There was a fellow screaming into his cell phone on the corner of 51st and Fifth Avenue early Tuesday afternoon. He got the tickets, he was explaining with some excitement to someone.
"No," he exclaimed. "Not the Yankees' tickets. The Jordan tickets!"
Michael Jordan Returns: The Second Coming wasn't, of course, the only must-see show off-Broadway on Tuesday night.
But after months of will he or won't he, rumor and hearsay, and more buzz than can be delivered by a triple espresso laced with ephedrine, it was the must-see show. Kind of like a one-evening engagement with Streisand. The Yankees would play another night.
So they crowded around the blue police barricades that circled Madison Square Garden as tip-off neared. Those who couldn't get in, just wanted to be there. Just wanted to say they were close to the show.
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Washington Wizards, Dallas Mavericks
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Michael Jordan's return obviously adds fuel to the debate about which player will be the most electrifying in the NBA this season.
Can Jordan regain his crown from the top contenders during his retirement – namely Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter and Allen Iverson? Only the one-on-one battles will help answer that.
But before the foursome takes to the court, we can at least decide which player has the most electrifying Web site.
Unfortunately, only Jordan has an official site, meaning Bryant, Carter and Iverson must rely on their best available fan sites. But don't let the difference fool you – a player's official site doesn't necessarily mean a better one.
With that in mind, here's how they rank:
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Philadelphia 76ers, Washington Wizards
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From Air Jordan to Despair Jordan?
Michael Jordan didn't exactly detract from his legacy. But at this rate, he certainly won't add to his highlight reel.
Playing a slower, smarter game way below the rim, Jordan delivered an underwhelming 19-point performance in his highly anticipated return to the NBA Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. As expected, Jordan's Washington Wizards lost to the New York Knicks, 93-91. But in a shocking reversal from his dominant days as the best player to ever lace up sneakers, a new Jordan dawn was received with a collective yawn.
Said Wizards coach Doug Collins, "I thought Michael was fine."
Despite apparently leaving his gravity-defying super powers in the 20th century, Jordan was clearly his team's best player with four steals, six assists and five rebounds, despite missing 14 of 21 shots in 37 minutes. But to the disappointment of the sellout crowd of 19,763 and an audience expected to be among the biggest in cable TV history, he didn't come close to dunking or even prodding a single ooh or aah. Instead, he settled for a variety of jump shots launched by any number of NBA players on any given night and even threw an air-ball 18-foot jumper. In fact, in a performance not only under the rim but barely off the floor, the 38-year-old Jordan did nothing better or different than any of his younger peers.
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Washington Wizards
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Wizards Oct 2001 Archive
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| Oct 31, 2001
It's hard to predict where Michael Jordan will be on the final day of the NBA season.
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| Oct 31, 2001
One of the biggest comparisons you will see this season will be between Toronto's Vince Carter with Washington's Michael Jordan.
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| Oct 31, 2001
S
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| Oct 31, 2001
Michael Jordan didn't exactly look like the No.
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| Oct 31, 2001
They threw the biggest, hottest, Everybody-Who's-Anybody-Will-Be-There Mega-Event comeback concert on the world's grandest stage Tuesday night.
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| Oct 31, 2001
Michael Jordan's long awaited return to the NBA last night didn't have the fairy tale ending so many Washington Wizards fans thought it would.
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| Oct 31, 2001
Even though the Washington Wizards' coaching staff would ideally like to play forward Michael Jordan between 32 and 35 minutes per game, Coach Doug Collins said he would not hesitate to play Jordan more minutes if needed.
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| Oct 31, 2001
It was supposed to be Michael Jordan's magical night, a comeback of mythical magnitude for the game's brightest star in his first real game in three seasons.
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| Oct 31, 2001
The new Michael Jordan is going to be difficult to watch, more difficult than I could ever have imagined.
