cute
10-02-2001, 02:04 PM
Jordan's return a tough pill to swallow for Chicagoans
October 2, 2001 Print it
This is worse than Ditka with the Saints. This is worse than that building in Malaysia, you know, the one slightly taller than the Sears Tower. This is worse than the Black Sox and 1919, worse than the Cubs and 1908, worse than the Blackhawks and whenever it was they last won the Stanley Cup, back when there were something like six NHL teams and Lord Stanley personally delivered the cup to the victors.
In a town that primps its image like an eighth-grader primps his hair before his first dance, this is as bad as it gets.
Michael Jordan is back, playing basketball. For the Washington Wizards. As one agent says, "This is great news for the entire league, the entire country, really. I mean, unless you live in Chicago."
There are many reasons why this does not sit well with the sports-loving public in Chicago. For one thing, Jordan once promised he never would play for any team but the Bulls, never in any city but Chicago. He once said, "The appropriate time to leave is when people still consider you can play the game of basketball and they don't see some of the skills erode so quickly."
He had retired a Bull, his skills at their peak. Surely he would not want to change that.
But here is Jordan, zipping faxes around willy-nilly, announcing his return, obviously impervious to the psychological damage he is causing in the City of Shrugged Shoulders. To understand why this is such bad news, understand that Jordan was the center of Chicago's self-image in the 1990s.
How are folks in the Winded City supposed to react to watching him wear No. 23 in the goofy blue-and-black of the Wizards, trying to create shots off screens set by the likes of Popeye Jones and Christian Laettner?
As Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti wrote, "He changed our worldwide image from an Al Capone gangster hangout to a haven of titles and fun. . . .If Chicagoans weren't particularly bothered by his 21-month stint as an executive, you should be stunned and disgusted that he will resume his playing career with another team."
"There is a sense of betrayal here," says Chicago Tribune veteran basketball writer Sam Smith. "Chicagoans like to make athletes their own. It's a big city, but it's a very provincial big city, a very parochial big city. There is a sense of, if you're not with us, you're against us."
Of course, the Bulls are not making this any easier. This is a team that has won 45 games in the three years since Jordan retired. In 1997-98, Jordan's final season, the Bulls had 45 wins by the first week of March.
Worse, the Bulls do not seem to be building toward anything, having finished last season as the NBA's worst team and having traded their best player, Elton Brand, for a recent high school graduate.
That's the worst part about not having Jordan in a Chicago uniform -- that the current Bulls are in Bulls uniforms.
Far from being a source of pride, the Bulls are an embarrassment, a team whose ticket advertising campaign includes the hook, "They never give up." Neither do ants, beavers or bald spots, but do you really want to pay $100 to watch them?
Consider the starting lineup for this year's incarnation of the Bulls: Greg Anthony as point guard; Ron Mercer as shooting guard; Eddie Robinson as small forward; Charles Oakley as power forward; and Brad Miller as center.
It's a different group than last year's, but it's a group whose 15-win destiny seems frustratingly unchanged.
Jordan is not signing on with championship contenders, either. It might not be so bad for Bulls fans if they could take comfort in knowing that Jordan was going to a winning situation. But the Wizards, with 19 wins, gave the Bulls a run for league's worst status last season. And they're going to outdo the Bulls again this year.
"That makes it harder, I think," Smith says. "In Chicago, there is an image of him as the ultimate winner, just completely driven by winning, and he is coming back to a very, very bad team. That leaves a bad taste with everyone."
A bad team, true. But not the worst.
October 2, 2001 Print it
This is worse than Ditka with the Saints. This is worse than that building in Malaysia, you know, the one slightly taller than the Sears Tower. This is worse than the Black Sox and 1919, worse than the Cubs and 1908, worse than the Blackhawks and whenever it was they last won the Stanley Cup, back when there were something like six NHL teams and Lord Stanley personally delivered the cup to the victors.
In a town that primps its image like an eighth-grader primps his hair before his first dance, this is as bad as it gets.
Michael Jordan is back, playing basketball. For the Washington Wizards. As one agent says, "This is great news for the entire league, the entire country, really. I mean, unless you live in Chicago."
There are many reasons why this does not sit well with the sports-loving public in Chicago. For one thing, Jordan once promised he never would play for any team but the Bulls, never in any city but Chicago. He once said, "The appropriate time to leave is when people still consider you can play the game of basketball and they don't see some of the skills erode so quickly."
He had retired a Bull, his skills at their peak. Surely he would not want to change that.
But here is Jordan, zipping faxes around willy-nilly, announcing his return, obviously impervious to the psychological damage he is causing in the City of Shrugged Shoulders. To understand why this is such bad news, understand that Jordan was the center of Chicago's self-image in the 1990s.
How are folks in the Winded City supposed to react to watching him wear No. 23 in the goofy blue-and-black of the Wizards, trying to create shots off screens set by the likes of Popeye Jones and Christian Laettner?
As Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti wrote, "He changed our worldwide image from an Al Capone gangster hangout to a haven of titles and fun. . . .If Chicagoans weren't particularly bothered by his 21-month stint as an executive, you should be stunned and disgusted that he will resume his playing career with another team."
"There is a sense of betrayal here," says Chicago Tribune veteran basketball writer Sam Smith. "Chicagoans like to make athletes their own. It's a big city, but it's a very provincial big city, a very parochial big city. There is a sense of, if you're not with us, you're against us."
Of course, the Bulls are not making this any easier. This is a team that has won 45 games in the three years since Jordan retired. In 1997-98, Jordan's final season, the Bulls had 45 wins by the first week of March.
Worse, the Bulls do not seem to be building toward anything, having finished last season as the NBA's worst team and having traded their best player, Elton Brand, for a recent high school graduate.
That's the worst part about not having Jordan in a Chicago uniform -- that the current Bulls are in Bulls uniforms.
Far from being a source of pride, the Bulls are an embarrassment, a team whose ticket advertising campaign includes the hook, "They never give up." Neither do ants, beavers or bald spots, but do you really want to pay $100 to watch them?
Consider the starting lineup for this year's incarnation of the Bulls: Greg Anthony as point guard; Ron Mercer as shooting guard; Eddie Robinson as small forward; Charles Oakley as power forward; and Brad Miller as center.
It's a different group than last year's, but it's a group whose 15-win destiny seems frustratingly unchanged.
Jordan is not signing on with championship contenders, either. It might not be so bad for Bulls fans if they could take comfort in knowing that Jordan was going to a winning situation. But the Wizards, with 19 wins, gave the Bulls a run for league's worst status last season. And they're going to outdo the Bulls again this year.
"That makes it harder, I think," Smith says. "In Chicago, there is an image of him as the ultimate winner, just completely driven by winning, and he is coming back to a very, very bad team. That leaves a bad taste with everyone."
A bad team, true. But not the worst.