Let's clear the Air

Debate over Jordan starting the All-Star Game was lame

It's true that February is a slow sports month. The Super Bowl is in the rear view mirror, Opening Day is weeks away, and basketball and hockey players are slogging through their interminable regular seasons. But people, surely we could have spent the last few days talking about something more compelling than whether Michael Jordan should start in the NBA All-Star Game.

Even here at The Hot Button, where we love a debate so much we could give you 600 passionate words on "paper or plastic" if you asked, it was hard to get worked up over the Jordan affair. With all due respect to His Airness, the only appropriate response to the issue of whether an Eastern Conference starter should have given up his spot to Jordan was a resounding, "Who Cares?" Personally, I was less interested in whether Jordan would be on the floor at tipoff than I was in why Gladys Knight was Pip-less while singing Midnight Train to Georgia during the pregame ceremonies.

We all knew that the All-Star Game was going to be an MJ love-in, and that's exactly what it turned out to be. If Vince Carter hadn't finally given in to peer pressure (you don't think he just had a sudden change of heart, do you?) and relinquished his starting spot, Jordan still would have been given every opportunity to go out in style in (supposedly) his last All-Star Game. But Michael did get the chance to start, and he nearly made the most of it with an impossible, rainbow fallaway that would have been the game-winner for the East if Jermaine O'Neal hadn't committed a foul so foolish it would have gotten my 11-year-old benched.

Jordan, as usual, was the smartest man in the room on the starting issue. He knew what too many athletes tend to forget -- that in any game, even an All-Star exhibition -- the important thing is not who starts, it's who finishes, and he was going to get as many crunch-time minutes as he wanted. He didn't want anyone handing him a starting spot, even if it's out of respect, and anyone who has spent two minutes around him should have known he'd feel that way. Jordan is the guy on the playground who starts every one-on-one game by insisting that you take it out. He doesn't want the ball unless he earns it.

Jordan probably also realized he has retired or nearly retired so often that ceremonial goodbyes somehow don't seem appropriate anymore. It's like when your buddy gets married for the third time -- you're still happy for him, but you're not going to spend as much on the gift.

Maybe the most significant aspect of the entire episode is that the fans didn't vote Jordan into the starting lineup. That's an indication that the public has moved on, that they don't live and breathe Michael anymore. This is a good thing for the league. Even if a new Michael hasn't emerged yet, the first step toward a positive future for the NBA is for fans to break their bond with the old one. As much as the public loves Jordan, they realize he's not the walking highlight film he once was. There are other players the fans would rather see, and there's no reason for the league to fight that.

Carter is one of the stars the fans want to see, at least for now. Even though he finally gave up his spot to Jordan, Carter comes off as more than a little self-centered in all this. The mixed reception he received during introductions made it seem as if the 2000 All-Star Weekend, which was essentially his coming-out party, was a thousand years ago. His star has fallen at warp speed over the last two years, the same way Penny Hardaway's once did. If Carter's not careful, he could find that the public only had a case of temporary Vin-sanity. Carter, of course, should never have had a starting spot in the first place, since injuries have kept him on the sidelines most of the season. That travesty and others like it could easily be avoided if the NBA and other leagues would adopt what should be a universal rule -- anyone who hasn't played in at least half his team's regular season games is ineligible to start in that year's All-Star Game.

But for now, we can just be thankful that Jordan's "to-start-or-not-to-start" dilemma is behind us -- at least until next year, when he makes his next "final" All-Star appearance.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor writes about a Hot Button issue every Monday on SI.com.

 

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