THUMB KIND OF DYNASTY

All the Chicago Bulls have to fear is the Bulls, themselves.

It isn’t so much a matter of who can beat them, not after going 141-23 in two seasons (78-4 at home) and 60-16 in the playoffs in their four title runs.

It’s more a matter of whether they’ll bicker, slump and put too much on the shoulders of 34-year-old Michael Jordan until he can no longer carry them.

Or whether it has already happened?

Their 1-3 finish was hardly inspirational. Nor was the sight of Jordan ignoring teammates in the finale against the New York Knicks, after confiding to his NBA liaison, Ahmad Rashad, he was out for 65 points to pull his average up to a neat 30.0.

Jordan fell a little short--32 points short. The Bulls wound up losing, meaning they had to sit around Chicago for a week, listening to quivering voices on talk radio asking the unthinkable, “Could it be over?”

If fear grips Chicago, the unthinkable is a happier thought in other cities, such as Miami.

“They had the perfect run last year,” Heat Coach Pat Riley says. “They just cakewalked through the whole thing. It reminded me of the Lakers in 1987, just one of those years when nothing happens. . . .

“They [Bulls] did not go through this season unscathed. Maybe they’re full of themselves, more than ever.”

Of course, the Bulls have bickered, slumped and loaded Jordan up before, and he has gone on scoring missions and it hasn’t stopped them. They’re all a year older too, but if they fall, it’s still going to surprise a lot of people in the business.

“I don’t see it,” Indiana Pacer President Donnie Walsh says.

“If it was the NCAA, one and done, then I’d say, yeah,” Pacer Coach Larry Brown says. “But not in a seven-game series.”

Says General Manager Kevin McHale of the Minnesota Timberwolves: “I think the teams that have a chance are the grizzled, tough, hard teams that aren’t going to be into the Bulls’ mystique. A lot of these young teams play these guys, they idolize Michael Jordan. Those teams, they don’t have a chance against them. . . .

“But yet, if Chicago plays and can stay healthy, I don’t think anybody’s going to beat them. They’re amazing. What they’ve done over the last couple of years--now you can say what you want about expansion--what they’ve done is phenomenal. They’re a unique team.”

The Chicago cops may already have been told they have to work overtime the night the Bulls get one for the thumb, and the parade route is probably set (through the Loop to Lincoln Park with players wearing caps saying they’re the greatest team in the history of sport, etc.).

However, for the sake of argument, let’s assume the Bulls are vulnerable and the postseason won’t be simply another stroll for them.

If they’re in trouble, where could it come from?

As usual, from everywhere.

AGE

They’re old, all right.

Dennis Rodman is about to turn 36, Jordan is 34, Ron Harper is 33 and Scottie Pippen is 31.

They get hurt more easily and heal more slowly. Harper had off-season knee surgery and is a shadow of what he was. Rodman sat out even more games to injury than he did to suspension and is coming back with a knee brace.

Jordan and Pippen played 82 games, but Coach Phil Jackson’s plan to use them more sparingly this season went out the window, as the other regulars went down all around them.

Jordan played his most minutes since 1989-90, when he was 27. Pippen played his most since 1992-93, when he was 27.

Jordan was averaging 31 points on Jan. 1 but 28.8 after that and was actually surpassed by another player, Charlotte’s Glen Rice, at 29.9, during that time. Jordan won the scoring title at 29.6.

JORDAN

Even if Karl Malone wins this season’s most-valuable-player award, as expected, there’s still little doubt that Jordan remains the game’s best player.

Poll personnel directors and coaches, as the Portland Oregonian did recently. Jordan got 37 1/2 votes. The closest player, Malone, got 21 1/2.

Ask New York Coach Jeff Van Gundy after a recent game in which Jordan, who played the night before while the Knicks were resting, scores 20 points in the fourth quarter, and the inquiring minds in the Gotham press want to know how they could allow him to take over like that.

“A lot of people have asked that question,” Van Gundy says, glumly. “No answers yet. . . .

“If you have the best player on the floor every night, who comes ready to play every night, whether he’s making or missing, it has such an impact on the game, it makes it much, much easier on everyone else.”

Oh, yes, the Knicks were double-teaming Jordan. Not that you could tell.

“It has to come from some angle,” Van Gundy says. “And whatever angle it comes from, he goes the other way. And he’s able to beat two defenders, which is his greatness.”

Jordan isn’t as quick as he was and doesn’t jump as high, but he’s so skilled--perhaps only Larry Bird ever made such hard shots so routinely, perhaps no one ever did--it doesn’t matter.

