It’s Time for Jordan to Lose the Sidekick

Now is not the time for Michael Jordan to give up control. After carrying the hopes and revenues of a team, a city and a league almost single-handedly, he shouldn’t let his decisions rest in the hands of someone else.

If the Chicago Bulls win the championship, then don’t want Scottie Pippen back and/or he wants to leave, then let him go. That doesn’t mean Jordan must go too.

Jordan was angry enough at Pippen for taking a three-point shot (that went in) instead of passing him the ball toward the end of Game 1 of the NBA finals. Why should he let Pippen take control of his future, when Jordan clearly is in no mood to retire?

And it is clear that this is about Pippen now. Although he spent much of the past year saying he would not return without Phil Jackson, Pippen’s contributions during Chicago’s championship runs have been more vital. If anything, Jackson’s best contributions have been what he had not done--freak out or get uptight during the Bulls’ numerous soap opera sagas.

For the man who loves challenges, there’s one more thing left for Jordan to do: prove he can win a championship without Pippen. He almost won a championship without Pippen on Friday night, the Bulls coming within three points of the Utah Jazz on a night when Pippen fouled out with six points.

Every time Jordan has won a ring, Pippen has been right there beside him, establishing himself as the greatest sidekick of all time (Tonto couldn’t make the three-pointer, Robin had no low-post game and Watson couldn’t play defense).

Does Jordan want to go out like Wayne Gretzky? The one scratch on Gretzky’s otherwise brilliant career is he never won a Stanley Cup without Mark Messier, though Messier won two without Gretzky.

If not for that infamous Hue Hollins call in New York, Pippen might have won an NBA championship the year Jordan sat out. Could Jordan really stand retiring, then coming off the golf course one June day to see Pippen had won a title? After driving so hard to get one more ring than Magic Johnson, could he tolerate having one fewer than Pippen?

Coming back to win on his own would be the only way Jordan could assure himself of bragging rights in case the original Dream Team ever gets together for a reunion.

Perhaps he fears a return to the old days of Michael and the Jordanaires, when he put up 37 points a game but the team went nowhere.

Well, this time he wouldn’t be surrounded by guys like Dave Corzine and Granville Waiters. This time he would have some guys with championship experience. More important, he would have championship experience himself. That was a missing ingredient in his early years. Once he learned how to get the crown, it became clear that nothing short of armed robbery could force him to give it up.

Whenever you think he might be losing a step, think about this: The last time Jordan started a season in training camp and ended it with a loss was 1989-90.

And before anyone sends death threats to Bull honchos Jerry Reinsdorf and Jerry Krause for breaking up the party before it’s over, remember that Jordan once stopped the music himself. He could be adding ring No. 8 to his collection right now if he hadn’t retired in 1993.

It was his right to choose, but it was a selfish choice. He can’t afford to be selfish this time. It could mean millions of dollars to his peers. He doesn’t owe the rest of us anything, but he does owe his fellow players the aid of his considerable leverage.

When the NBA and its players meet to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement this summer, the owners would love to get rid of the Larry Bird exception, which allows a team to exceed the salary cap to sign its own players. Jordan would be the best argument the players have against doing that.

If he wants another $33-million contract and the Bulls want to give it to him, how could the league say no if it meant another year of Jordan-inflated attendance and TV ratings?

Jordan probably has been paying attention to Reinsdorf’s M.O. If baseball fans wanted to see the Cubs play interleague games against Reinsdorf’s White Sox at Comiskey Park, they had to buy tickets for other games as well. If suite-holders at the United Center wanted to see what might have been Jordan’s last season in 1996-97, they had to commit to multiple-year leases.

Jordan should give the owners the same ultimatum: If you want to see me play next year, make sure every player can keep his Bird rights for the duration of this bargaining agreement.

And he needs to do it quickly. If he dawdles, it puts the Bulls in a precarious position. Do they pass on other free agents in the hope he comes back? Or do they assume he’ll retire and do the unthinkable--renounce their rights to him and clear salary-cap space to sign other players?

Imagine these bookends to the greatest career in basketball history: cut by his 10th-grade varsity basketball team, cut by the defending NBA champions. It doesn’t have to end that way. By taking control of the situation the same way he has taken control of so many fourth quarters, Jordan can assure it won’t.