THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 11, 1997 TAG: 9702110234
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: 58 lines
Sunday's NBA All-Star game - basketball, to those of you who have never watched that feckless sport - was a complete flop.
Since it celebrated the NBA's 50th year, why don't we end this annual game now at that nice round number? Just let the cat die as kids let a swing stop.
The All-Star game was so bad that anyone, tuning in without knowing what was going on, would think he had stumbled onto two pick-up teams off a school ground.
The Chicago Bulls, by adding three more players to Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippin who were already on the floor, could have routed the hapless NBA squad.
Jordan, my sole reason for watching, missed his first five attempts at the basket. Since his jump shots weren't falling, he decided to dwell on assists and rebounds.
The gods' darling - they smile on whatever Jordan does - he wound up with a triple double with 14 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds, the first in All-Star play.
In regular play any time he got only 14 points in a half he would be hospitalized for an examination.
That morning with Tim Russert on NBC's Meet the Press, Jordan's replies were like baseball ``clothesline'' hits, straight, low, hard. A sizzling clothesline triple can be as uplifting as a home run.
Jordan's jump shots from the 22-foot 3-point mark are clotheslines barely rising in an arc to the basket. On last week's trip west he scored from mid-court nearly 50 feet, loping to release the ball, arrogant as an arrow, just before the buzzer.
He plans to play next season, and, he said, maybe more, taking it year by year. That put NBA Commissioner David Stern in a transport of joy. Bob Costas asked what would happen to the NBA without Jordan.
With a great infrastructure and young players coming up, ``the NBA'd be just fine,'' Jordan said.
``Well, it would give the rest of us a chance to win,'' said Grant Hill.
Russert asked if Jordan, Hill and Charles Barkley aren't role models to black youths. ``It's an obligation bestowed on us,'' Jordan said, but parents ``are there every day and have much more influence on that kid. What we do is generalize.''
``I enjoy being a role model,'' Hill said, ``but a parent, a teacher, a counselor, someone at church, they're people you deal with day to day, ones you should pattern yourself after and look up to.''
Barkley said the absence of a father can't be used as a crutch.``I'm from a single-parent family, and my mother and grandmother taught me great discipline and how to work hard.''
Russert asked if Jordan would run for office. No, Jordan said. He'd enjoyed being on stage, ``but what's been lost is my obligation to my family, my friends, and to myself in terms of my time commitment.
``And it's been a great run, but I just want to get up one morning and not worry about what I got to do for that day or the next day. And that's what Michael Jordan wants at this particular time.''