Something in the Air

NEW YORK —  “I can’t even imagine what this man thinks about at night when he goes back and he’s laying in bed, thinking about the challenge ahead and Oct. 30 and every single moment he steps out, people are going to be judging, evaluating his every single move.”

--Wizard Coach Doug Collins, before Michael Jordan’s latest comeback

*

For one more night, anyway, it will be almost the way it was, when every eye followed Jordan and nothing else seemed to count for much.

As in:

“MICHAEL GETS 28 BUT KNICKS BEAT WIZARDS, 81-76”

And under it in smaller type:

“Yankees Stop Diamondbacks to Cut Series Deficit to 2-1 (Please see Page 3.)”

And down at the bottom in a corner of the page, in very small type:

“22 Other NBA Teams Open Season (Please see Page 16.)”

As usual, when Jordan comes back, as he does tonight in Madison Square Garden, it’s wild. The courtside seat next to Spike Lee was sold for $101,300, with Yahoo reporting the most page views it had ever received for an auction. The anonymous bidder gave the seat to the son of a fallen firefighter.

Of course, if the story changes--which means, in this case, if Jordan’s team (the Washington Wizards) doesn’t always, or often, win--the coverage will change with it.

Because the curiosity factor will remain high, the stories will continue to get big play, but if the Wizards are struggling, as they did in their 2-6 preseason, it’ll be more like:

“HE CAME BACK FOR THIS?”

Jordan didn’t ascend, or transcend, because he was a great player, or telegenic, or did a lot of commercials. It was because his teams won, not games, but titles: six in his last six complete seasons.

This, of course, gives him a lot to live up to. Take his last comeback here....

It was the spring of 1995, only nine days after shooting seven for 28 at Indiana in his first game after his 21-month retirement. All the glitterati who could score tickets came out to the Garden to see what Jordan had left against a still-respectable Knick team coached by Pat Riley.

Jordan scored 55 points, or as Lee put it later in a Nike commercial, “dropped a double nickel on my beloved Knicks.” Then, with the Knicks zeroing in on Jordan on the Bulls’ last possession, he hit Bill Wennington under the basket for the game-winning dunk.

This preseason, when Jordan scored 18 points in the first quarter at Miami, Riley, now coaching the Heat, asked Jordan if this would be “another New York.”

Jordan, smiling, said no and sat out the rest of the game. But two exhibitions later, he scored 41 in 41 minutes against the Nets.

With arenas selling out, press corps numbering more than 100 nightly and celebrities trekking out to the boonies in places such as State College, Pa., to see him play ... exhibition games ... Jordan averaged 22 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 28 minutes. This doesn’t look like someone who’s washed up, but it also looks as if it may not be enough.

None of the other young Wizards were much help, especially their rising prep, No. 1 overall pick Kwame Brown, who, Collins complained, was “in great shape to play a high school game ...

“Right now he’s pretty stubborn and so sometimes it has to crumble down on you and then be willing to listen,” Collins said.

No, it doesn’t look like young Kwame and old Mike are going to be leading the Wizards to greatness soon.

In that event, the league still would belong to the players who have taken it over: Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant of the Lakers, challenged--perhaps at some distance--by Tim Duncan and David Robinson of the Spurs, Chris Webber and the Kings, Vince Carter and the Raptors and Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill of the Magic.

“Eighty-two games is a long, tough season,” said Piston basketball boss Joe Dumars after the Wizards’ exhibition opener in Auburn Hills, Mich. (which Jordan said he’d sit out, then had to reverse himself when he found out the Palace was sold out).

“He’s going to have to deal with the long season and what it’s going to do to his body. And then, he’s going to have to deal with the fact that he’s not playing on a great team for the first time in 15 years. I don’t care who you are, those things are hard to deal with.”

Dumars, who’s 38, Jordan’s age, says if he ever gets an “itch” to play, like the one Jordan described, “I’ll put some salve on it.”

As if to underline the perils, Jordan even had Jon Barry woofing at him that night, after Barry backdoored him on one play.

“He’s not anywhere near where he needs to get to,” said Barry afterward, adding, “He won’t respect me. I’m going to make him respect me.”

Has it come to that, Michael Jordan listening to smack from the Jon Barrys of the world?

Stay tuned to see who smacks last, and what it all means.