the sun is shining bright. The band is playing somewhere and somewhere hearts are light. And somewhere men are laughing and somewhere children shout.

But there is no joy in Chicago Stadium.

Michael has moved out.

* TONI KUKOC: Though still learning the Bulls’ system, he will probably be asked to play a larger role. C5

* EAST PREVIEW: Tragedy and the retirement of Michael Jordan have left several voids to be filled. C4