This Wizard Soon Leaving Land of Aahs

Good-night (again), sweet Mike, even if parting has become such obsolete sorrow.

Not that this is your usual sentimental farewell. Having demonstrated his artistry was timeless, single-handedly increased revenues enough to stave off the NBA’s luxury tax and revived interest in the Wizards, Michael Jordan now has to revive the Wizards themselves as they fight their way up and down the West Coast.

Letting his fabled ferocity out for one last turn around the circuit, he scorches teammates to the consistency of charcoal one night, picks up the ashes and fashions them into something the next. They aren’t a great team and he’s not what he used to be, but they’re all they’ve got.

Last week, they started the trip they agreed would make or break their season by getting torn apart in Phoenix, 109-83. “One of those games you don’t want to be a part of,” a steaming Jordan said afterward, adding ruefully:

“And if you look out there today, I was being a part of it.”

If this is Mike’s Last Stand, he seems conflicted enough at times to wonder what he’s doing here. As far back as the All-Star break, he said his itch was “finally scratched” and laughed at suggestions he might stay because he was playing so well.

As a story, this was overrated from Day 1 Minus 120, in the spring of 2001 when, as team president, he started giving off signs signaling a comeback.

After that, in an inappropriate twitch from his transcendent days of the ‘90s, it was examined from every angle for its impact on Western Civilization, the fervid press splitting on whether it was A) merely unbecoming; B) capable of tainting his image; or C) just what the nation needed after 9/11.

Instead, it’s D) no biggie. It’s beneficial, if less than monumental, for the NBA and fun while it lasts for Wizard fans.

The people it’s hard for are the Wizards themselves, who are chained to Jordan’s ambitions, experience his disappointments and feel his displeasure.

Jordan decided, or convinced himself, coming back could be part of what he was doing as president. He said he was doing it to help the young players, but he dreamed of making the playoffs and, one imagines, of doing some damage in the postseason too. If they could just get him close....

They weren’t a team but a rebuilding project that Jordan had just taken back to square one, when he finally succeeded in trading Juwan Howard and the balance due on his $105-million contract.

When Mike announced his return at a news conference in the MCI Center, he was flanked by huge portraits of Richard Hamilton and Courtney Alexander, the Wizards’ young hopes.

Within a year, Hamilton and Alexander were gone, as Jordan, who continued to run the franchise no matter what it said on anyone’s organizational chart, ferried in veterans, trying to win immediately; or in other words, while he was in uniform.

To be sure, they acquired bigger, brighter hopes, starting with Kwame Brown, the top pick in 2001, who got to see what it takes to be a mega-star up close and extremely personal. But it’s hard to win and develop young players at the same time, and when a choice had to be made, it wasn’t a choice at all.

Brown is big (6-10, 243), athletic

and not without skills, even if they need refining, a prospect so tantalizing one can see why they took him ahead of fellow preps Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry, both of whom have done more as Bulls.

Lost as a rookie, Brown started well this season, averaging 9.7 points and 8.6 rebounds before Thanksgiving. Then he vanished as fast as you could spell d-o-g-h-o-u-s-e.

Jordan, who defines Old School, must have gone loco, regarding Brown’s gifts and shortcomings across the generational divide separating them. Nor was Kwame to be confused with Kevin Garnett as far as being preternaturally ready to compete in a grownups’ world.

Brown, now averaging 7.0 points and 5.2 rebounds, is personable and not without respect for his elders (“Anybody who would say they wouldn’t enjoy Michael Jordan on their team is crazy”) but brash enough to recently suggest that Jordan, not Coach Doug Collins, pulls the strings that tie him to the bench, as well as all the other strings.

“I mean, I’m in no position to say what coulda, shoulda, woulda happened, so I feel like I’m not going to comment on that question,” Brown said before the Phoenix wipeout.

“I’m sure you read the article [in which he was quoted] in D.C., so I’m going to leave it at that.... I feel I’m able to play in this league. I’m ready to go and when it’s time for me to be that guy they depend on more, then I’ll be that guy.”

Brown’s assessment of Wizard management may be accurate. Of course, from Jordan’s perspective, the mistake Kwame makes is not merely in questioning how things are run but in saying anything.

Now running short on new things to call his teammates, Jordan is already clearly in transition.

In this un-tour, there are no ceremonies, speeches, thanks or tears. During a timeout in Phoenix, the Suns showed a video montage of old favorites (the shot that beat the Cavaliers in ‘88, the switch-hands dunk-to-layup against the Lakers in ‘91, the farewell jumper in Utah in ‘98), the crowd gave Jordan a standing ovation, but there was no gesture of acknowledgment.

Mike was busy trying to turn this hopeless game around. He played 33 of the first 36 minutes, leaving for good only after the Suns went up 30.

The game wasn’t about honors for him, at least not after he’d garnered them all. The thing he liked about it, it was a game ... although this one, he noted, was a poor excuse, with “no emotion, no energy, no continuity, no connection, no motivation, no youth, no dignity....

“It’s one game but if this is any indication of how the next 14 are going to be, good Lord, I need to go home quick.”

He also said of his teammates, “Nobody has won anything and yet they want big dollars, that’s not going to fly with me,” sounding as if he was back to thinking like team president again.

The next game, they found a new, inglorious way to lose, leading by 14 in the third quarter before the Warriors brushed them aside in the fourth, 113-107.

Then they won in Portland and Seattle because, as much as anything, Jordan willed it.

Take a last look. The expectations aren’t always realistic, the drill isn’t always fun (cocooning their leader, the Wizards trampled NBA rules regarding press obligations) and the icon isn’t the same, but the passion is.

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Local Jordan

*--* Michael Jordan’s career numbers in games played in the Southland: BY SITE G Reb Ast Pts Forum * 14 88 102 425 Avgs 6.3 7.3 30.4 Sports Arena 10 71 46 307 Avgs 7.1 4.6 30.7 Arrowhead Pond 1 11 5 37 Avgs 11.0 5.0 37.0 Staples Center 3 11 22 68 Avgs 3.7 7.3 22.7

BY OPPONENT Lakers * 16 93 112 470 Avgs 5.8 7.0 29.4 Clippers 12 88 63 367 Avgs 7.3 5.3 30.6 * includes three playoff games Note: Jordan’s teams are 7-9 against the Lakers and 10-2 against the Clippers in Southern California

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