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Dear Mr. Jordan...
Updated: Wednesday August 29, 2001 12:37 PM
An open letter to Michael Jordan: Don't do it, Mike. Don't go through with this comeback thing. We know you love challenges, and playing the game makes you happier than anything else in the world. We also don't doubt for a minute that you'd still be one of the better players even at age 38. But as a hoops fan and Jordanphile of the first order (I even named my dog after you; he loves to jump and his tongue's always hanging out), I implore you to add a new twist to that old Nike motto and Just Don't Do It. Stick to pick-up ball. Keep working on your short game. Do another MCI commercial. Find more ways to clear cap room. Better yet, spend even more time with your kids. Or use your charisma and standing to embrace a social cause. Check out the working conditions at all those overseas Nike factories, like you once promised you would. Whatever you do, don't waste your time chasing past glories. If you come back in a Wizards uniform, all you're going to get is a lot of frustration. You thought Will Perdue was bad? Jahidi White ain't exactly Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Meanwhile, Gen X is out there waiting to hang your scalp on its baggy shorts. Remember all those cocky young punks who dared to get up in your grill all those years you were playing? Gary Payton, Mark Jackson, Vernon Maxwell, Gerald Wilkins, John Starks? You shut 'em all up. This time it won't be so easy. Oh, they'll be civil at first. You are, after all, the Greatest Player Who Ever Lived. Even the most obnoxious Gen X-er will treat you with respect and say the right things. For the first month or so. After that it will be open season. Guys will start mugging for the camera, sticking their tongues out in mockery and dancing like N'Sync every time they block your shot or strip your dribble. Your mistakes will be fodder each night on SportsCenter. I know, it's not for us to decide what makes you happy. You didn't play all those years for the stats or the money or the prestige, but rather for the challenge and the thrill of competition. History, we know, is for the media, fans and other people who don't have fadeaway jumpers. Were it any other player in any other sport, we would wholeheartedly agree. An athlete shouldn't stop playing simply because of what others might say about him. Does anyone care that Babe Ruth hit .181 in his final season in the big leagues? Or that Muhammad Ali lost his final bout to Trevor Berbick? But you're unique, Mike. Your competitiveness is so great, it will kill you to not be in complete control. Meanwhile your legacy is so pristine, your ending so storybook, it begs to be protected. Prove you can be as good a GM as you were a player. Or move on to some bigger and better project. Just let go of this whole comeback idea. After all, you've got the world in the palm of your hand. Why put it down for a basketball?
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