Following on from yesterday's story about Jordan's status for next season, Jordan yesterday hinted that retirement is certainly an option, and if he feels then how he does not he would not hesitate at giving the game up for a third time.

"I think I've been saying all along that physically if I'm not capable of playing next season, why would I play?" Jordan said. "Based on what Doug's seen of what I've been going through as of late, obviously he gave his opinion about it. I'm not mad at him. That's his observation, and as a coach you have observations like that."

"That would be my observation too. If I felt this way, I would be totally surprised if I'm trying to play next year."

He signed a two year contract last September after much debate over his future, and while he is not even through his comeback season and we are already re-asking the same old question.. will Michael Jordan play in the NBA next season?

If you ask his coach Doug Colins what he thinks Jordan's response might be right now and he'd say no.  But ever since Jordan signed the two year contract he has maintained his desire to fulfil his obligations, but this offseason more than any other his decision might be dependant on the wear and tear on his body.  For this reason Collins states that he'd be 'suprised' if Jordan played next season.

"I'd be surprised next year if he did play," Collins said. "[This] could be [his final season]; I don't know. I just think the wear and tear . . . I'm not saying he's not going to play but right now it's up in the air."

A Wizards team official said that Collins was simply stating his opinion because not even Jordan knows what he is going to do yet.  One thing is for certain, Jordan will be letting the Wizards know much sooner what he plans on doing so they can build their team accordingly.  While last year the Wizards had to go through the draft then free agency with the status of Jordan up in the air, this time round Jordan plans on letting the organization know before the draft in June.  Steve Wyche of the Washington Post reports that as recent as last Wednesday Jordan said he planned to play next season unless he had a physical setback.

"My contract is two years," Jordan said in January. "Obviously, the way I feel and with all I have to deal with -- all the different [health] problems -- it's a different thought process at the end of the year."

"We'll sit down and talk after the season," Collins said. "Last year, we did not know he was going to play until after the draft and all. This year he said we'd know what he's going to do before the draft so we can move forward with what we have to do."

"I don't think there's any assurances how he's going to be able to play next year and go through a full 82-game season. Michael's got great pride. He doesn't want to come back next year and be injured and go through the season where he's on the injured list."

In other Wizards news the team current sits 2 1/2 game out of the final playoff place with only 11 games to go.  Collins said that Jordan's knee is roughly 65% healed from the surgery but he wanted to come back and play to help will the team to a playoff berth.  Playing around 20 minutes a game off the bench for the Wizards, Collins said he simply is not ready for more.

"He's not ready to play more minutes," Collins said. "The knee is still bothering him. He doesn't have the strength in that leg back yet. I'm concerned about that. I don't want to play him and then his knee gets swollen. At the same time he wants to play and also he's got to play enough to be able to get himself in some condition. It's sort of a Catch-22."

Kyle Ringo writes an article on Juwan Howard and the response he received from the Washington fans.

Ringo writes:
"Howard is the fourth-highest paid player in the league this season, making $18.75 million. When he was with the Wizards, many felt he wasn't worth the money he made."

In last nights game he had 7 turnovers and wasn't worth his salary.

He expected the boo's and still likes D.C., it was where he was drafted and played 6.5 years.

Nuggets lose to the Wizards 103-87.  Denver turned the ball over 23 times and were never really in the game.  Down by 20 points at half time, the most interesting subplot was Michael Jordan talking trash with Voshon Lenard.

Lenard blocked Jordan's shot in the first quarter, and the two traded words the rest of the game.

It was Jordan's first home game back from the knee injury.  It was also Juwan Howard's first game back in Washington after playing there for 7 years.  He was booed in his return, and withh 7 turnovers it was probably deserved.

Dallas should win all 4 games against slumping opponents, Finley says

03/26/2002

By GERRY FRALEY / The Dallas Morning News

March in the East is an unappealing prospect for every traveler but the Mavericks.

