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Rating game Jordan ranks game a '7,' comeback odds '50-50'
Updated: Wednesday September 05, 2001 4:22 PM
The sleek red Ferrari sat idling in the parking lot, its powerful engine purring. Behind the wheel sat Michael Jordan, in a black No. 84 football jersey and a floppy hat, his hands on the steering wheel but his foot planted firmly on the brake. "I'm waiting for the light to go on," Jordan said with a slight smile. "I'm getting closer." Six months into workouts, Jordan insists he still hasn't made up his mind about whether or not to return to the NBA. While David Stern and hoops fans the world over breathlessly await his decision, His Airness says he's still trying to bring his game to a level where he feels comfortable and still sticking to his plan to wait until mid-September to make the call. "It's not automatic," he said. He said so Tuesday afternoon after another day of pickup games with NBA stars at a private Chicago gym. In his first in-depth comments in weeks, Jordan said he was mostly over the sore ribs and knee tendinitis that have plagued him in recent months. "The knee feels good," he said. "The tendinitis is gone." Still, he admitted he went winless in four games Tuesday against his new band of Space Jam buddies. Though he said he "can still shoot" the ball and "can still draw the double team," he indicated he wasn't yet dominating matchups like he once did. He said he'd put his chances on a comeback right now at "around 50-50" and graded his performance level as "a seven" on a scale of one to 10. While Jordan might not know yet whether he's coming back, few who have seen him walk out of the gym each day at 5 p.m., long after most of the other players have departed, would bet against it. Quite simply, he has invested too much now to let it go. He has spent too many hours pumping iron and shooting jumpers, too much energy testing himself against the likes of Michael Finley, Juwan Howard, Penny Hardaway and Antoine Walker to give up. On Tuesday, he even had NBA refs Dan Crawford, Marc Davis and Jim Capers brought in to officiate the games. True, there has been some hedging from the Jordan camp in recent days. His longtime trainer, Tim Grover, recently said he felt MJ's injuries might prevent him from being able to keep his timetable. A few unnamed practice observers chimed in to say Jordan had looked mortal in competition. Hardaway, however, says such reports are being overblown. "Whatever people are saying that's negative, it's not true," the Suns star said, adding that recent comments attributed to him about Jordan having lost a step were taken out of context. "At first he couldn't jump like he wanted to because of tendinitis. But now that his leg is better, he's looking like MJ again. "The thing about him is he changes the game to fit his style, not to fit today's basketball. He still posts up, he's still real smart with the basketball, he's still going to rebound. He's still going to be Michael. He can still take over a game." Jordan, meanwhile, is clearly enjoying the challenge -- as well as the attention. He seems to particularly relish the opportunity to prove wrong all those critics who say even he can't possibly raise Washington to playoff level next season. In a reminder that he still has a day job as GM, he noted that he had a $4.5 million midlevel exception available to free agents. Did he know John Stockton was still unsigned? What about Anthony Mason? Or even Dennis Rodman? Jordan just chuckled and nodded his head. He truly seems to believe a minor tweak here or there to the roster is all he would need, even if nobody else does. In more ways than one, Jordan has his hands on the wheel and his foot on the brake. Pretty soon we'll find out if he's ready to let it fly. "Two more weeks," he said, before jetting off in his Ferrari into the Chicago twilight. An anxious hoops world awaits. Marty Burns covers pro basketball for CNNSI.com.
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