Mike’s Back, but He’s the Mayor of Smallville

Once the proud conference of Michael Jordan, the East has its living legend back.

Not that it will mean as much this time around, give or take a lot of publicity.

Through the ‘90s, Jordan and the Bulls walked on the West, which won its only two titles of the decade in 1994, when Jordan was gone, and 1995, when he came back a month before the postseason.

This time, Jordan is returning to a wholly different landscape. Since he left in 1999, West teams have strolled to three titles, cuffing their Eastern opponents aside in the finals, 12-4.

The East’s problem can be encapsulated in a single word: puny.

Last season, when Alonzo Mourning and Zydrunas Ilgauskas were out, it was almost a conference without a center. Almost all of the biggest and the best--Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Vlade Divac, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Arvydas Sabonis--were in the West. East teams used relative midgets, like Detroit’s 6-foot-8 Ben Wallace, as centers.

Now, the imbalance is shifting ... slowly. Mourning and Ilgauskas have rejoined their teams, although no one is sure how robust either will be.

Olajuwon is in Toronto, where, even at the advanced age of 38, he makes the Raptors consensus favorites.

The 38-year-old Ewing has gone back East, joining Orlando, which is now considered an Eastern front-runner.

Then there are the teenagers. The draft delivered three big prospects--6-foot-11 Eddy Curry and 7-1 Tyson Chandler of the Bulls, 6-10 Kwame Brown of the Wizards--to the conference that needed them most.

Not that you’d call it a quick fix. By the end of the exhibition season, Wizard Coach Doug Collins was complaining that Brown was too hard-headed, which didn’t sound very promising for the near term. Chicago Coach Tim Floyd didn’t even play his young phenoms in one exhibition, announcing neither would begin the season as a starter and would have to earn playing time.

So, the East may have a future, after all. It’s just not now.