He’s Off to Be a Wizard

Bucking the odds and the advice of some of his closest friends, Michael Jordan launched the third phase of his NBA playing career Tuesday with a typically coy announcement--he made no appearance, instead issuing a press release--that he’ll return, at age 38, as a Washington Wizard.

“I am returning as a player to the game I love,” Jordan said, noting he would have no further comment until the Wizards open camp on Oct. 2.

Jordan, who one season made $30 million in Chicago, will work for $1 million, the maximum the Wizards can give him under salary-cap rules. He’ll donate it to relief agencies, a spokesman for his management company said.

For the game he loves, it’s good news. Jordan’s comeback will help, or revive, the bedraggled Wizards, who went 19-63 last season but have sold 12,000 season tickets and may not play to an empty seat in this one. It’s just as timely for the league, which struggled through two seasons without him.

With his four-year, $2.6-billion TV contracts about to run out, Commissioner David Stern held off his usual practice of negotiating a new deal a year ahead, perhaps waiting for this day. ESPN is reportedly signaling it wants the cable part of the package. Meanwhile, the current broadcasters, NBC and Turner, are busily revising their schedules around the Wizards, who otherwise would have had to pay to get on network air.

“I am happy to welcome Michael Jordan, the player, back to the NBA ... “ Stern said. “Michael has always brought joy to basketball fans around the world, and, in these difficult times, we can all use a little more joy in our lives.”

However, it remains to be seen what Jordan’s comeback can do for Jordan, who went out on top in 1998, making the winning shot against the Utah Jazz to lead the Chicago Bulls to their sixth title in his last six full seasons.

No one expects Jordan to embarrass himself. As Detroit Piston Coach Rick Carlisle said: “I watched Michael play [this summer]. I know a good player when I see one and he sure looks like a good player to me.”

However, bearing the weight of expectations will be something else.

Jordan’s beloved college coach, Dean Smith, is wistful (“It would be nice to finish on top with that last championship in 1998 but who is to say that great things are not ahead with Michael and the Wizards?”). At last spring’s NBA Finals, Shaquille O’Neal, who is friendly with Jordan, noted, “Thirty-nine isn’t 29.” Laker consultant Jerry West, a friend and a devoted admirer, noted the mixed reaction to the news.

“When the icon of the sport returns, for some reason, I don’t think people are embracing this,” West said. “But I would not judge him. He’s a unique guy.

“If he thinks he can play again, I would not doubt him. Having Michael Jordan in the league again will make it prosper more. I’m delighted for him that he’s made this decision. I hope it works out for the best. I’m sure it will.”

If Jordan needed a challenge, here it is. Unlike the Bulls, a veteran team, most of whose players had grown up in the NBA alongside Jordan, the Wizards are young and unaccomplished. Two starters, Richard Hamilton and Courtney Alexander, weren’t in the league when Jordan left in 1998; a third, Jahidi White, was a rookie that season, appearing in 20 games.

The Wizards finished 14th in the 15-team Eastern Conference last season, as Jordan, the fledgling team president who had predicted a playoff finish, gave up on veterans Juwan Howard, Mitch Richmond and Rod Strickland and settled for getting them off his salary cap.

If that wasn’t enough, the NBA will now let teams play zone defense, making it even harder for Jordan to have the same impact. Now when he posts up, his pet maneuver, he’s likely to be bracketed front and back by defenders.

Worst of all for Jordan, there may be no satisfying the public he spoiled. Even if he performs at his old level and somehow gets the Wizards into the playoffs, it may not seem like enough.

Jordan’s close friend, Charles Barkley, planned to come back alongside him but decided not to and then tried to talk Jordan out of it.

“I don’t want the press to have the right to criticize him,” Barkley said later. “I don’t want them to have that luxury. They’ll expect him to play like Michael Jordan and he can’t do that.”

As Jordan did the last time he returned, in 1995, after taking most of two seasons off to try baseball, he broke the news in his own style.

In 1995, with Chicago in a tizzy for a week, he issued only a two-word statement: “I’m back!”

Now a part of management, even if he had to divest himself of his 10% share of the team, he issued a longer statement, albeit with boilerplate sentiments (“I am especially excited about the Washington Wizards, and I’m convinced we have the foundation on which to build a playoff-contention team. The opportunity to teach our young players and help them elevate their game to a higher level, and to thank the fans in Washington for their loyalty and support, strongly influenced my decision.”)

And, as usual, Jordan did it on his own terms.

The announcement, which did come not from the Wizards but from the SFX office of Jordan’s agent, David Falk, was expected Monday ... because Jordan had told confidantes that was when it would be.

The Wizards informed Washington media outlets that an announcement was expected by 3 p.m. Monday. Owner Abe Pollin then planned to address reporters at MCI Center. Jordan’s hand-picked coach, Doug Collins, was tentatively set to take part in a conference call. At league headquarters in New York, Stern had his welcoming remarks prepared.

However, as Wizard officials told the league, this whole thing was out of their hands. There was no statement at 3 p.m., nor was any forthcoming later in the day. Estee Portnoy, a spokesman for SFX, said Jordan was still trying to make up his mind.

“The only thing that Michael said is that he will make his decision before training camp starts,” Portnoy told the Washington Post. “He never said he was announcing anything today.”

Actually, behind the scenes, Falk was negotiating a fine point of marketing with his arch enemies in the NBA office and, as usual, it was slow going.

NBA players are covered by a group licensing agreement, but Jordan had his own deal with the league. Now he reportedly wanted it amended to include video games, so he could bring out a Jordan version with EA Sports. Said EA spokesman Jeff Brown: “EA is working with the NBA and Michael Jordan’s representatives to resolve the issue.”

Under current conditions, it also remains to be seen how much latitude the public will give Jordan to exercise his Great Man foibles.

Jordan is relentlessly capitalistic, determined never to let anyone exploit him, unless it’s him. Up to now, no one seemed to mind. At the ’92 Olympics, he led an unseemly revolt with several players wearing flags around their necks in the medal ceremony to hide the Reebok logo on their warmups, supplied by the U.S. Olympic Committee. Jordan claimed this would betray his corporate partner, Nike, which he compared to a member of his family.

Of course, in those days, his teams almost always emerged victorious, bathing him in a roseate aura. Because his Wizards aren’t expected to win any titles, or come close, Jordan’s aura may be in for an update.

“While nothing can take away from the past,” he said in his prepared statement, “I am firmly focused on the future and the competitive challenge ahead of me.”

His past is gone. How far, he’s about to learn.

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No Bull, He’s Back

The Deal

* Jordan signs a two-year contract for the veteran’s minimum of $1 million per season. But even when he was making more than $30 million per season with the Chicago Bulls, his off-court earnings from endorsements were more substantial.

The Challenge

* Lifting the Wizards, 19-63 last season, to the playoffs. The last six times Jordan opened a training camp with the Bulls, they won the NBA title.

The Resume

* Third all-time leading scorer in NBA with 29,277 points

* Ten-time scoring champion, including seven in a row from 1986-87 to 1992-93

* Scoring average of 31.5 points is best in NBA history

* Five-time regular season most valuable player. Six-time MVP of NBA Finals

* Six NBA championships

* One NCAA championship

* Two-time member of gold medal-winning Olympic teams (1984, 1992)