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| Oct 31, 2001
Sam Smith of the Chicago Tribune, perhaps the reporter with the most exposure to his airness, puts his thoughts on Michael Jordan's first official game.
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| Oct 30, 2001
He's been hailed as a savior, touted as an answer, lauded as a panacea for a franchise mired in woe.
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| Oct 30, 2001
Michael Jordan.
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| Oct 30, 2001
On the surface, it would seem difficult to generate hope in most NBA cities when the eventual champion seems a foregone conclusion in October.
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| Oct 30, 2001
Is Michael Jordan really worth all this fuss? According to Sam Smith.
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| Oct 29, 2001
Barry Smitherman and his son arrived early at the Detroit-Washington exhibition game on Oct.
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| Oct 29, 2001
Laettner, along with Richard Hamilton and Courtney Alexander, needs to augment the scoring of Michael Jordan, who is expected to face several double and triple teams, Collins said.
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| Oct 29, 2001
In this week's NBA Notebook presented by Jeffrey Denberg of the Atlanta Journal-Consistution Washington Coach Doug Collins says High Schooler Kwame Brown is not receptive to coaching and is not in shape to play, to which Brown responded that Collins misreads his body language and that he is doing everything Collins has asked him to do.
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| Oct 29, 2001
In case anybody forgot amid all the Michael Jordan hoopla, the Los Angeles Lakers rolled through the postseason last spring unlike any NBA team before them ever had.
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| Oct 29, 2001
A friend from Washington was incredulous.
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| Oct 28, 2001
Latrell Sprewell calls him the best to ever play the game.
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| Oct 28, 2001
The comeback begins early this week, the moment an unretired All-Star positions himself between Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell at halfcourt.
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| Oct 28, 2001
When Michael Jordan unleashed his final shot at the Delta Center to seal the 1998 NBA championship, light bulbs flashed to capture the picture-perfect ending.
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| Oct 28, 2001
Face it, there's no way to write a league-wide overview without comment on The Comeback.
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| Oct 28, 2001
Michael Jordan is dominating the NBA again, but at an unusual time of year.
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| Oct 28, 2001
The Washington Wizards are counting on two players who were mediocre at best during the team's recently completed preseason (2-6) to be key contributors this season.
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| Oct 28, 2001
Review of Michael Jordan's exhibition game against Boston in Mohegan.
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| Oct 27, 2001
Washington Wizards Coach Doug Collins said he was going to use tonight's preseason finale against the Boston Celtics as a testing ground for some tactics and lineups he had yet to use.
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| Oct 27, 2001
The NBA welcomes two new faces and two recycled ones to its coaching fraternity this season, and all four of them are sure to have headaches by Halloween.
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| Oct 26, 2001
The Orlando Magic will play their first game on NBC on Dec.
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| Oct 26, 2001
Washington Wizards rookie forward Kwame Brown said that he is not being stubborn or reluctant to take instruction, as Coach Doug Collins said this week.
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| Oct 26, 2001
In the first meeting of the University of North Carolina products and perennial all-stars, Carter scored 26 of his game-high 31 points in the first half, making four three-pointers along the way.
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| Oct 25, 2001
The Heir finally will meet The Air.
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| Oct 25, 2001
(News Services) Michael Jordan has become the first person to appear 50 times on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
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| Oct 25, 2001
As Michael Jordan makes his way around the league, sports writers will all work a bit harder to put his visit in a larger context.
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| Oct 24, 2001
There is a story making the rounds among NBA players, a story that we would assume is apocryphal if not for the credibility of the teller and the history of the subject.
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| Oct 24, 2001
You can be a one-man team in the NBA, but chances are, it won't be a championship team.
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| Oct 24, 2001
For the first time this preseason, Michael Jordan finished a game on the court -- and he finished it with a flurry.
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| Oct 23, 2001
Washington Wizards swingman Michael Jordan showed that his game is coming back to him and did it without pouring in an arena full of points.
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| Oct 23, 2001
Kwame Brown skipped college.