? Notebook

? Mavericks-Bucks preview  
They begin an oddly structured four-game trip Tuesday night at Milwaukee. The trip includes three games against clubs from the Eastern Conference.
Extended play outside the home conference is rare at this time of the NBA season. For the Mavericks, it could be a blessing in their race for a choice spot in the West playoff ladder.

The East is a lesser conference than the West. The Mavericks get the extra break of catching four clubs, including Minnesota from the West, mired in deep slumps.

The potential benefits far outweigh the possible pitfalls for the Mavericks on this trip.

"All of these teams are striving for the playoffs, but they are four winnable games," Michael Finley said. "We should come home with all four."

The stop-by-stop breakdown:

? Milwaukee cannot pull out of a lengthy free fall. The no-defense Bucks have lost 18 of their last 29 games, and several vital players are ailing. Ray Allen (knee) and Glenn Robinson (tailbone) are expected to play against the Mavericks at less than full speed. Tim Thomas (knee) could return after a six-game absence.

? Once a Midwest Division contender, Minnesota is 3-9 in March and has lost 17 of its last 29 games. Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders complains about his club taking too many jump shots.

? Boston had a seven-game win streak this month. All that did was give the Celtics a losing record (13-14) for their last 27 games. Coach Jim O'Brien sees defensive "slippage," which prevents the Celtics from getting easy baskets.

? A Valentine's Day victory put Washington four games over .500. The Bullets are 5-15 since, and Michael Jordan is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in his career.

The Mavericks, who have the league's best road record at 21-11, see the possibility for a knockout trip. With so much at stake, general manager-coach Don Nelson wants to avoid the feeling these games are as much a lock as the victory Saturday against lowly Memphis.

"You can't let your guard down," Nelson said. "The worse the team, the more pressure I put on myself to make sure we win those games. The better the team, the more pressure there is to beat them.

"You can't get rid of pressure."

There are potential trouble spots for the Mavericks.

They have lost 12 consecutive games in Milwaukee. They have the dreaded back-to-back of Minnesota on Thursday and Boston on Friday, with a lengthy airplane flight in between.

The pressing problem will be a lack of familiarity.

Most West teams have put away their East scouting reports by now. The Mavericks have played 17 of their last 20 games in the West. They know the West. They step into a dark room when it comes to playing the East at this time of the season.

"There is a possibility of error," Steve Nash said. "But it still gets down to playing basketball."

The Mavericks have done that far better than the teams that await them on this trip.

Denver takes on Washington tonight at the MCI Center.  The Nuggets have won 3 of the last 4 games vs. the Wizards in the nation's capital.

McDyess, Posey, Hardaway, and Williams are all still injured.

The Wizards have a 3 game road losing streak, and Michael Jordan makes his first return to Washington since his coming back from a knee injury.

After showing the heart of a true fighter to come back from their horrific start to the season, the Miami Heat seem to have fallen back into old habits.  The Heat, who lost to Boston last night despite holding both Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce to under 20 points, have now lost three straight and its fifth and seven games.

''I still believe in them,'' Heat coach Pat Riley said. ``It's a daunting, daunting task. You don't ever, ever, ever, count yourself out until the numbers say you're out. It's just going to get more and more difficult.''

The Heat fell to eleventh in the East, four games behind #8 Indiana and five behind #7 Charlotte.

"I never realized you were such a big Trent Tucker fan. You appear to have plagiarized his game since you came back," said New York writer Peter Vecsey.

"I never realized you were such a comedian," Jordan responded.

But is Vescey right?  In his latest column in the New York Post Vescey pointed out that Jordan shot 16 jumpers out of his 17 attempts in the Wizards loss to the Raptors on Sunday, and that he has been resorting to his jumper more and more this season.  The result has been the lack of free throw attempts Jordan has received this year, including only two against the Raptors.

This was bound to happen with age, something that Jordan himself seems to have both recognised and accepted, but with the understanding he has of the game of basketball he has been able to adapt and still keep his game on a high and effective level.

