The Orlando Sentinel Staff reports: Orlando Magic forward Grant Hill will sit out tonight's game home game against the Washington Wizards.

The team is currently trying to figure out why chronic tendinitis in his left ankle keeps bothering him.

The team will consult with medical specialists this week to find "a light at the end of the tunnel," general manager John Gabriel said Monday.

"We were hoping that the tendinitis that he experiences we could get under control, which really hasn't happened," Gabriel said. "We want to get the docs re-involved in this, now that we're at home for a while, and see if we can find a remedy or a rhythm to all this to get him back on the court."

Hill already had missed six games before tonight's game, including Saturday's 101-95 victory over the Boston Celtics. He also has played 10 minutes or less in three others.

In 26 games, Hill is averaging 15.6 points on 49.5 percent shooting, with 7.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists. He started Friday against Memphis but played just four minutes. The Magic's next game is Friday at New Orleans.

The Associated Press reports that Washington Wizards rookie forward Jared Jeffries will miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL in his right knee.

Jeffries, who averaged 4.0 points, 2.9 rebounds and 14.9 minutes per game, suffered the injury during Sunday's practice in Dallas prior to the Wizards' game against the Mavericks on Monday.

Upon returning to Washington, Jeffries had an MRI and consulted with team physician Dr. Steve Haas, who recommended surgery. However, the former Indiana star will seek a second opinion before scheduling the surgery.

The Hawks happened to catch Michael Jordan two nights after His Airness had the worst game of his career. It wasn't a pretty sight for the home team.

Jordan responded from his two-point performance against Toronto by scoring a season-high 30 points as the Washington Wizards beat the Hawks 109-99 Tuesday. A crowd of 16,587 attended the game at Philips Arena, the smallest to see Jordan play in Atlanta since the Chicago Bulls played the Hawks in the Omni in 1985.

Jordan hit 12 of 18 from the field in 38 minutes, including a pretty left-handed hook over Shareef Abdur-Rahim late in the game to show that he still had some rise in his 39-year-old legs.

Picture it, Michael Jordan floating through the lane then casually flipping the ball high in the air. The ball goes up and then comes down through the net, sealing the game for his team and sending the crowd into an excited frenzy.

A typical night in Washington?

Try Tuesday night in Atlanta.

As is his habit, Jordan turned the clocks back again against the Hawks, scorching Ira Newble, Glenn Robinson, and all the ghosts of Hawks past with a season best 30 points, much to the delight of the majority of ?fans? who attended the 109-99 Wizards victory.

But, to the ?fans? defense, the Hawks gave little reason for support, as the Wizards casually found whatever shot they wanted whenever they wanted, especially in an abysmal first twenty minutes, finding little resistance in a Hawks team that is supposed to want to be defined by their defense.

Well, mission accomplished Atlanta, you are.

Getting outplayed in every facet of the game, the Wizards played their worst game of the season in last night?s 98-79 blowout loss to the Portland Trailblazers. The boo birds came out early at an unhappy sold-out MCI Center during the third quarter, as the Wizards were well on their way to dropping their season record to 9-12. It was the Wizards eighth straight loss to the Blazers.

?It was a sad, sad game, unfortunately we can?t take our checks and give it to our fans. Embarrassing they paid to see us,? said Michael Jordan after the game.

Last season when the Washington Wizards faced the Portland Trail Blazers Michael Jordan was injured both times.  Jordan's knees denied the world the opportunity to see MJ suit up against his running partner with the Bulls Scottie Pippen for the first time.  This year there will be no such scenario, Todd Jacobson of the Washington Post writes, as both Jordan and Pippen are ready to do battle.

"It is a little odd" seeing them on different teams, Wizards guard Jerry Stackhouse said. "It's almost as strange as seeing [Jordan] and I on the same team. . . . We have always known that combination of Michael-Scottie. Now you are seeing them play opposite, so that's a little different."