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| Oct 23, 2001
But even with Jordan, the Wizards could not beat the Sixers, who finally won a preseason game, 91-87.
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| Oct 23, 2001
Phil Jackson knows a thing or two about Michael Jordan.
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| Oct 22, 2001
In the aftermath of their preseason victory Saturday night over the Washington Wizards, the Nets talked of how they believed they had acquitted themselves well in front of a national television audience.
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| Oct 22, 2001
Next.
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| Oct 22, 2001
For two straight preseason games the Washington Wizards have allowed high-percentage shots near the basket with little resistance from their interior players, leaving them "embarrassed" after watching game film, Coach Doug Collins said yesterday.
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| Oct 22, 2001
Mutombo and the Sixers will see Jordan again tonight, but the "legend," as Mutombo calls No.
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| Oct 22, 2001
(AP) Michael Jordan was in a zone the likes of which hadn't been seen in three years.
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| Oct 21, 2001
Michael Jordan was simply awesome.
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| Oct 21, 2001
The Washington Wizards are going to have to break some old habits and avoid some new ones if they are going to be successful this season.
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| Oct 21, 2001
Yes, Michael Jordan can dunk.
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| Oct 21, 2001
A sharp display of speed and defensive know-how as a role player in last season's NBA Finals were the padding on free agent Tyronn Lue's résumé this summer.
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| Oct 21, 2001
For a half, there was little excitement and -- gasp -- there were empty seats.
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| Oct 21, 2001
He still has the signature fadeaway.
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| Oct 21, 2001
Lucious Harris was leaving the Nets' locker room and spied a gang of media around rookie Richard Jefferson, the guy who bore the brunt of Michael Jordan's 41-point preseason tour-de-force last night.
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| Oct 21, 2001
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports: Desperate times apparently have called for desperate measures:
The agent for Rod Strickland said Saturday his client has agreed to terms with the Heat.
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| Oct 20, 2001
It didn't take Jason Kidd long to discern the difference between tonight's exhibition game with the Washington Wizards and the dozens of others he has played in during his NBA career.
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| Oct 20, 2001
On the wall of rookie Richard Jefferson's apartment back in Phoenix hangs a poster of Michael Jordan.
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| Oct 20, 2001
There is a poster that still hangs in Richard Jefferson's bedroom back home in Phoenix.
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| Oct 20, 2001
The Nets are off to see Da Wizard.
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| Oct 20, 2001
Steve Wyche of the Washington Post reports that coach Doug Collins expressed concern early in training camp about how his Washington Wizards would play without Michael Jordan on the court.
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| Oct 19, 2001
The Washington Wizards got caught stargazing tonight and got mercilessly thumped, 114-88, by the Detroit Pistons in a preseason game before a sellout crowd of 11,639 at Van Andel Arena.
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| Oct 18, 2001
Michael Jordan, who sat out an intrasquad scrimmage on Tuesday night because of a strained left foot, practiced with the team yesterday but his status for tonight's preseason game against the Detroit Pistons in Grand Rapids, Mich.
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| Oct 18, 2001
(AP) Michael Jordan returned to practice with the Washington Wizards on Wednesday, a day after sitting out a practice because of a strained left foot.
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| Oct 17, 2001
If there were any question which side Kwame Brown has taken on the "Should Michael Jordan be Playing Again?" debate, Brown has ended all the suspense.
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| Oct 17, 2001
Nearly 20,000 area government and relief workers and their families packed MCI Center for a private intra-team scrimmage of the Washington Wizards.
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| Oct 17, 2001
Injured. Is this a sign of things to come?
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| Oct 16, 2001
After staying a week in Wilmington, NC for training camp followed by two preseason games in Detroit and Miami, the Wizards practiced yesterday at MCI Center for the first time this season.
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| Oct 16, 2001
Michael Jordan shifted his game into another gear in the Washington Wizards' 99-79 victory over the Miami Heat on Saturday night -- and he wasn't the only one.
