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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 2002)
Jordan’s shadows get longer with age Mitch Albom Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT) DETROIT — The toughest de fender Michael Jordan ever faced got up Wednesday morning and made breakfast for his son. Then he drove him to school. Then he went to the office, answered calls, did e-mail, and eventually, picked his son back up at school and helped him with his homework. Joe Dumars is a few months younger than Michael Jor dan. But he didn’t touch a basketball all day. He didn’t break a sweat until late afternoon, when he worked out on a Stairmaster, while watching CNN. In the evening, he put on a white cotton sweater and brown slacks, drove to the Palace, and spent the night in his suite, watching the game. Jordan, meanwhile, followed the same old NBA routine, just like teammates 20 years younger. He stayed at the team hotel, took the team bus to a morning shoot around, went back to the hotel, re turned on the team bus a few hours later. He dressed with the other Washington Wizards in the cramped visitors’ locker room. When he emerged on the court, the place was two-thirds empty. It was an exhibition game, meaning no body cared who won. Jordan was not a starter. He stood while his teammates were introduced. You wonder why he does it. You wonder how, approaching 40, this can possibly be worth it to the greatest player in history, these empty nights, devoid of glory, no longer the athlete he once was, no longer on a team that can win any thing that matters. “What would you be thinking,” Dumars was asked before the game, sitting in an office as Jordan dressed down the hall, “if you were in his po sition right now?” Dumars grimaced. “It would be hard to find any emotion to get up for the game.” He pursed his lips. “Extremely hard.” Once, Dumars was Jordan’s biggest nemesis. Their battles in the Eastern Conference Finals of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s were basketball purity, flash against fundamentals, swoop against stick. But Dumars retired several years ago, saying enough was enough. He had his rings. He had a family. He put on wire-rimmed glasses, be came the Pistons team president, and never played the game again, not even pick-up. “Right when Michael was first coming back, he called me and said, ‘Gome on, you and me, we can both do it,”’ Dumars recalled. What did you say? He laughed, and held out a straight arm. “I said, ‘Uh-uh. Uh-uh. Don’t even start.’” When Jordan entered the game Wednesday night, with 4:43 left in the first quarter, there was consider able applause, but not like last year, when he first came back after a two year absence. He blew a bubble with his pink chewing gum, as if to re mind us — or maybe himself—that a game can keep you young. And then he looked old. He tried backing in on 24 year-old Richard Hamilton and threw up a shot that hit the backboard. He tried an open three-pointer but clanged it off the rim. He threw the ball away. He yelled at younger teammates, in eluding Kwame Brown, who was in high school 18 months ago. He looked, at times, like an "exasperated camp counselor. This is not to say there isn’t still some Jordan in Jordan. He eventually hit one shot, and another. He grabbed rebounds. His instincts remain im peccable. His grace in simply running the court is worth the ticket. But there is less of him than there was before. The jumps are not daz zling. The quickness is only average. He can bury jumpers, but jumpers are like socks in a superstar’s suitcase. You wonder why he does it. When he returned to the bench, after 23 minutes and five baskets in 14 tries, he took a seat not far from Patrick Ewing, the former Knick who used to battle Jordan at Madison Square Garden. Ewing finally quit this sum mer. Now he wears a suit and sits on the Wizards bench, dry as talcum, while Jordan sweats. It’s as if Michael is trying to outlast everyone he ever played against. The other night, in Denver, the Nuggets, in an effort to boost their ticket sales, offered 8200,000 to the Wizards if Jordan would play in their exhibition game. It is the first time, I believe, that an NBA player has com manded an appearance fee. But in many ways, that is what Jordan’s career has come to. People pay to catch a glimpse. It is wonder ful for NBA marketers and wonderful for fathers who want to point Jordan out to their sons. But what is in it for him? Does he love it that much? Did he find “real” life so dull? Or does he, as some sus pect, truly believe he can muster enough to win another champi onship and shock everyone? After the game, Durnars drove him self home to his wife and kids, and Jordan got on another team bus, headed to the airport and another ho tel. He said, on his way out, that he never asks himself why he is here. He said he is “having fun.” He could have left at the top of his game. Now he bat tles, in half-empty arenas, to try and continue to cast a long shadow, in stead of becoming one. (c) 2002, Detroit Free Press. