Bulls, Pacers Take It to Limit

Could this be the end of Mike?

In a word, yes. Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls face the Indiana Pacers tonight in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, knowing a loss may launch most of them into the next phase of their careers.

Jordan’s contract is up, as are those of Coach Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman. The Bulls have announced Jackson is in his final season. Jordan has insisted he won’t return without Jackson. Pippen is vowing to leave. (For what it’s worth, Rodman is pleading to stay.)

Owner Jerry Reinsdorf has hinted for years about breaking up the team, and a loss might have the welcome effect of making it politically possible.

“I don’t think we are even considering that,” Jackson said Saturday. “Guys aren’t thinking about what’s at the end of tomorrow’s game, they’re thinking about the end of the playoffs.

“They’re not thinking about the end of their contract, the end of their stay in Chicago or the end of the Bulls as we know them.”

Or maybe they are.

Betraying his concern that the uncertainty could weigh on his players, Jackson took the unusual step of bringing it out in the open with his players, hoping to defuse the issue.

“I told Michael today that he has to face the possibility he could lose a game like this,” Jackson said. “But if you give your best effort, there is nothing frightening about losing.

“I think the fear of something is sometimes worse than the actual thing itself. To deal with it is important. I just mentioned don’t worry about fear. The fear is not of losing but of not producing or having a good effort. . . . I think they took it as a reality.”

Chicago went 29-4 against eight Eastern teams in the last three postseasons before this series, 11-2 on the road. Then, with leading scorer Reggie Miller limping on a badly sprained ankle, the Pacers won all three games in Market Square Arena, bouncing back in Friday’s Game 6 after a Game 5 humiliation.

The Pacers have been chafing at Jordan’s description of Miller’s defense (“like chicken fighting with a woman”), his dismissal of them after Chicago’s Game 3 loss (“This is just a speed bump”) and the Bulls’ complaints about the referees.

“I’ve been hearing that we’re a speed bump, that they were going to sweep us or beat us in five games,” Miller said. “The bottom line is they’re in a Game 7.

“They’re the defending champs and all we’re doing is showing up and finding a way to win basketball games. If they don’t want to give us credit, that’s fine.”

The Bulls were so dominant, they have managed to win five titles since 1990 while playing only two Game 7s--one of those in the spring of 1994 when Jordan was playing baseball. With Jordan in 1992, they routed the Knicks by 29 points in the old Chicago Stadium.

The nucleus of this Pacer team reached the Eastern finals in 1994 and 1995 under Larry Brown, went to Game 7s in each and lost, in New York and Orlando.

With his characteristic bluntness, Coach Larry Bird, who played in eight Game 7s as a Boston Celtic and won six, gave them a few words of advice:

“Don’t choke.”

That’s how they defuse issues in French Lick. So far, it has worked pretty well for him.