John N. Mitchell of the Washington Times reports that Kwame Brown is disgruntled. In Saturday?s win over the Knicks, Brown received the first "DNP-CD" of his short career. The 20 year old is struggling with his diminished role.

"I just don't understand it really when you say in the newspapers that we're the cornerstone and the future and then we're on the bench," Brown says. "I don't know of cornerstone players that sit the bench. They say it's to get my confidence up. Do I look confident to you?"

Coach Doug Collins has decided to go with the experience of Christian Laettner at the starting power forward. Since the switch, the Wizards are 3-1. Laettner may not be the athleticism of Brown, but he is comfortable in the offensive scheme and he knows the defensive rotations.

Michael Jordan approves of the move for now. "I think Doug has made a conscious effort to put his veterans out there and let the young players fight for their playing time," Jordan said. "Ever since that time we've kind of found a better rhythm in playing, and now we're starting to put our identity on this team."

Brown intends to use the benching as a source of inspiration.

"I'm out of the starting lineup, then I'm on third string, now I'm not playing at all," Brown said. "This is something that I'll use as fuel for my fire. I'm a little confused right now. But I'm waiting for that day to get better. That's how it happens. Laettner was in my position earlier in the season. Etan has been there. Now it's my turn to go through it, and I'll get through it just like they did and soon I'll be out there playing. But I knew there were going to be some ups and downs. And this is a down."

"I'll always remember this. This is something I'm not going to let go. This is something that I'm going to remember and hopefully feed off."

Since Kevin Garnett was taken in the lottery in the draft of 1995 the NBA has seen a steady flow of high school seniors skipping college and jumping straight into the big league.  While many of these players have blossomed into superstars - Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O'Neal to name a few - people quickly forget that each took their lumps before growing into the athletes we see today.

While Amare Stoudemire thus far has been producing in Phoenix during his first season, last year's crop which saw three of the first four picks coming straight from their proms have been struggling.  Kwame Brown and Eddy Curry were both benched by their respective teams after starting the season out strongly, while Tyson Chandler has been struggling with consistency and foul trouble and now finds himself coming off the bench for Curry.  This goes without mentioning DeSagana Diop, the high school center also taken in the lottery by the Cleveland Cavaliers who has yet to register a pulse.

The fact of the matter is many of these players simply are not ready for the bigtime.  The time spent "learning the ropes" in the NBA could have been better off spent doing the very same thing in college, the only difference is they would be actually playing decent minutes there while earning an education.  Bill Cartwright, the coach of the Chicago Bulls who possesses two such players, agrees.

"Even though we have two young guys, I'm not a big fan of bringing high school guys into the league," Cartwright said. "I think it says to the other kids of lesser talent that instead of maybe going to college and graduating, they want to go to the NBA. I don't feel like these kids are ready for that, physically or emotionally. I'd like to see a college limit, two years" before being allowed in the NBA."

Cartwright's complaint is more to do with the hype surrounding sensation Lebron James than either of his giants.  With NBA teams falling over themselves for chances to acquire the phenom via the NBA lottery James' games are now being broadcast on pay-per-view cable in Ohio and James will now be on national TV this week (12th December, ESPN2).

Sam Smith of the Chicago Tribune quotes Bulls forward Jalen Rose as all the attention being yet another example of young athletes being exploited.

"There's a lot of good that can come out of airing high school games on pay-per-view," he said. "Exposure for the high school, for some of the players, exposure for some on the coaching staff to possibly get college jobs. But that's 5 percent of it.

"The other 95 percent is, who gets the money? The bottom line is everyone is making money on the backs of [high school] athletes. It affects players tremendously. Now they're looking at being pros in high school, feeling they can do the same things in high school that they could in college, playing on national TV, having your name called around the country. Anyone who says they're not exploiting 16- and 17-year-olds isn't being realistic."

It looks like Chicago is not the only place where the youthful players are struggling and are frustrated.  Earlier this week, like like Eddy Curry of the Bull, Kwame Brown of the Washington Wizards saw himself demoted from the starting lineup and playing much fewer minutes off the bench.  Brown, who started the season on fire, went from the team's starting power forward to it's third string power forward in one swoop, a move which has him confused.

