Bulls Keeping Them in Suspense

“I am once again calling on citizens to celebrate responsibly.”

--Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, June 11, 1998

*

Oh, the celebration’s off?

Bad news for this hotbed of Bulls’ fundamentalism: Pride still goeth before a fall.

Sparing Bull fans the pain of bidding farewell to their demigod, the demigod the embarrassment of going out on a nine-for-26 night and a task force of police, state troopers and National Guardsmen the burden of dealing with the consequences, the Jazz won to take the series back to Salt Lake City where anything could happen.

Of course, it didn’t end until the Bulls inbounded the ball to Michael Jordan with 0.8 seconds to play, giving him a chance to hit a title-winning--and perhaps career-ending--three-point basket, after which, presumably, he would cease to exist as matter, turn into energy and take his place on Mt. Olympus.

Unfortunately, Jordan threw up an airball. He’s still human. he’s still a Bull. The finals are still on.

“I had some funny thoughts, actually,” Jordan said. “Everybody was anticipating a big shot on our side, on their side, everybody thought I could make a shot. . . .

“I knew I wanted the ball, but no one knew what was going to happen. That’s part of my personality. That’s the way things have always happened for me in my career.

“I’m sure everybody was hoping that would end that way, except for Utah people. . . . Everybody was holding their breath, which is kind of cute.”

Except for the game they were about to play, which was as bad as they come, it was a magic kind of night, with everyone determined to ferret out clues to the future of this soon-to-be-crowned team.

Jordan did a pregame sit-down with his NBC liaison, Ahmad Rashad, musing, “I’m getting to the point where I’m maxing out my education about the game of basketball. When you get that way, it’s a necessity to pass it.”

This didn’t sound like he was staying. Of course, if Jordan’s retirement was distressing to fans, think about Rashad, for whom it was potentially career-threatening.

Meanwhile, the Jazz players showed up grumpy, especially Karl Malone, who used to be considered a superstar until he went scoreless in the fourth quarter of Game 4 and, in a demonstration of why they call it “mass” media, reporters turned into lemmings bent on carrying his reputation out to sea.

Teammate Greg Foster, the noted big-game player, dared to note: “My attitude is this, if you’re going to take the shots, take the shots. If they go in great. If they don’t, oh, well. But you can’t not take the shots.”

Things were so desperate, Malone fled the city. He and a friend named Ty, who’s an Illinois state trooper, went riding in Ty’s squad car, out into the country.

“We went out to the weigh station and weighed some trucks,” Malone said after the game, breaking up the interview room.

“You guys laugh but that’s what I did. . . . I don’t care what you do on your days off. . . . You guys laugh all the hell you want. It was a fun day for me and I enjoyed it.”

One thing you can be sure of, no Bulls went out weighing trucks. There may have been some thoughts about celebrations. Jordan said he wanted to get this over by his wife’s birthday--today--and didn’t even arrange a golf game for this morning.

“I was anticipating drinking so much champagne,” he said. “I didn’t even think about golf.”

Hold the champagne too. Refreshed from weighing trucks, Malone attacked Luc Longley and, for a change, kept it up against Dennis Rodman, scoring 20 of his 39 points against him.

The Bulls faded down the stretch, although Phil Jackson, who is still their coach and still haughty, assured everyone it was meaningless.

“You guys have to remember, this is a two-point win by the Jazz and you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,” Jackson said.

“We’re fine. It was just a matter of some things happening down the stretch. A couple of loose balls we didn’t get. A couple of loose balls they got, an offensive foul call on Scottie. . . .”

In Bulls’ lore, you don’t lose, you just run out of time, or the officials cheat you, or there’s a world conspiracy, or--another Jackson nugget Friday night--traffic is bad and it takes your players two hours to drive here.

The Bulls have been through this before, taking a 3-1 lead against the Suns in 1993 before losing Game 5 here and having to return to Phoenix where, of course, they closed the little tykes out.

Someone asked Pippen if he would like to end this Sunday.

“How long do you want to stay in Utah?” he asked.

In real life, not lore, the 35-year-old Jordan looked little more than human Friday, and he’ll have to fly to Utah today and turn back into a legend Sunday or it may be an exceptionally long weekend for the Bulls.