Steve Wyche of the Washington Post reports that Michael Jordan returned to the court yesterday for a brief stint against the Nugets. The 39-year-old Jordan scored eight points in 15 minutes in Washington's 96-73 victory over the Denver Nuggets before 10,221 at Pepsi Center.

Jordan came off the bench but he started the third quarter alongside a lineup of Charles Oakley, Kwame Brown, Jerry Stackhouse and Larry Hughes -- a group of players head coach Doug Collins said probably will finish games once they matter.

"I moved well," Jordan said. "I don't think I favored anything. Obviously my timing is off. It's going to take some time to adjust." Jordan looked good defensively but was obviously feeling his way in the offense. He knew he would be rusty and wanted to get some playing time before the Wizards open their regular season against the Raptors on October 30th.

Jordan insists his return in Denver was not financially motivated, even though Denver agreed to pay the Wizards $200,000 if Jordan played, $50,000 if he didn't. A Nuggets' official said the team would try to negotiate a lesser payout since it did not have enough time to advertise Jordan's availability.