ESPN on Jordan's comeback, Walker briefly mentioned

[Francis Hsu <francis@ai.mit.edu>]

http://espn.go.com/magazine/telander_20010802.html

The author, Rick Telander, apparantly watched some of the secret summer
workout games hosted by Jordan.  I really, really hope that he's
exagerrating things a bit, particularly the part about Walker losing
over and over again.
------
I spy a comeback
by Rick Telander

Rick Telander is working on an upcoming ESPN The Magazine story about
you-know-who. Here's a preview.

CHICAGO -- Have you seen Michael Jordan play this summer?

No, you haven't. Almost no one has. So be quiet and listen.

Because I have seen him play. It was at Hoops the Gym, a place co-run
by a friend of mine, Gary Cowen, and Tim Grover, Jordan's trainer
since 1989.
[...]
In the games I watched in mid-June, Jordan was clearly the best player
on the floor. Who played? A mix of NBA guys, former NBA guys, and
college guys who want to be in the NBA.

Antoine Walker played. So did Jamal Crawford, Thomas Hamilton, Dickey
Simpkins, Leon Smith, George McCloud, and a certain round mound named
Charles Barkley. One day Marcus Fizer showed up with A.J. Guyton,
hoping to run, but they were too late.

"Eleven-thirty, not 2 p.m.," said Jordan, with his usual soft
touch. "Way to be on time, guys."

The games weren't refereed and you called your own fouls. First team
to 10 won, with every basket -- even long threes -- counting for one.

Yeah, it's true there was some basket-hanging and not everyone was in
shape -- ahem, Chuckie -- and there wasn't the urgency of, say, a
Bulls-Jazz 1998 Game Six. But only winners stayed on, and even NBA
guys in pickup games don't like to lose.

But Jordan wanted to lose less than anyone.
[...]
"He's the perfect guy to play with," Crawford told me a few days ago,
as he was sitting on a folding chair at Hoops, watching the action,
his left leg wrapped nearly from ankle to mid-thigh, resting on
another folding chair to keep it comfortable. "When it all breaks
down, just throw the ball into him. He demands all those
double-teams. And his fall-away? You can't stop it."

Nobody could. Antoine Walker's team lost again and again. So did the
other teams, even as players switched from side to side.
[...]