Comeback? There’s Definitely Something in the Air

Imagine if NBC announced that “The Cosby Show” and “Family Ties” would lead its new fall lineup? Or the hot new summer concert tour featured the Pointer Sisters and Culture Club.

That’s what all the off-the-court noise sounds like in the NBA, with names straight out of the 1980s. Michael Jordan wants to play again and Charles Barkley wants to be right there with him on the Washington Wizards. Who knows, Patrick Ewing might even join them. Magic Johnson wants to be a coach or team president.

To borrow another title from the ‘80s, it’s “Back to the Future.”

“It’s absolutely crazy the way the rumors are running wild,” said John Thompson, the former Georgetown coach and current commentator for Turner Sports. “Why don’t we really start one and say that Bill Russell’s going to be the center?”

Why can’t these guys travel around the world, or work on their golf games, or just sit back and count the days until their pensions kick in?

When you’ve done one thing better than anyone else can do it, no amount of success in any other field can duplicate the feeling. Apparently, whether you’ve been out of the league for five years, as has Johnson, or if your jersey has just been retired, like Barkley’s, you can’t stay away from basketball.

“I think we’ve all proven we can do something else, so that’s not any question,” Johnson said.

“But I think guys also want to be challenged. The challenge is now for Michael to show everybody that he can do it again, or Isiah [Thomas] that he can coach, or Larry [Bird] that he could do it, when he did it. I think that’s what keeps guys going.”

Johnson recognizes he’s too old at 41 to play again. He still wants to compete--”Whether running a team or coaching,” he said. “But it has to be the right situation”--and he still thinks he knows what it takes to win in the NBA.

“Teams want to run. You see what happened to all the setup teams: Miami, New York. They all got beat because they don’t run. You have to get people who know how to do that and how to relate to the guys at the same time and that have the respect of the guys. That goes a long way.

“So, who knows better how to run?”

He breaks into that famous smile and laugh, which were as much a part of the Showtime Lakers as Magic choreographing the fastbreak.

Our lingering image of Jordan, of course, is of him holding his follow-through after making the winning jump shot to beat the Utah Jazz in the 1998 NBA finals.

Now that he has moved back into the basketball world as president and minority owner of the Wizards, why would he not let that shot stand as the punctuation mark on his playing days? Why would he return, at 38, and tamper with that great legacy, or risk getting shown up by the new NBA kids?

“Because he wants to play basketball,” Barkley said. “No other reason. A lot of people are coming up with these hare-brained reasons. Maybe he just wants to play basketball.”

Barkley said Jordan will come back only if he feels he can play up to his own personal standard. And what’s that standard?

“Excellence,” Barkley said.

One of the best arguments in Jordan’s favor is the play of 39-year-old John Stockton. The Jazz point guard ranked second in the league in assists this season, averaging 8.7 a game, and recorded the first triple-double of his career during the playoffs.

And Jordan has to be encouraged by the productivity of Mario Lemieux after Lemieux’s return to the NHL this season after almost 3 1/2 years off.

Lemieux and Jordan are golfing buddies (they strolled together on the grounds of the Country Club outside Boston during the 1999 Ryder Cup), which is why Lemieux’s saying in April that Jordan planned to come back added credence to the story.

Can Jordan’s comeback be as effective as Lemieux’s?

We’ll ask the guy who picked Jordan with the third selection in the 1984 NBA draft as the general manager of the Chicago Bulls.

“I think he can do about anything he wants to,” said Rod Thorn, currently the general manager of the New Jersey Nets. “I’m sure if he does come back, he’ll be one of the best players in the league. He was the best when he left, I’m sure he’ll be one of the best when he comes back.”

Jordan took just as much pride in locking people up as he did in scoring against them. The new rule allowing zone defenses will offer Jordan some protection, making him a little less likely to get victimized by Allen Iverson’s crossover dribble or Tracy McGrady’s finger roll.

But going against a zone could also keep Jordan from getting to the hoop himself, or from setting up at his favorite spot just outside the lane for his fall-away jumper.

“He’ll find a way,” Thorn said.

In Jordan’s second tour around the league--or what might come to be known as his first comeback--from 1995-1998, he made the transition to a more cerebral game, one less reliant on his extraordinary physical gifts. This time there would probably be even less Air, and more gray matter.

“You’ve just got to be smart,” said Mario Elie, a 38-year-old forward for the Phoenix Suns. “Your talents are not the same. You’ve got to think the game more when you get older. I think that’s why I’m still around. I can still be effective out there just knowing my role and when I’m going to get my shots.”

Elie has always been a role player, making whatever contributions he could. Jordan doesn’t have that luxury. He has to be . . . Jordanesque.

“People want to see the old Michael Jordan,” Elie said. “People are selfish. Whether he’s 55 years old, they want Michael Jordan to go out and get 50. If he can handle the pressure, more power to him.”

Jordan is getting closer to game shape. He has lost the gut and the flab that made it harder for him to fit into his custom-made suits. (Barkley, meanwhile, is about 25 pounds away from playing weight).

The funny thing about the Jordan comeback is, the closer you get to him, the murkier it gets.

When most of the NBA’s personnel men gathered in Phoenix last week for the Desert Classic pre-draft camp, several people said privately that they were certain Jordan was coming back.

But Darrell Walker, the Wizards’ director of player personnel, said, “I don’t ask that question. That’s Michael’s decision, to do what he wants to do. I would never go up to him and ask that question.

“If he wants to come back and play, that’s on him. Right now, he’s the president of the Washington Wizards.”

At the Phoenix camp held at Arizona State, Jordan was dutifully handling his tasks as the Wizards’ president. He was part of a front-office contingent that included Walker, assistant legal counsel Fred Whitfield, General Manager Wes Unseld, assistant general manager Rod Higgins and new Coach Doug Collins.

As the crew prepared to watch the assembled college seniors scrimmage, Jordan pointed out a big man he was interested in seeing and listened to an agent pitch a foreign player to him.

Jordan wasn’t doing any interviews.

“There’s enough out there about me in the media already,” he said.

Which is a story in itself.

“I think there’s too much discussion not for there to be some truth to [the comeback],” Thompson said. “I don’t think it would be discussed as much as it’s been discussed. It didn’t go away.”

Instead, new tidbits keep appearing. There was one rumor that Jordan had taken pictures in a Wizard uniform, so the team will have them ready if he does come back. A Wizard spokeswoman said she had no knowledge of any Jordan photo shoot for the team.

So the rumors will float on. This will have to come to a head on or near July 1, when the NBA free agency period begins and Jordan must decide whether he and Barkley will come back or whether he should continue his movement to get young players and clear salary-cap room for the summer of 2002. For Jordan to come back, he will have to give up his stake in the team, because the NBA--unlike the NHL with Lemieux--does not allow owners to play.

“I don’t even think he’s close to making up his mind,” Barkley said. “I know he’s not close.”

Add everything up and it looks as if Jordan will be wearing a uniform again next season. Why else would Barkley get off the couch and start working out six hours a day? Why else would Collins leave that cushy courtside seat at the NBC broadcast table and coach a team that finished 19-63 last season?

It takes a comebacker to know a comebacker. So, Mr. Johnson, is Jordan coming back?

“Yes, I think so,” Magic said.

Or should we start calling him Coach?

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.