Bulls Anxiously Wait for Jordan, Place a Call to Jackson

Coach-in-waiting Tim Floyd was pursued by reporters at the Chicago Bulls’ suburban practice complex. Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf was casting a vote for a new agreement in New York.

General Manager Jerry Krause was home but not talking. And Michael Jordan was . . . well, no one’s sure.

As Chicago remained locked in a big chill several days after a huge snowstorm, the six-time champion Bulls were bracing for a three-week circus of player signings, a short training camp and eventually the start of an abbreviated season.

Where to begin?

“We have to start with Michael. If Michael decides to retire that changes a lot of things,” Reinsdorf said after owners ratified the new labor agreement, 29-0, in New York.

“This contract doesn’t hurt at all or help bring Michael back. He’s grandfathered. He can make 5% more than last year.”

That would be about $34.7 million, a figure that would be pro-rated for what will probably be a 50-game schedule starting about Feb. 5.

Reinsdorf said he hasn’t talked to Jordan since just before the lockout began July 1, weeks after he’d led the Bulls to their sixth title and before Floyd was named director of basketball operations.

“He told me he heard a lot of good things about Tim Floyd and to tell Tim not to take himself out of consideration,” Reinsdorf said. “Whether Tim was coach or not would not determine whether Michael would come back or not.”

Reinsdorf said his first phone call once the lockout was settled went to Phil Jackson, offering him another chance to return as coach. But Jackson, who left the Bulls after they won the championship last June, declined the offer.

“He kind of chuckled,” Reinsdorf said. “He said he had the next few months planned out. He appreciated the call but said he hadn’t changed his mind.”

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The NBA lockout may be settled, but the Golden State Warriors still have a problem on their hands--Latrell Sprewell.

Garry St. Jean, the team’s general manager, is looking to trade Sprewell as quickly as possible and confirmed talks with several teams around the league--but would not name them.

“We haven’t hid the fact that we’re going to make a deal as fast as we can for Latrell,” he said.

The team hopes to get at least two quality players for Sprewell, who choked Warrior Coach P.J. Carlesimo during a practice session Dec. 1, 1997.

“When we do get two people to come in, they’re not going to be the 11th and 12th guys on the roster,” St. Jean said. “We think they’re going to be guys who can play, guys that have good careers, and have been with good teams. We’re going to feel good about it.”

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An arbitrator has ruled in favor of former coach Don Nelson in a $1.56-million dispute over his firing by the Warriors in 1995.

The arbitrator, Lance Liebman, a Columbia law professor appointed by the NBA, ruled in San Francisco that money Nelson was paid at the time of his firing was for work he already had done in the previous two years of his contract.

The Warriors contended the payments were for the next three years and that Nelson had to repay them out of his earnings from his next job, as coach of the New York Knicks.