Jordan lifts Wizards and his M.V.P. bid

This article is published on January 13, ’01 by Mike Wise on www.nytimes.com

Unthinkable and even provincial a few months ago, the subject must now be broached without laughing: Michael Jordan for most valuable player.

The season is two weeks from its midway point, and the Washington Wizards (18–16) are on track to make the Eastern Conference playoffs. A team that won 19 games last season could eclipse that total this week.

Jordan’s comeback was not just about the selfish pursuit of a 38-year-old former athlete, after all.

Who else besides Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett has been more important to his team? O’Neal and Chris Webber have been injured, and neither Tracy McGrady nor Vince Carter has elevated his team to the top of the Eastern Conference. Allen Iverson, the reigning M.V.P., is muddling through a disappointing season in Philadelphia.

Jordan, who has won five M.V.P. awards, is not in the running because of his numbers, which are All-Star caliber (24.2 points a game before last night’s loss to Minnesota in which he scored 35) but not quite M.V.P. worthy. His recent back-to-back outbursts of 51 and 45 points have little to do with why he is a genuine candidate. Along with that surreal two-handed block of Ron Mercer 9 days ago, those were merely blasts from the past.

Jordan is an M.V.P. candidate because he did the improbable again: he got his teammates, the once-woeful Wizards, to believe in themselves.

Last week, in talking about the adjustment he had to make because of a kidney disorder, Miami’s Alonzo Mourning used Jordan as an example of someone who has used other parts of his game to compensate for his diminishing athleticism.

“Every player reaches a point in their career where their game starts to decline,”

Mourning said.

“Some earlier than others. Look at Michael. He’s 38. He’s not averaging 30-something points a game like he used to. He’s in the low 20’s now. Is he still effective? Yeah, he’s very effective. Is he the old Michael? Hell no. Far from it, even with those 50-point games now and then. I played against the old Michael. I’ve seen him at that level. But he’s made the adjustment. He’s learned to cope with his body playing at a certain level and not expecting to play at the old level. He’s raised his game in other areas.”

When asked whom he would vote for at this point in the season, Geoff Petrie, the general manager of the Sacramento Kings, replied:

“I’d say Shaq and Kobe, who are almost indistinguishable because both are so good. Then Kidd, Duncan and maybe Garnett. But if the Wizards keep going the way they are, Michael would have to have a shot.”

Petrie added:

“There is another reservoir of talent there. He’s so driven. I was reading something Grant Hill said recently, about the fact that it’s so easy to get caught up in Jordan’s athleticism. The level of athleticism has dropped, but the skill level is so high.

Jordan’s most skillful play of the season came after he called out his teammates during Washington’s slide to start the season. In late November, he said,

“We stink.”

What could have been an ugly moment for the franchise instead inspired the Wizards the next month and a half.

It is still early. But if the Wizards make the playoffs, will the sentiment run so high for Jordan that candidates like Bryant and Kidd, who may be more deserving, will be spurned by the voting members of the news media?

Either way, what would an NBA season be without another Jordan conspiracy theory?

Mourning Longs for a Title

Alonzo Mourning was back to his intimidating self last Tuesday at the Meadowlands, scoring a season-high 26 points in Miami’s 104–95 loss to the Nets. Despite a kidney disorder that decreases his stamina, he played the villain to the hilt, elbows out under the basket, ferocious dunks over the defense, even the cold stare toward the opposing bench. Perfect.

It was hard to reconcile that Mourning with the candid, reflective player who spoke the afternoon before the game.

“In a way, me being the quote ‘franchise player’ of this team, all the years we haven’t made it, I feel like I’ve let the organization down,”

Mourning said.

“Regardless of the preliminary accomplishments, regardless of what my play has been, I feel there were other things I could have done for us to be successful.”

“Even the losses against the Knicks,”

Mourning added, referring to the consecutive playoff losses from ’98 to ’00.

“I feel if we could have broke through those series, we would have been in the finals. I still think about if I could have stayed out of a fight, made these free throws, got that last rebound, we could have done it.”

Asked why he is still playing despite long-term health concerns, Mourning replied:

“I love this game and I’ve got everything I wanted out of this game I could get except a championship. I’m not playing this game for money. I know there’s a possibility left for us to make it to the finals.”

This year?

“This year,”

he said, almost oblivious to his team’s 8–26 record.

“I think there’s a possibility.”

Around the League

Pacers Coach Isiah Thomas and Jalen Rose are feuding, mostly because Thomas wants Rose to think less about how many shots he gets and more about making plays in Indiana’s up-tempo offense. Rose, meanwhile, wishes Thomas would stop playing with his confidence by sitting him down for long stretches and just let him adapt on his own.

This would be a big story if the two harbored ill feelings toward each other for more than a few weeks. But more likely it’s the tale of two headstrong men who see Rose’s emerging role as the Pacers’ slashing guard differently.

After all, it was only a couple of weeks ago that Rose held Michael Jordan to a career-low 6 points while scoring 28 points in a Pacers victory. And, let’s be honest, lots of coaches and players on every team in the league go through this passive-aggressive routine a few times a season. Whether it’s Shaquille O’Neal versus Phil Jackson, Allen Iverson versus Larry Brown or Gary Payton versus whoever, the ego clashes are part of the landscape. Hardly, if ever, does it directly result in a trade.

Especially for a player who can score 38 points in a game, as Rose did when he matched his total for the previous four games in Friday night’s 97–90 victory over Chicago.

Donnie Walsh, Indiana’s team president, scoffed at the notion that Rose was on the block.

“No, and he never has been,”

Walsh said by telephone on Friday.

Will Payton, the mercurial point guard, ever make it out of Seattle? Payton’s potentially moving on is always a hot bit of gossip, but the SuperSonics appear content to hold on to him at least until the off-season. Forward Vin Baker is much more likely to be dealt by the Feb. 21 trading deadline. Either that or Payton and the Sonics are trying to drive up his market value before a deal is made.

It has been a rumor for a few weeks, but it’s a bad one. There are no Rasheed Wallace for Latrell Sprewell talks. Believe it or not, Bob Whitsitt, the Trail Blazers’ president, is looking for younger players and staying away from veterans with expensive multiyear contracts. Wallace for Sprewell made sense for one team.

“Bob’s kind of nuts, but even with Rasheed’s problems, I don’t see him trading a 26-year-old power forward in his prime for an aging 2-guard,”

one Western Conference general manager said on condition of anonymity.

You want to play fantasy G.M.? Here are the teams that have all the ingredients to do something big before the trading deadline: the Knicks, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland and Golden State. They’re all going nowhere quickly, have too many players for the same positions and need to do something to salvage their seasons and perhaps their futures.

While Wallace, Stephon Marbury, Allen Iverson, Allan Houston and Alonzo Mourning are nearly untouchable for different reasons, players like Sprewell, Golden State’s Marc Jackson, Miami’s Brian Grant and Phoenix’s Penny Hardaway could end up on different rosters by late February.

After Madison Square Garden promoted 70’s Night at the Celtics-Knicks game Jan. 5, several alert readers telephoned in suggestions for other hokey promotional evenings at the self-proclaimed World’s Most Famous Arena. The unofficial winner is Meaningless Basketball Night. This would feature Knicks from the early ’80’s, like Rory Sparrow, Ken (The Animal) Bannister, Sly Williams and Louis Orr. Bob Hill would coach one team, Hubie Brown the other, and the winner gets lunch with Pat Riley.