‘A Perfect Time. . .’

In the 20,000-seat house he built, next to the statue of him they put up the last time he retired, Michael Jordan bade his beloved “game of basketball” farewell Wednesday, vowing never, ever to return (probably.)

“Ninety-nine point nine [percent] is as you read it,” Jordan said at a news conference in the United Center. “It’s not 100%, but it’s close.

“So that’s where I stand. I’m not going to say ‘never never.’ Say 99.9. You take it for what it’s worth.”

If little in his plans is ever definitive, it was a graceful ceremony, ending this most graceful of careers at its tippy-top, in a way none of his select circle of peers, who transcended their sports as he did professional basketball, had.

Muhammad Ali fought until he was old and defenseless. Babe Ruth went out, not as a mighty New York Yankee, but a creaky Boston Brave. But in the NBA, in which no team had won three consecutive titles since the Celtics in the ‘60s, Jordan led the Bulls to championships in his last six full seasons.

He was most valuable player of all six finals. Of the Bulls’ eight wins in the ’97 and ’98 finals, he made shots in the closing seconds to win three, including last spring’s 20-footer at age 35 over Utah’s Bryon Russell that ended the 1998 finals and Jordan’s career (presumably.)

If the departure was timely for Jordan, it represented the end of the line for the Bulls’ dynasty, which has only four players under contract. Nor was it good news for the NBA, which lost the first three months of its season because of a lockout.

Bull owner Jerry Reinsdorf called it “the toughest day in the history of the Chicago Bulls . . . a tough day for Chicago . . . a tough day for the NBA . . . a tough day for basketball fans all over the world.”

NBA Commissioner David Stern, more adept at imparting an optimistic spin, gave the “phalanx-of-young-stars” speech he has used for years for questions about Jordan’s impending departure but did acknowledge ruefully at one point, “It would have been a little bit easier with Michael, to say the least, but that’s life.”

Jordan had been leaning toward retirement since the season ended last June but, adhering to his never-say-never policy, made no statement of his intentions. In the meantime, he waited to see if the Bulls could keep Phil Jackson, the coach he wanted to play for (they couldn’t); or Scottie Pippen, the lone teammate with him for all six titles (it was looking less and less likely); or if the NBA could solve its labor dispute quickly (it couldn’t).

In the early stages of the lockout, Jordan took an active part, attending a November players’ meeting in Las Vegas with his personal trainer, Tim Grover, suggesting he was still considering playing.

Until mid-December, Jordan was considered the driving force behind the players, but after that, he dropped out. While 184 players attended last week’s meeting in New York that ended the lockout, Jordan was at a resort in the Bahamas, playing high-stakes blackjack.

Jordan also said he severed a tendon in his right index finger while cutting a cigar in the Bahamas, an injury that could have sidelined him for two months, though he said it had no bearing on his decision.

“He left the door open [to another return] a little,” said Buzz Peterson, Jordan’s old North Carolina roommate and lifelong confidant, now the coach at Appalachian State. “That’s Michael. But I’ve heard him talk a lot about the family, the kids. . . .

“I think mentally, it’s been over for a while. Physically, he could go out here right now as Michael, but the mental part, I think it’s been some time. . . .

“He always says that [he’s retiring] when the season’s over, but when the basketball season comes back ‘round, he has a different mentality and he starts thinking about it a little more. I think that’s why he left the door open a little bit because he loves the game so much.”

“Mentally, I’m exhausted,” Jordan said. “I don’t feel I have the challenge. The last time [he retired] in ‘93, I had other agendas. I wanted to play baseball, and I thought at my age, it was a good opportunity and time to do it. With the death of my father, I was trying to deal with that.

“This time, I’m at peace with a lot of those things. I know, from a career standpoint, I’ve accomplished everything I could as an individual. Right now I don’t have the mental challenges that I’ve had in the past, to proceed as a basketball player. . . .

“For me, to start something and lose interest in the middle of a season, to lose interest and to lose my motivation, it’s unfair to the people I’m working with and working for and to the fans. . . . This is the perfect time for me to walk away from the game. I’m at peace with that.”

Jordan was expected to wait until the last moment to decide, to see if the Bulls could sign Pippen, or trade him and form a nucleus to challenge for another title.

But Reinsdorf sent word the organization couldn’t rebuild blind. If Jordan came back, he would sign free agents like Luc Longley. If Jordan didn’t, they would let Pippen go, trim the roster, create room under the salary cap and try to sign a young free agent to begin the rebuilding process.

Jordan, on a tour of the world’s resorts--in other words, testing retirement--found it was OK.

“I talked to Charles [Barkley of the Rockets, his best friend in the game]. I talked to Karl [Malone of Utah], I talked to all of them,” Jordan said. “I’m pretty sure they all feel the same. They want me to come back so if they win a championship, they can say they’ve gone through Chicago and Michael Jordan to win it, to give it the meaning of taking a title away from Chicago.

“And that’s the good thing about it, that they won’t ever have the chance of doing that. That’s why I was so glad, that Magic [Johnson] played and [Larry] Bird played when I won my titles because I had to go through, to some degree, Boston and L.A.

“Patrick [Ewing of the Knicks, another friend], I don’t know, he won’t be able to live with himself if he can’t beat Michael Jordan in a series. And Charles Barkley, I told him he’d never win because he doesn’t dedicate himself to winning.

“All of them joked with me and hated to see the possibility of me retiring, just because they didn’t have the opportunity to beat me in the finals or get past me.

“That is a cute thing about retiring, and I will always hold that in high respect when I see these guys socially.”

Sunday, Jordan told his agent, David Falk, he was retiring and started phoning executives, friends, teammates and opponents such as Stern, Reinsdorf, Peterson, Pippen, Barkley and Ron Harper.

Late Monday night, the story got out. Wednesday, Jordan made the announcement that ended the most storied career in basketball history, it looks like.

Late in the session, Jordan was asked why he was saying 99%, or 99.9%, encamping 1% away from certainty.

“Because it’s my 1%,” he said, “and not yours.”

*

Bulls 23*

CHICAGO BLUE

The city has been through this before, but this time it looks bad. A1

* RUBBER SOLE

Like the Beatles, Jordan knew when it was time to go. D2

* DYNASTY

New labor deal should make it easier to make a Bull-like run. D4

* RARE AIR

He didn’t fly as high, but the older Jordan was the better Jordan. D5

* JERRY-BUILT

Reinsdorf and Krause will go down in Chicago history as the villains. D6

“[He’s] the most incredible athlete I’ve ever seen. He’s an icon, a one-man show. It’s going to be a devastating loss. It’s a loss for basketball, but for kids too.”

--MAGIC JOHNSON

“When I lay my head down on the pillow at night, I’ll know there was one guy I never had a chance to beat. It doesn’t look like I’ll get another chance. That bothers me.”

--PAT RILEY, Miami coach

“For our own selfish reasons we never wanted to see Michael Jordan retire. He represented our personal flight of fantasy about what great things an individual can do and he made it look so easy.”

--PHIL JACKSON, former Chicago coach

“[It’s] the toughest day in the history of the Chicago Bulls . . . a tough day for Chicago . . . a tough day for the NBA . . . a tough day for basketball fans all over the world.”

--JERRY REINSDORF, Chicago owner

“This is not a sad day. This is a great day, because the greatest basketball player in the history of the game is getting the opportunity to retire with the grace that described his play.”

--DAVID STERN, NBA commissioner

“For the most part I’m just going to enjoy life and do some of the things that I’ve never done before.”

--MICHAEL JORDAN