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| Oct 16, 2001
Phil Jackson and Pat Riley found something they could agree on Monday, and the subject was Michael Jordan.
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| Oct 15, 2001
Pat Riley didn't mind that the 16,500 fans at AmericanAirlines Arena on Saturday night were there to see Michael Jordan.
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| Oct 15, 2001
For those who wondered why Michael Jordan is bothering, this is why.
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| Oct 15, 2001
Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel reports: If you think Michael Jordan looks odd in a Washington Wizards uniform, Magic center Patrick Ewing might have joined him, making every night an old-timer's game.
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| Oct 14, 2001
Jordan is returning at 38, and he's boosting ticket sales and generating TV revenue.
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| Oct 14, 2001
Branson Wright of the Akron Beacon Journal writes in his NBA Roundup that Michael Jordan's return to the NBA in last week's exhibition game included eight points and three rebounds in 17 minutes in Auburn Hills, Mich.
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| Oct 14, 2001
Washington Wizards center Jahidi White did not play tonight because of soreness in his left knee.
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| Oct 14, 2001
The doubts about Michael Jordan's ability to play in the NBA at age 38 may be disappearing after his very Jordanesque performance in a 99-79 preseason victory tonight against the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena.
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| Oct 14, 2001
Israel Gutierrez of the Palm Beach Post reports: Pat Riley briefly flashed back to Michael Jordan's original comeback Saturday.
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| Oct 14, 2001
It's not about excellence anymore for Michael Jordan.
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| Oct 14, 2001
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| Oct 14, 2001
This was the Michael Jordan everybody remembers.
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| Oct 13, 2001
Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports: Two nights after playing in his first NBA game in three years, Michael Jordan continues his celebrated comeback tonight when his Washington Wizards play the Heat in an exhibition at AmericanAirlines Arena.
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| Oct 13, 2001
When Michael Jordan caught the perfect alley-oop pass from teammate Courtney Alexander, just about everybody watching thought they knew what was coming.
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| Oct 13, 2001
Making a major debut of his own, Jordan stopped to pull Brown aside a few times, saying "slow down, slow down, slow down," but even though Brown was nodding, he couldn't seem to help himself.
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| Oct 13, 2001
Wondering how Chicago fans feel seeing their hero in another uniform? Check out some of the reactions recorded by the Chicago Tribune.
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| Oct 12, 2001
The world's most famous NBA star cut along the baseline, and there it was waiting for him--an alley-oop pass fresh off the fingertips of Washington Wizard teammate Courtney Alexander.
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| Oct 12, 2001
After spending a second-round pick on him in the 1996 draft, the Orlando Magic let Amal McCaskill play in 17 games his rookie season.
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| Oct 12, 2001
Michael played for the fans
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| Oct 12, 2001
A way to go yet...
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| Oct 11, 2001
One minute he's coming back, the next minute he's not.
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| Oct 11, 2001
Michael Jordan, a true American sports hero, is back just when America needs a hero.
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| Oct 11, 2001
Michael Jordan, the king of comebacks, staged a mini-comeback Wednesday.
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| Oct 11, 2001
Small forward Tyrone Nesby has emerged in the last few days and, after a strong performance in the team's public intrasquad scrimmage Tuesday, seems a step closer to being included in Washington's deep rotation.
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| Oct 11, 2001
Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports: Michael Jordan disappointed fans Wednesday afternoon, then delighted them a few hours later when he announced he would play in the Washington Wizards' first two preseason games -- tonight at Detroit, and Saturday at Miami.
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| Oct 10, 2001
The third coming motors off in Detroit
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| Oct 10, 2001
Steve Wyche of the Washington Post reports that Michael Jordan still has game.
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| Oct 10, 2001
It was only an intrasquad scrimmage, but Michael Jordan at times looked as though he never left the game, reports the Chicago Tribune.
