Retired or just tired?

Sporting News, The, Oct 18, 1993 by Paul Attner

In retirement, Michael Jordan may find the challenge he needs: to reclaim his position as the best ever

For now, it is an unexpected and sad end to one of the greatest eras in sports. For now, Michael Jordan, the last of a trio who transformed the NBA into a worldwide celebration of athletic splendor, has terminated a career that simply was the most magnificent we've seen in his sport. But the lack of emotion he showed in announcing his decision to retire makes it seem more likely that he is taking a leave of absence.

His announcement last week was shocking because we have come to believe that no sports hero, particularly the most famous and best athlete in the world, quits while on top. It changed the NBA from a league in awe of his talents to one waiting eagerly for his return. Whether we've seen the last of Jordan will be determined in the next few months, when Mikey will find if he likes his newly imposed lifestyle away from the public glare.

The test win come when his resolve to retire is confronted by the competitive juices that pushed him so hard for so long. Those close to him describe a man who needed to back off from a caldron that was not allowing him to regroup and reenergize in the offseason. But they say even Jordan himself isn't sure if, at age 30, he truly wants to spend the rest of his life out of uniform.

That is why his closest adviser, David Falk, urged him to keep open his options in making his announcement. Jordan did not retire on a whim; the decision was made after a summer-long process in which he, his wife, Juanita, his family, and Falk debated his future. The discussions intensified after his father, James, was murdered on July 23 while sleeping in his car on a North Carolina roadside. But Jordan also showed hesitancy, admitting "I'm not going to close the door (to returning). I don't believe in never.... If I decide I want to play, maybe that's the challenge I'll need down the road."

Maybe he is also considering other options. In the news conference, he twice emphasized he was leaving "the NBA" but added at one point, "it doesn't mean I'm not going to play basketball somewhere else ... " Why? A source close to Jordan speculates that he could be contemplating the purchase of a team in a European league. Jordan could play when he wanted in a different environment.

"You look into his eyes and you see a man who is burned out," Bulls teammate Stacey King says. "He needs time away to be by himself. But I think he will come back. He's going to miss it, and one day he's going to want to play again."

But Jordan believed he would never know if this was the best course until he tried it. He had talked previously about leaving; his late father advised him to retire in 1991 after the Bulls won their first NBA title. Any doubts in his mind were doused when, as training camp approached, he didn't feel an adrenaline rush to prepare for a new season.

Now, says Falk, Jordan is a happy man, at peace with himself.

"It's understandable," says the NFL's Joe Montana, who can identify with Jordan's caldron. "Sometimes mentally, you say, |Golly, is this worth it anymore?' Many times you go through that. He just hit the wall where it got overpowering."

Over the last three years, Johnson (1991), Bird (1992) and Jordan have left the NBA, each departure draining glamour from this high-energy sport. Only Jordan departed by choice. Magic's career was short-circuited when he became HIV-positive. Bird's chronic back problems ended his career. That left us Jordan, who surely could have played another three or four years at a wondrous level. Now we may never find out. There are others remaining who will please us - Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, perhaps Alonzo Mourning - but they aren't Magic, Larry or Mike. Those three brought a special combination of elegance, fire and success. Jordan's exquisite ability to entertain and influence can't be replaced, at least for now.

The NBA tried to put the best spin possible on Jordan's exit. "We have a gaggle of stars still left," is how Commissioner David Stern terms it. But in the short run, his departure will be costly. Ratings for last spring's NBA Finals between Chicago and Phoenix were the highest ever. The league has a new, lucrative TV contract. Both NBC and TNT, the networks carrying NBA games, already had scheduled the maximum number possible of Bulls contests in anticipation of what could have been a blockbuster season. With the addition of Toni Kukoc, Europe's No. 1 player, the Bulls felt they had their most talented team ever. Four-word, and all the excitement such a title run would generate, was a serious possibility.

"The NBA has been hurt dramatically from a financial standpoint," says Michael Megna of Megna Evaluations, a company that appraises the value of professional sports franchises. "Arbitron ratings will be affected. Attendance will be affected, maybe by 10 percent, and that reduces concessions and parking income and all the rest. The NBA will get over it but for the short term, it'll mean more than Larry or Magic leaving. There is no one there to pick up the slack."