"I don't know how to take it," Brown said. "Like it's my fault we were losing. [Collins] said he's trying to get my confidence back, but putting me from first to third string isn't what I would call a confidence helper. Whenever he puts me in, I just have to go in and play."

The move came after the Wizards went on a six game losing streak.  Coach Doug Collin's decision to bench the younger players for a more veteran lineup does hold water, however, after the team immediately went on a two game winning streak.  Brown still feels the frustration, his complaints an exact replica as the ones which have been coming out of the Windy City.

"It's a tough situation knowing under that pressure if you do something wrong you're coming out. I know how it is. Once something's working and if I'm not involved in what's working, I probably won't see the floor. You never know."

"What we're trying to do is win games," Collins said. "At the same time we've got to get our younger players better. Throughout the league teams playing a lot of young players struggle. We can't do that. It's a balancing act and right now we're playing some of the older players."

"You can put younger players in a game and if they play well I'll keep them on the floor," Collins said. "You can't just throw young players out there because they're high draft picks and say, 'Play.' That has to be earned."

Prior to the 2002-03 season Michael Jordan and Doug Collins decided that Jordan would come off the bench for the betterment of both the team and himself.  The Wizards now had scoring phenom Jerry Stackhouse at their disposal, someone who could get the Wizards going offensively, allowing Jordan to come in and take advantage of fatigued players and teams in foul trouble.

As everyone knows Jordan was not 100% coming into this season.  He had played little during the summer and through training camp, the effects of a knee surgery.  Coming off the bench meant that he could still be effective without the heavy minutes taking a toll on his body.  But now he wants to start.

David Aldridge for one thinks Michael is making a mistake, incidently for all the same reasons as Jordan mentioned during the preseason.  

The Wizards this season are nothing like the team last season, a team which needed Jordan to babysit the players both on and off the court in order to be successful.  This year they have the likes of Jerry Stackhouse, Byron Russell, Charles Oakley and Larry Hughes to help carry the load, players who have been around the league and know what it takes.  There is no reason for Jordan to risk his body by playing 37 or 38 minutes a night, yet he claims he is ready.

"Physically, I feel confident about myself," Jordan said Monday. "Early on in the season, I still had doubts in terms of 'Am I feeling OK today? Am I going to feel better tomorrow? Should I go left, should I go right? Can I land on this knee?' -- blah, blah, blah. That's over and done with. Which is one of the reasons why me starting would have been disastrous for me. 'Cause I wasn't ready to start. Now, I'm ready to start. And been waiting, waiting for the time when Doug felt it was appropriate, or whenever he wanted me to step into that lineup."

With the Wizards slipping at the time of the decision, Aldridge cannot help but question exactly who's decision it was.  

"I've just been trying to get him built up," Collins told reporters on Monday. "I think (the minute watch) will be up to you guys. You guys keep bringing it up ... if he wants to play more minutes, there is no guarantee that isn't going to cause a (physical) problem. So we'll just have to see how it goes."

"I can play 37, 38 minutes if I have to," Jordan said. "And it's a different 37, 38 minutes than it was last year. Last year I was asked to carry a lot of the load on the offensive end and the defensive end, and all of that. Now I can divert some of that energy to Stack and to other players."

'I still think it's wrong,' writes Aldridge.  'Not because Jordan can't help the Wizards. But because he can't help himself. The more he's on the floor, the more he'll feel obligated to expend every drop of energy he has, regardless of who's out there with him. Ultimately, that catches up with 39-year-old knees, whether they play hard or easy minutes. And if he empties his bucket in a playoff push now, what good will Jordan be in April and May, when his presence would be most valuable?'

It would be a sad sight to see Jordan go out by missing the playoffs for the second straight season, an ending quite different to his epic departure with the championship-winning jumper over his teammate in 1998 But if Jordan has shown us one thing in the last 13 months it is that his legacy is not the thing that drives him... winning does.