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| Oct 9, 2001
Christian Laettner admits his success at Duke and at some stops in his NBA career has resulted from playing in schemes that highlight his strengths -- mid-range shooting, passing and decision-making.
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| Oct 9, 2001
Michael Jordan's home opener for the Washington Wizards on Nov.
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| Oct 8, 2001
More so than any Wizard, Lue possesses the ability to harass the primary ball handler.
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| Oct 8, 2001
NBC will broadcast the Washington Wizards' home opener against the defending Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia 76ers and the Dec.
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| Oct 8, 2001
The Michael Jordan trickle-down effect is in full operation.
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| Oct 7, 2001
If Michael Weren't Playing .
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| Oct 7, 2001
While assessments vary about how much of a boost Michael Jordan can provide for the Wizards, instead consider the imposing supporting lineup of Baron Davis at point guard, Jamal Mashburn at small forward, P.
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| Oct 7, 2001
Eight minutes was all it took for the Chicago Bulls to sell out both encounters against Michael Jordan's Wizards the Chicago Tribune is reporting.
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| Oct 6, 2001
Michael Jordan spent time playing point guard Friday night as coach Doug Collins used him alongside Richard Hamilton and Courtney Alexander for the first time during training camp.
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| Oct 6, 2001
If Michael Weren't Playing .
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| Oct 6, 2001
Michael Jordan hesitated slightly before speaking, gulping down a little extra air.
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| Oct 5, 2001
Kwame Brown absorbed a hard slap across his forearms as he rose for a shot during practice.
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| Oct 5, 2001
Courtney Alexander would be seeing much more of the court.
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| Oct 4, 2001
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| Oct 4, 2001
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| Oct 4, 2001
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| Oct 4, 2001
Jordan is not coming back after a three-season absence to be one of the many interchangeable parts around the NBA.
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| Oct 4, 2001
Steve Wyche of the Washington Post reports that Michael Jordan is just as competitive in pre-season scrimmages as he was in the NBA finals.
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| Oct 4, 2001
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| Oct 4, 2001
Michael Jordan practiced twice Tuesday behind closed doors.
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| Oct 3, 2001
He found his teammates through narrow crevices, playmaking out of the post.
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| Oct 3, 2001
Jordan, participating in a training camp for the first time since 1997, was given that option by new coach Doug Collins, but instead of relaxing or shooting a round of golf at one of the many courses in this beachside community, Jordan participated in both practices.
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| Oct 3, 2001
Day 1 of the Michael Jordan era with the Washington Wizards was jam-packed with hype, optimism, focus and the unknown of how Jordan would affect the relatively young team that won a franchise-low 19 games last season.
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| Oct 3, 2001
'My wife keeps telling me: More fiber!'
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| Oct 3, 2001
So Michael Jordan has now concluded his first official practice with the Washington Wizards, but how did he go? "He looked a little older a couple of times," Wizards assistant and former Bulls aide John Bach said.
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| Oct 3, 2001
This wasn't Game 6 of the NBA Finals, merely the first intrasquad scrimmage of training camp.
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| Oct 2, 2001
What we have here in Washington with the Wizards and the Redskins are two ships passing in the night.
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| Oct 2, 2001
Steve Wyche of the washington Post reports that Michael Jordan has put the rest of the league on notice.
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| Oct 2, 2001
Ashley McGeachy of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that Dikembe Mutombo is not impressed.
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| Oct 2, 2001
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| Oct 2, 2001
"Obviously, when I left the game, I left something on the floor," Michael Jordan said at the MCI Center in his first public comments since announcing his intention to return to the NBA with the Washington Wizards.
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| Oct 1, 2001
He is a brand, an icon, a legend, the name behind his own musky cologne and brand of sneakers.
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| Oct 1, 2001
Washington released its training camp roster.
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| Oct 1, 2001
In his weekly review of the NBA, the Boston Globe's Peter May suggests the Heat could miss the playoffs.
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