It’s an Ending Fit for a King, or a Legend Named Jordan

Done.

Over.

Finito.

Thanks for the memories.

If that wasn’t Michael Jordan’s farewell, not to mention the greatest last minute of the NBA finals that anyone ever played--try six points and a steal, bringing the Chicago Bulls back from a three-point deficit--then Jordan can’t recognize a get-off line when he delivers one.

The indications are he can and has. After Friday’s Game 5 loss, he was giddy at the thought of having missed a chance to end his career with a game-ending, title-winning shot. Sunday fantasy became fact. As Jordan likes to note, this stuff always seems to happen to him.

“If and when that time comes where I’ve got to walk away, I hope that because I walked away, no one will look at me any less,” he said Sunday, hinting it was over for the first time.

“Hopefully, I’ve put enough memories out there for everybody to at least have some thoughts about what Michael Jordan did in his last 13 or 14 years or whatever it takes and for kids to follow and compare themselves and reach . . .

“I have another life and I know I have to get to it at some point in time. And hopefully, the fans and the people understand that.”

Pointedly, he did not make his annual speech, asking management to bring everyone back. Nor did he do anything like he did last spring, when the Bulls won the fifth title and he held up six fingers to the fans.

You may have heard this somewhere but Jordan doesn’t want to return without Phil Jackson and Scottie Pippen. Apparently, Jordan, who knows something about odds, has figured out what a longshot this is. Make Phil 1,000-1 and Scottie 100-1.

Within moments of Sunday’s game, Jackson, who’d already told NBC that he had cleaned out his office, said he’d leave “unless something absolutely unusual comes out of left field.”

Nothing seemed to be.

Jackson will only stay if owner Jerry Reinsdorf exiles General Manager Jerry Krause to Comiskey Park or Elba or somewhere. Instead, Reinsdorf was letting Krause run around, putting his usual prickly imprint on things. Asked by NBC’s Ahmad Rashad to say something sappy about wanting the guys back, the best Krause could do was, “All I want to do is celebrate and have fun and we’ll talk later. Get it? Krause hasn’t decided if he wants the guys back.

OK, color Jackson gone.

Color Pippen gone too. Someone from Chicago asked the usual, pining, say-it-ain’t-so-Scottie question, asking if it was possible he’d sign for one more year.

“Anything is possible,” said Pippen, rolling his eyes.

Anything was possible, all right. With Pippen hurting, Jordan, 35, went 44 minutes Sunday after going 45 Friday. He had 23 points by halftime but faded in the third quarter, when he let old Jeff Hornacek beat him off the dribble twice.

In the fourth quarter, Jordan missed five in a row, most of them short, suggesting he was gassed. Of course, Jordan doesn’t take as long as most people to recuperate.

With 37 seconds left, he beat Bryon Russell going to his right and made a driving layup, cutting Utah’s three-point lead to one.

Russell wasn’t supposed to let Jordan beat him that way but there you go.

“We wanted to force him to the middle,” said Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan. “That’s our philosophy. It’s been our philosophy for 13 years . . .

“You have to give him [Jordan] credit. He’s a guy, you can throw all your philosophies out the window. You can double him, push him to the middle but great players make those kind of plays.”

The Jazz threw the ball into the post to Karl Malone, defended by Dennis Rodman. Jordan came flying up the baseline and knocked the ball out of Malone’s hands.

It was Jordan and Russell again at the other end. Jordan drove him off with a hard dribble and made a 20-footer to put the Bulls ahead to stay.

Someone asked later if Jordan wouldn’t like to go out on a moment like that.

“Yes,” said Jordan, enthusiastically, “if that’s the case.”

It’s going to take a while to determine if that’s the case. Jackson should make it official any day but on July 1, the league is expected to lock the players out, which will freeze all free-agent negotiations, including Pippen’s.

The lockout is expected to last most of the summer so this never-ending story drags on.

“That wasn’t his [Jordan’s] last game,” said John Stockton, clearly not in a nostalgic mood.

“That’s been a nice story for you but he’ll be back. Scottie will be back. Phil Jackson will be back. I’m tired of hearing about it but it worked for them.”

Something worked for them, anyway. Wore No. 23. Greatest we ever saw or are likely to for a long, long, long, long time.