A One-Man Team Won’t Go Too Far

“They ain’t passing out championship rings this early in the season, are they?”

--Ron Harper

Don’t buy it.

Michael Jordan is still the best player in the world. But on Friday, the Chicago Bulls were barely the best team in the Sports Arena.

The Clippers fought harder, hustled longer, and did more with less during a 111-102 loss in double overtime.

Don’t buy it.

The Bulls did nothing Friday to indicate this will be a championship team even with the return of injured Scottie Pippen.

Right now, it is Jordan and four guys who look lost.

In January, it will be Jordan and Pippen and three guys who look lost.

A team suddenly hampered by age and mediocrity won its first road game of the season the same way it won its first six games of the season:

By hanging on to Jordan so long and so hard, he is lucky the NBA does not fine him for having shorts that go below the knees.

Jordan sent the game to overtime.

Jordan sent the game to double overtime.

Jordan won the game in double overtime literally by himself.

And that was all well and good and spectacular for one night against a team with one win.

But what happens when they have to play seven games against a team like the one that resides right down the street?

“Don’t believe the hype,” Harper said about the Lakers. “They are all hype.”

That noise you heard from the Sports Arena on Friday was the empty sounds of those desperately trying to convince themselves.

This is a marathon, not a sprint, and a lot of people are going to be dropping out of the race before it is a race.

--Luc Longley

The Bulls sprinted, all right. They fell behind by 18 points to the Clippers early in the second quarter while shooting below 30%.

The Clippers did enough things right in the first half--actually, in every period but the second overtime--to make them think they can actually win a game against a team lacking the best player in the world.

Bill Fitch said Friday afternoon that his 1-10 team was in a quandary unequaled in his coaching career.

“Even if we were playing Little Sisters of the Poor tonight, we could hang our hats on a win,” he said.

They could certainly hang their futures on this one.

Lamond Murray, their best player this year, was fearless whether he was 18 feet from the rim or underneath it.

Maurice Taylor, a 6-foot-9 rookie, was unafraid of the backboard or the Bulls 7-footers.

Lorenzen Wright bounced around the middle so smoothly that his first start at center should not be his last.

None of which mattered when the game is played by The Great One.

You thought you might not have to write that this time, but you do.

You thought Jordan was getting old and tired, but you were wrong.

By the end of the night, he was waving his teammates away and making breathtaking solo magic, the best example of this being a 15-footer over Brent Barry that gave the Bulls a one-point lead just before the end of regulation.

That came as the entertainment people at the Sports Arena were playing the theme from “Jaws” over the loudspeaker.

Why, with Jordan going one-on-one against Barry, would they ever do a thing like that?

But only Jordan, it seems, could use a quick step and a short jumper to proved perfect accompaniment to that music.

“Catch us in June, see how old we are then. All these streaky teams, we’ll see you in June.”

--Harper

It is different now.

In past years in this town, the Bulls cavorted around their locker room as if waiting for a party.

Friday night, it was as if they were waiting for the dentist.

In past years in this town, Jordan would appear in front of his locker long before the game, smiling and joking with teammates and the media.

Fifty minutes before Friday’s game, he was sitting in the trainer’s room, still dressed in shirt and tie, talking on a cellular phone.

Injured Pippen was walking around in a suit and horn-rimmed glasses. Injured Steve Kerr was reading a book.

The rest of the team was either invisible--Rusty Larue?--or talking smack.

The last two years were easy years. When we get through all the tough times and are still playing in the championship . . . it will mean more.”

--Harper

And what about those Clippers?

They will get better when one thing happens:

They stop missing Bo Outlaw.

His versatility and spark saved many a game during their fun run last spring. His defection to Orlando hurts them defensively every night.

“He was a coach’s player,” Fitch said.

The Clippers need another one--and no, it’s not yet Barry.

Yet Friday, they were better than any of the Bulls . . . save one.

‘We’ll see you in June.”

--Harper

The heck you will.