However, appearances to the contrary, Jordan is human. Because he can no longer get to the basket at will, he has to hit those hard shots. With Pippen in another funk last spring, Jordan flamed out in the last three games of the finals, averaging 23.6 points and shooting 37%.

Fortunately for them, Seattle didn’t start the series until Game 4 and trailed, 3-0. The SuperSonics cut it to 3-2, but the Bulls held them to 75 points in Game 6 and won.

If Jordan tires before the Bulls get the lead, the unthinkable is going to become the possible.

PIPPEN

What’s the deal with this guy?

Pippen is a two-time Dream Teamer, a perennial all-star, a sure Hall of Famer.

However, he has a history of weak playoffs, dating to his migraine headaches against the Detroit Pistons in 1990. In the memorable 1992 Knick series, Xavier McDaniel removed him almost bodily. In 1994, coming off his best season, Pippen took himself out of a playoff game when Jackson ran the last play for Toni Kukoc. Last spring, Pippen shot a career-low 39%.

When the Knicks’ Larry Johnson sneered at him recently (“All he does is get up there and hand the ball to No. 23”), he was voicing a widely held skepticism.

Pippen’s problem may be a career alongside the dominating Jordan. Pippen never had to develop a star’s mental toughness, since Jordan always took over at crunch time.

Pippen also has had nagging injuries, but this season, he has been sound and productive. In his rematch against Johnson’s Knicks on April 11, he scored 33 points, making 11 of 19 shots.

If Pippen does that in the postseason, no one has a chance against the Bulls.

Of course, if he doesn’t--if he settles for the 12 he got against the Knicks in last weekend’s finale--it’ll be business as usual.

RODMAN

One doesn’t have to ask what might happen with Rodman, since it already has.

His season consisted of 55 games between suspensions, commercial entanglements and the knee injury that finished him. He was so volatile, there was speculation the club welcomed--or invented--an excuse to send him on vacation before he had another incident and was barred from the playoffs.

Indeed, a few days after hurting himself, Rodman was asked about it on his TV show.

“What injury?”he replied.

Owner Jerry Reinsdorf brought Rodman back reluctantly this season, on a one-year contract, hoping to keep him in line with a $1-million bonus for playing 79 games. As Dick Vitale would say, that was N.C., no contest.

With the peace shattered repeatedly and Jordan plainly tired of it, the betting in Chicago is this is Rodman’s Bull farewell. Imagine the possibilities (remember, he said he wanted to strip completely for his last NBA game).

However, when games mean something, Rodman is still a force, as he was last spring. This time, if nothing else, he’ll be rested.

JACKSON

Coaches don’t normally pose a threat to the general harmony, but these are the Bulls.

Jackson tried to negotiate a contract after the finals but almost walked away when his power struggle with General Manager Jerry Krause surfaced. The Chicago Tribune reported Jackson even asked that the thorny Krause’s office be moved out of the team’s training facility.

Reinsdorf sided with Krause. With all of the other jobs already filled, Jackson elected to return for one season, at $2.7 million, with one stipulation.

As Jackson noted recently--on national TV--his contract allows him to talk to other teams now. He could be negotiating with the Denver Nuggets or Golden State Warriors or heaven knows whom as you read this.

The secretive Krause now trumpets his esteem for Iowa State’s Tim Floyd. Krause attended nine of Floyd’s games this season and tells stories about their fishing trips together. The playoffs haven’t started and the coach and general manager seem to be playing a game of I-left, no-we-didn’t-want-you.

Nor does either side seem inclined to cool it for the playoffs. Jackson’s agent, Todd Musburger, just accused the Bulls of ignoring them, again.

“It’s been bad form,” Musburger told the Chicago Sun-Times. “But we’ve been down this road before, and we aren’t totally surprised.”

Jackson has told confidants he’s afraid Reinsdorf wants to break up the team, title or no title. Indeed, the owner seems to be sending up trial balloons, suggesting he’ll do just that.

“The challenge that we have in management is not to become the Boston Celtics,” Reinsdorf said at a recent business group luncheon.

“Our challenge is to get the next run started as soon as possible. So we are going to have to make some decisions, and they might be some hard decisions as to when we say, ‘OK, it’s been great. See you at the old-timers’ game.’ ”

Is this any way to run a dynasty?

The Bulls have shrugged off this stuff before, but it’s spring and hope springs eternal. Hope is the best shot anyone has had in the ‘90s, but the decade and the dynasty aren’t new any more.

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* TURNAROUND

Portland is everyone else’s problem now. C9

* PREVIEW

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