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. Troy continued from page 13 Polamalu is still on many nation al-award “watch” lists, despite miss ing the two Pac-10 games. He is on the short list for the Thorpe Award and the Bronco Nagurski award, both defensive awards given out at the end of the season. Polamalu has been one of the ma jor factors in USG’s defensive renais sance this season. The Trojans are ranked first in the Pac-10 in total defense, scoring defense and pass defense, and are third-best in the conference against the rush. USG is ranked 13th in the nation in total defense and 17th in scoring defense. In a conference often lambasted for its lack of tough “D,” the Tro jans are an exception to that rule. They allow only 286.1 yards per game on average, and only 185.9 passing yards per game in the air happy Pac-10. The Trojans still have some con ference offensive powerhouses re maining on its schedule, starting with Oregon on Saturday. USG also has Arizona State and UCLA re maining on its schedule. Oregon and Arizona State are ranked first and second, respectively, in Pac-10 scoring offense, averaging 38.1 and 36.3 points per game. “The conference is loaded with offense,” Carroll said. But Polamalu welcomes the chal lenge. His philosophy on football is similar to his philosophy on life. “Say it’s first and goal, we’re playing Notre Dame and we’re down by two points,” Polamalu said. “Someone needs to make a big play. I can tell myself in life, Adam Amato Emerald Troy Polamalu (43), seen here tracking down Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington last season, is on the short list for two national defensive awards. when my back is to the wall, I can pull myself up because I’ve been in a similar situation.” Polamalu’s work ethic and deter mination led him to a rare accom plishment: He was elected as USG team captain before the 2001 sea son, as a junior. “He is a team player, as shown by his desire and performance on special teams,” Carroll said. “He is also a humble, dedicated team leader who is respected greatly by his teammates.” When Polamalu leads his team mates into his home state on Satur day, they will need his leadership more than ever as they face a tough Oregon squad. They will need him to play tough football. They will need him to be a man of Troy. Contact the sports editor atpeterhockaday@dailyemerald.com. Sharks ‘Nab’ their star goalkeeper Victor Chi Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT) SAN JOSE, Calif. — Just a few hours after the Sharks had an nounced the signing of Evgeni Nabokov to a two-year contract Tues day worth $7.15 million, the fran chise goaltender was doing drills on the ice with mentor Warren Strelow. How soon will Nabokov be ready to play? After a 1-4 stumble in which they have yielded 22 goals, the Sharks hope it’s sooner rather than later as they begin a six-game trip Thursday in Nashville. “It’s really hard to say right now,” Nabokov said. “We have games every other day, so it all depends on how much ice time I can get. I think I’m in pretty good physical condition, so hopefully it will be pretty quick, but it’s hard to say.” Coach Darryl Sutter had planned to start goalie Miikka Kiprusoff against Nashville even before learn ing of Nabokov’s signing. The club sent goalie Vesa Toskala to the mi nors after Nabokov rejoined the fold. Nabokov set team records last sea son with 37 victories and seven shutouts. He also finished fourth in voting for the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie for the second season in a row. The new deal, which pays $3,525 million this season and $3,625 million next season, was a compromise. Nabokov, 27, got the shorter-term deal that he had sought. And the Sharks got him at a price consistent with what Nabokov could have gotten via arbitration, had he chosen to file. Citing their concern for a possible drop in the age for unrestricted free agency in a new collective bargain ing agreement after the 2003-04 sea son, the Sharks had pushed for a long-term deal because they wanted to secure one of the organization’s cornerstones. The ineffectiveness of Kiprusoff and Toskala was only part of the problem for the Sharks, but it was a glaring one as Nabokov was prepar ing a return to Russia. “Hey, who are we kidding here?” Lombardi said. “To say that the performance of the team does not factor into the urgency of your analysis is just not being truthful.... It heightened the urgency of it the way we’re struggling right now. But to be truthful, to pin this start all on the goaltending is not fair. And not accurate. “There are other issues that are reflective of this 1-4 start. To pin it on goaltending is way too simplistic. But of course you’re going to miss an athlete of that caliber.” Nabokov had not skated in more than two weeks before Tuesday, and he probably won’t get any ice time today because the team has an early flight. “But I worked out all the time, two to three hours a day,” he said. © 2002, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.). Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. 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