But the bad news about Jordan's explosiveness abandoning him may be that, if the final possession of the Raptors encounter is anything to go by, the referees have begun to abandon myth.  As Vescey states any superstar will tell you, there's no coming back, no way to overcompensate for losing the refs' respect.

What Vescey is referring to is the no call when Jerome Williams appeared to make contact with Jordan after MJ grabbed a defensive rebound then who spun around right into Antonio Davis.  In the past this was an automatic call in Jordan's favor, with Williams himself stating that a foul could have been called in that situation, but is the tide changing?

"Yeah, I got ripped off," Jordan stated. "Yeah, I got fouled . . . all over my body . . . Yeah, I had plenty to say to the refs."

But down by one after the above incident Jordan also had a chance to redeem himself.  It was, as we have all come to know, 'Jordan Time'.  The game was on the line, his team had the ball, and this was to be the last shot of the game.  

But as Vescey so elegantly put it 'Jerome Williams guarded him so tight, Ahmad Rashad and Charles Barkley got jealous'.  Jordan went to his spot at the top of the key, stopped short as he likes to so, but Williams had stopped short as well.  The pump fake was thrown, but Williams didn't bite.  Jordan had no choice but to heive the ball up there and prey for a miracle that wasn't to be answered.

'A couple hours later, I observed Jordan and the rest of the Wizards going through customs on the way to their charter. Got stopped there, too, by some middle-aged guy who didn't appear to be in the best of shape, despite some picks set his body guard,' wrote Vescey.

'There's no fighting it; this is what happens when you become just another jump shooter.'

How important was last night's game between the Raptors and the Wizards to both teams, and more importantly how important was the result?  Michael Jordan was unable to hit the game winner as time expired, giving the Raptors a 92-91 victory and tied the two teams at 32-38.  Both teams are in a fight to make the playoffs with Miami, both the Raptors and Wizards 3 1/2 games behind Indiana for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference.  Miami plays today and have a chance to move to 32-27, good enough for ninth in the East, with a win over Boston.

But should the game between the Raptors and the Wizards even come down to Jordan's last shot?  According to Washington coach Doug Collins and Jordan himself MJ was fouled on the steal which lead to the Raptors taking the lead by one with 16 seconds left in the game, but there was no call.

"It couldn't have been more obvious," Jordan said about the contact, adding that he had been hit on "the head, the forearm, everywhere. The referee is sitting right there. Obviously, when there's a big call like that, they don't want to make a mistake with it. But I'm pretty sure if the whistle blew, the people would have realized it wasn't a mistake."

Jordan finished with 14 points, his highest since coming back from the knee surgery, on 6-of-17 shooting.

Once again, Michael Jordan has come and gone.
   
But Bryon Russell expects Utahns to see him again.
   
After the Jazz's 94-79 win over the Washington Wizards on Thursday night at the Delta Center, Russell seemed convinced the 39-year-old Jordan will play next season.
   
"He's maybe a step slower," Russell said, "which I'm sure he'll correct over the summer. So he'll be back."
   
In only his second game after knee surgery on Feb. 27, Jordan scored 11 points in 22 minutes. Still, it wasn't enough to prevent the Wizards (32-37) from taking a step backward in their quest to reach the playoffs.
   
"I give Michael a lot of credit," John Stockton said. "He's trying to help his team get to the playoffs."
   
The game matched three of the NBA's elder statesmen -- Jordan, Stockton and Karl Malone. Stockton turns 40 on Tuesday and Malone turns 39 in July.
   
Malone led the Jazz with 23 points. Stockton added 19 points and seven assists.
   
"We know how to play the game," Jordan said. "We might not be as versatile or athletic as we once were, but the mind is very strong, and the know-how gives us the same kind of competitive advantage that we had when we had the athleticism. [Stockton] is a great example of that, Karl is a great example, and I would like to think I am an example. . . . We are still having fun playing this game at a high level."