He earns utmost praise from Jerry Sloan, not only for what he's done but also the way he has done it.
     John Stockton? Karl Malone?

     Sure; for those two, kudos from the Jazz coach are a given. But in this instance, Sloan was not referring to either of the Jazz stars.
     Rather, the subject is one Michael Jordan, the man almost singularly responsible for denying Stockton, Malone and Sloan himself the NBA championships rings they so desperately desire.
     "I've always had tremendous respect for Michael Jordan," Sloan said Wednesday morning as the Jazz prepared for tonight's Delta Center game against the Washington Wizards, which may or may not have a surgically repaired Jordan in their lineup.
     "Everybody knows he can score. (But) I've always admired Michael Jordan for the things he tries to do defensively," added Sloan, whose Jazz lost to Chicago in both the 1997 and '98 NBA Finals, two of Jordan's six title-run seasons with the Bulls. "You know, when they were a great team ? whenever he was playing for the Bulls, and they were winning ? that son of a gun was as great of a defensive player as I've ever seen play the game.
     "He was tenacious defensively. To have the ability to be able to guard so many different people, and still get 30 points ? I mean, he had the whole package to play this game."
     Had.
     The package turned 39 years old a month ago.
     Now in his second comeback from retirement, Jordan returned Wednesday night in Denver from arthroscopic surgery Feb. 27 to repair cartilage and remove debris from his right knee.