COMMENTARY : Jordan Makes a Great NBA Season Better

Michael Jordan did not say on his return that the NBA is a sport on the verge of a breakdown, or that all its young stars behave like juvenile offenders, or that he is the only player with basketball values.

But that is the way his pitch started to come across, when he wouldn’t let it go. There already is the idea that Jordan somehow has come back to save the league. Only the league doesn’t need saving, by Jordan or anybody else.

People act as if Jordan puts his basketball legend on the line by coming out of retirement. He risks nothing, whether he leads the Bulls to more titles or not. When he has his legs, he once again will look like the best player in the world.

But Jordan put a different sort of pressure on himself last Sunday. When you preach integrity, you had better deliver it, or the words just bounce off the rim like one of those jump shots he missed against the Pacers.

“I wanted to instill some positives back into the game,” Jordan said. “There’s been a lot of negatives lately, young guys not taking care of their responsibility.”

There has been a lot of that going around. Derrick Coleman made the cover of Sports Illustrated not long ago. He was supposed to be crying like a baby. But Coleman isn’t important enough ever to be the face of the NBA.

As a player, Coleman doesn’t matter enough, no matter what the Nets are paying him. Coleman doesn’t speak for the league and shouldn’t speak for himself sometimes, if the height of conversation for him is calling Karl Malone an “Uncle Tom.”

Chris Webber may not have always behaved like a grown-up in his dealings with former Warrior Coach Don Nelson. Maybe Webber will turn out to be a headache for his coach with the Bullets, Jim Lynam. And maybe Webber will leave the Bullets the way he left the Warriors.

But if the Warriors didn’t want Webber to exercise a one-year out in his contract, they should never have given it to him. If these teams do not want players to use this kind of contractual hammer, don’t give it to them.

The bad boys have not taken over the NBA. Shaquille O’Neal is trying to take over, but he is doing it with hard work and a huge game. Penny Hardaway, another wonderful talent, is trying to help him.

Sometimes people act as if Grant Hill is the only classy kid in the league, when there are classy kids all over the place.

Michael Jordan does not have to save basketball from Hill, or Eddie Jones of the Lakers, or Vin Baker of the Bucks, or Juwan Howard, Chris Webber’s teammate at Michigan and now with the Bullets.

“We’ve always had jerks in this league,” Phoenix Coach Paul Westphal said. “Maybe people would have thought they were a lot worse when I was playing if they were jerks with guaranteed contracts.”

The NBA has its problems. If the players and owners cannot reach a new collective-bargaining agreement, maybe they will try to blow all the money they are making with a strike or a lockout.

Commissioner David Stern is kidding himself if he thinks the story about the late Reggie Lewis’ drug use, or holes in the league’s drug policy, will just go away.

Stern still has the best league right now. His sport is the best show. The NFL had two teams this season, the 49ers and Cowboys. The NBA has a lot of teams. And it has a lot of stars, even if none ever gets to be as big as Jordan.

Everyone always will get nostalgic about the era when we had Magic and Michael and Larry at the same time. That was an amazing time for all who love the game.

But now we have Shaquille and Jordan and Charles Barkley together, if only for a season or two. We have Malone and John Stockton in Utah, Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson in Charlotte. Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson and Patrick Ewing all are at the tops of their games.

You put them with Shaq, and that is amazing, Hall of Fame depth at center. Sometimes the good old days are the ones we are watching.

Jordan was the biggest sports star when he left basketball and he is the biggest star now that he has returned. If he had stayed around, the Bulls probably would be going for five NBA titles in a row. He left. Of course the NBA had to take a short-term hit in television ratings, and did just that.

The league has come right back. It has been a wonderful season in the NBA, with a wonderful playoff season to come.

The Magic has become a great entertainment, even when it loses.

The Suns still have Barkley, and have the best record in the league.

Before Rodman fell off his motorcycle, the Spurs were as good as anybody.

The Pacers, led by Reggie Miller, might be the most complete package of all the teams contending for the title.

There are a lot of those. The playoffs are a month away, and you can make a case for about eight teams to go all the way, and when was the last time you could say that?

Of course, the playoffs will be better with Jordan in them. But Jordan himself could have done a little better in the interview room after his return if he had been less self-serving.

Michael Jordan even could have admitted that the pile of money he is going to make with this comeback--starting with the marketing possibilities for his new number, 45--is a very nice inducement to put down his bat and glove for good. It would have been more responsible of him on the day when he talked responsibility, and started to sound like Sheriff Mike.

When Jordan still was playing for the Bulls, in the playoffs of 1993, he never did enough to address the gambling allegations about him. He still hasn’t.

He got good and mad at the media, and there was a period when he refused to talk after games. Air was human. Jordan had been crowded by the world before. This time he didn’t like it. He has to know that the crowd hasn’t gone away, even if he did.

I hope Michael Jordan plays five more years of basketball. Market Square Arena was the best place in sports last Sunday. The United Center in Chicago was the best place Friday night, when Jordan faced Shaq and Penny and the Magic.

Tuesday, when it is Jordan against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, the Garden will have a big-game feel for the first time in a long time. A great basketball season gets better. If Jordan is going to save anybody, he really should concentrate on the Bulls.