During Michael Jordan's prime years during the 90's it was widely speculated that you could take Jordan and any other four players and you'd have a winner. Jordan's time with the Wizards thus far has all but blown that theory out of the water, the Wizards' struggling in Jordan's Washington tour of duty and once again risk missing the playoffs.
The Wizards even with Jordan were never going to win it all, but they were not meant to be this bad either. Mike Lopresti of the Indianapolis Star describes Jordan in Washington as a player desperately trying to lead a team that will not be led. Jordan, with 19 games left in his NBA body, is pushing himself too hard to extend this number ever so slightly, to make the post season just one more time, despite being 40 years of age. But unlike in the past his teammates are not responding to his leadership, instead they melt away and send the player regarded as the Greatest Ever to grace an NBA court to his permanent retirement with nothing less than memories of two lottery picks for his two Washington seasons.
...unless Jordan decides to come back and try again.
Someone in New York was brave enough to ask Jordan if all the losing and disapppointment was enough to drive him back for possible success again next year, to which Jordan's response was swift. "Are you nuts?"
The Wizards are on their last legs, losers of four of their last five games and a brutal schedule still to come later in the month. To end March the Wizards are set to play nine of eleven on the road, six of which will be against dangerous Western Conference teams which could all but end the Washington's hopes. They currently sit two games behind the Milwaukee Bucks for the eighth and final playoff spot, the Bucks leading the series between the two 2-1.
"I'm doing everything I can to try to verbalize as well as physically show what it takes to win," he said. "It's up to them to receive that."
Meanwhile, Jerry Stackhouse was moaning about not getting the ball enough. "What we're doing right now," he said, "ain't for me."
After a devistating one point loss to the Knicks in Jordan's New York farewell, MJ had some strong words to challenge his youthful teammates. "It's very disappointing when a 40-year-old man has more desire than 25-, 26-, 23-year-old people."
It looks as if Jordan's comments didn't go unnoticed by the Wizards, some issuing challenges of their own.
"We played 60 games before now. What about in November, in December or in January? There were a lot of games that we let slip by then," Wizards forward Jerry Stackhouse said. "We had opportunities to win and nobody was pointing fingers or doing anything. We've hit a little tough stretch; we lost a few games. I've been in these situations before and I don't think it's a time to panic. At the same time we have to get on the same page in order to obtain or achieve the goal we want."
Added guard Larry Hughes: "I take those as personal comments. Guys have to look at themselves and if that comment affects them then that's probably who it was made for."
"It depends on the individual. You can take it however. You can clam up and don't help your team or you can take it as a personal challenge and try to step up," said Kwame Brown, speaking like a veteran.
If playing Tracy McGrady and the Orlando Magic - owners of the seventh playoff position - wasn't bad enough for the Wizards, Stackhouse's words of being on the same page could be taken with a grain of salt considering his complaints about his number of shot attempts in the Knicks loss. He was, however, able to reflect before tonight's game.
"Everybody knows I'm very competitive and I have a lot of pride in myself and my ability to play basketball," said Stackhouse, who tied a season low with five points. "When I go one for seven, I was upset in the heat of the moment. I still don't think it was intended to come off the way it did.
"It happens on every team and, a lot of times, most teams do a good job of keeping what they have in-house. I think because the magnitude of that game, the way everybody made it seem, it kind of bothered everybody that we lost the game. A lot of the laundry we had was aired that didn't need to be; maybe on my part, maybe on Michael's part, maybe on whoever's part.
"I think the most important thing is for us to get by and get past it. Winning is a cure-all. A win [tonight] will get everybody feeling good about each other and happy again."