Chicago Getting Along Just Fine --Until Playoffs

Bernie Lincicome in the Chicago Tribune: “Sure, Chicago will continue to be a great city without Michael Jordan playing basketball. Paris is still there without DeGaulle. Rome without Michelangelo, Detroit without Madonna.

“We’ll be fine. We say that now. Let’s see how we all feel when Reggie Miller is weeping his tears all over the Larry O’Brien Trophy and Indianapolis is waving those huge foam fingers around.

“Or worse, there is Shaquille O’Neal claiming preeminence in Los Angeles, not Jordan’s heir as much as Jordan’s crumb-snatcher, the big underachieving clod.”

Why the invective, Bernie? Shaq wouldn’t grant you an interview?

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Trivia time: Who holds the Super Bowl record for passes completed in a game?

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Revenge factor: Probably speaking for many others, Minnesota Timberwolf forward Sam Mitchell can’t wait to play the Michael Jordan-less Bulls.

“For all the years they’ve destroyed people, it’s payback time,” Mitchell said. “And people are not going to care that Michael and Scottie Pippen are not there.

“All they are going to see is that Chicago Bulls jersey and if you can beat them by 50, by God, beat them by 50. They’re gonna get drilled.”

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Good thinking: Detroit Piston rookie Bonzi Wells on Jordan’s retirement: “I would have liked to play against him, but I think this saves me a lot of embarrassment.”

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Sacrificing: Orlando Magic guard Penny Hardaway, offering his unique perspective on the new labor agreement:

“Guys aren’t able to get $15- or $20-million contracts anymore, so you just have to play for the love of the game.”

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Gamesmanship: New York Jet linebacker Bryan Cox on his team’s loss to Denver: “The thing you have to understand is, [the Broncos] have been in this situation before. They didn’t crack. We cracked.”

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Pac-10 reunion: John Crumpacker in the San Francisco Examiner: “With Steve Mariucci (Cal, USC) in place and Bill Walsh (Stanford), Gene Washington (Stanford) and Terry Donahue (UCLA) about to join the front office, are the 49ers trying to get to the Super Bowl or the Rose Bowl?”

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Clipper luck: Nick Canepa in the San Diego Union-Tribune: “The captain would have held up the Hindenberg for the Clippers. Such is their timing. Imagine, naming Chris Ford their head coach on the day Jordan announces his retirement.

“It made Page 3 of the Los Angeles Times. Deservedly so.”

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Same old baloney: Blackie Sherrod in the Dallas Morning News: “Phillip Fulmer, of natl champ Tennessee, is another coach who says he never reads newspapers nor listens to squawk shows. (We haven’t believed any of them, so why start now?)”

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Trivia answer: Jim Kelly of Buffalo, 31, in a 30-13 loss to Dallas in 1994.

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And finally: Showtime executive Jay Larkin on why viewer interest in Mike Tyson will remain high:

“People will watch him fight in the same way they watch car races, to see the wrecks.”