Basketball World Awaiting Final Answer from Jordan

One day recently Chicago police were called to the private sports club “Hoops the Gym” to disperse a crowd that was getting a little rowdy.

It seems that Michael Jordan wanted to leave the gym after working out with some National Basketball Association players and could not get to his car.

Such is life for the greatest basketball player of all time, a man whose declaration that he will decide by mid-September whether to come out of retirement at age 38 has the sporting world abuzz.

Pundits have been ruminating all summer over the obvious questions: Is Jordan too old to compete with the young guys who have emerged in his wake? What could he possibly do for an encore after winning six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls? What would it mean for the sport and for the NBA?

Jordan is one of the world’s most recognized sporting figures, on a par with boxing champion Muhammad Ali and Brazilian soccer great Pele.

His comeback - which would be with the Washington Wizards not the Chicago Bulls - would be one of the most celebrated of all time, probably dwarfing the return last year of French Canadian hockey star Mario Lemieux.

The National Hockey League got an instant boost in attendance and television ratings and Lemieux helped propel his Pittsburgh Penguins team to the playoffs.

The NBA could use a Jordan boost. Since his retirement in 1999, attendance and ratings have fallen. And while some young stars have emerged such as Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and Vince Carter of the Toronto Raptors, none has approached Jordan’s status.

Nearly three years have passed since Jordan led Chicago to its last NBA championship--one that that culminated in a title-winning jump shot, a storybook ending to his final season. It was made into a movie shown around the world.

It would not be the first time Jordan made a comeback. He left basketball in 1993 to try his hand at professional baseball but returned in 1995 to lead the Bulls to three more championships.

Commentators are having a field day with Jordan, especially in Chicago, where he lives in a luxury suburban home with his Bulls jersey number 23 on the front gate and where tourists pay homage to a statue of Jordan outside the Bulls’ basketball arena.

There have been reports of nagging injuries--Jordan took two weeks off from practice this summer because of cracked ribs and admitted to back spasms and tendinitis in one knee.

There have been stories about his fitness. When asked about his progress on a scale of 1 to 10, Jordan ranked himself only a 6. Jordan has hired top personal trainer Tim Grover to be at his beck and call. “He has been holding his own,” Grover told Reuters in an interview.

The subject of a Jordan comeback is considered worthy of national opinion polls, and the polls give mixed results. In July, a Time magazine/CNN poll by Harris Interactive found 53 percent of those surveyed wanted to see him return. A USA Today/Gallup poll published this week found only 33 percent believed Jordan should make a comeback, while 44 percent said he should stay retired.

Jordan invited some of the best NBA players to his exclusive summer camp at the Chicago gym, where a “closed to the public” sign hung on the door this week and the small parking lot overflowed with Porsches, Mercedes and Ferraris.

While Jordan reportedly has sworn his workout partners to secrecy, there have been whispers in the Chicago newspapers that during the workouts Jordan was sometimes losing games and he was not the dominant player he once was. Then again, pundits said, the wily veteran could be just pacing himself.

Through it all, “His Airness”--as admirers of his gazelle-like moves on the basketball court call him--has said little. He has smiled and dropped a word here and there at a golf tournament this summer, when entering and leaving the gym, and with favored local reporters--enough to feed the frenzy.

The subject of his return even has Chicago fans divided.

“He’s the greatest that ever played the game, and he’s proven that, and I think that he’s going to prove it again,” said Vernal Turner, who plays basketball Sunday mornings at a Chicago Park District fieldhouse.

“If he is gonna retire, he should stay retired. That’s the way I feel about it,” said another weekend player, Anthony Washington.

The stage is certainly set for a dramatic Jordan return.

Since his retirement the Bulls teammates he led to championships have scattered and the chances of him returning to his old team evaporated.

Jordan, a part owner of the Wizards, has met with the NBA commissioner to discuss divesting his ownership stake to comply with NBA rules and allow him to play, according to the Washington Post. Season ticket sales for the Wizards, one of the worst teams in the NBA last year, have shot up.

“There has definitely been an increase in deposits for season tickets this year on speculation that Michael Jordan will play for the Wizards,” said Maureen Nasser, spokeswoman for the Wizards.

Some major corporations are hoping to cash in on a comeback. NBC television, which has no plans now to broadcast any Wizards games this season, said that if Jordan returns it has the flexibility to show up to 11 games. Jordan would almost certainly boost advertising revenue, said NBC Sports spokesman Kevin Sullivan.