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How valuable is

Michael Jordan?

by Terry Brown

Send an Email to Chad Ford

Also Below: Riley refuses deal with the Devil | Writers Bloc: Remembering Chick Hearn | Peep Show

Updated NBA Free Agent Watch

Updated NBA Depth Charts

NBA Insider Chad Ford is off for the next week. He'll return on Thursday, Aug. 13

Michael Jordan going once . . . Michael Jordan going twice . . . Michael Jordan gone!

"Compared to Kobe or McGrady, he's not on their level," said one NBA scout. "The game has slipped him by."

Tim Duncan will go to the highest bidder next offseason. So will Kevin Garnett and Jason Kidd. Teams are already tucking away salary-cap dollars and luxury-tax consequences for the chance to bid on some youngster like Andre Miller or Michael Olowokandi or some other player who hasn't won five MVP awards, six NBA championships and 10 scoring titles.

The game's greatest player arguably of all-time will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of next season and nobody seems to care.

"If he were a free agent right now, he'd have to take the mid-level exception," said an NBA agent. "There are only a few teams with any cap room left and he wouldn't want to play for any of them. That $4.5 million would be the best he could do."

Table scraps for the King.

Let's not forget that he is one year removed from MVP candidacy. Admit it. If the Wizards had made the playoffs last season, he would have gotten plenty of votes. This is the same guy who was not only voted the Athlete of the Century, beating out Ali and Ruth, but once earned $33 million in one season, or more than the entire Clippers team last year.

Of course, he will return to the Wizards front office with a larger portion of the franchise pie after having boosted the company's value with his two-year, $2 million minimum comeback.

But what if Jordan were set free on the open market?

"If I was a team like Sacramento, I wouldn't want him," said the agent. "Maybe a team on the brink like Miami who already has most of the pieces in place. He'd be all Minnesota would need to win a championship."

"Ideally, he'd be a bench player," said the scout. "His days of playing 82 games are gone. It'd be tough on him but I think he could accept the role if the right starters were in place."

Yes, he is 39 years old, will score 10 points less per game than his career average and has already taken part in 1,181 NBA battles counting regular season, playoffs and All-Star Games. He shot only 41 percent last season and played in only 60 games.

He isn't half the man he used to be but it wasn't too long ago that we were swearing that he was twice as good as anyone else.

After all, John Stockton is already 40. He's signed on for next season at $8 million.

Karl Malone has already played in three more seasons than MJ and almost 12,000 more minutes, averaged the same amount of points as MJ, but will make more than $17 million this upcoming season and will have plenty of suitors come next after that.

Best believe that Reggie Miller, one year younger than MJ but one season more mature, has one more contract in him after making $12 million this year.

For goodness sakes, Rashard Lewis, a player who has yet to score more than 36 points in a single game whereas MJ averaged more than that for entire season, is scoffing at that same $4.5 million knowing that he already has a contract on the table for more than twice that amount.

"It would be fascinating to see what would happen," said the scout. "In the right situation, Michael could make a big impact. But he can't do it all anymore. His body won't allow it."

Various reports have already indicated that Jordan is back in the gym, preparing for the upcoming season. The Wizards have already traded away his backup, the spry Courtney Alexander, and could actually use all the scoring punch they can get from the old man. Washington nearly doubled its number of wins over the previous season with the addition of Jordan and came within a heavy week's worth of wins of making the postseason. Remember, only seven players scored more than MJ's 22.9 per game last year and all of them made the All-NBA team.

But . . .

"A lot of people don't care," said the agent. "Most fans are more concerned about Kobe and Shaq and Iverson. And that's healthy for the game."

Riley refuses deal with the Devil

Hell hasn't frozen over and the Heat are not trading Alonzo Mourning to the arch-rival Knicks.

"Coach [Pat] Riley has gone on record saying that Zo will be on the team this year, and it's our intention to re-sign Zo at the end of the season," said Heat spokesman Tim Donovan, with Riley and general manager Randy Pfund in Los Angeles for the funeral of Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn.

In fact, the Miami Sun Sentinel is going on record saying that the move would make no sense at all since Mourning's contract, which will pay him $20M this season, comes off the books next year, freeing up valuable cap room in the Heat's attempt to nab Tim Duncan out of free agency while still retaining Zo's Bird Rights.

Despite Mourning's recent announcement of: "I want to be [in Miami], but I can deal with change. I know the business, and I've seen some strange things," the Florida paper also dispells any rumors of Brian Grant's departure or future reports that may involve Eddie Jones.

"We're not shopping any of our big players, but we know the concept of getting better is by drafting, signing free agents and trading," Riley said. "In order to talk crucial assets, you've got to give up crucial assets."

The Knicks, meanwhile, refuse to acknowledge any past dealings with Philly concerning Dikembe Mutombo, a player they coveted in the past but said to have passed on recently.

Newsday is reporting that Cablevision, the Knicks' owner, is cutting about 10 percent of its staff and concludes that the company's days of unchecked spending may be coming to an end. This has furthered speculation that New York passed on Mutombo because of the $52.7M left on his contract. The Post confirms this, saying that it was Cablevision's chairman, James Dolan, who nixed the trade.

"There is no way Scott Layden would turn down that deal," said one league official. "Layden may be patient but he's not stupid. That trade was the no-brainer of no-brainers. I still don't think Philadelphia would have made that deal. Plus, it's clear that the Knicks didn't want to pay Mutombo."

This has confused superagent David Falk, who represents both Mutombo and Keith Van Horn, the principal player sent to Philly from New Jersey in exchange for the center, and Mourning.

"It would've been interesting if Dikembe went back to New York now that they have McDyess because they played together in Denver," Falk said. "It would've been a helluva frontline. I guess there was a deal on the table — for whatever reason it wasn't consummated. I know Scott loves Dikembe."

Van Horn, for his part, is just glad to get out of the maelstorm that is Gotham-area sports and media even to the point of welcoming play with bad boy Allen Iverson.

"Keith is a very intelligent guy," said Falk on behalf of his client. "He can handle any situation. I think what happened is just the nature of pro sports that the fans don't see."

"You've got a new coach coming in and he has sort of his guys," Falk said of Scott's arrival as Nets coach. "His guys were Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson. He really likes those guys. I'm not sure he had the same appreciation of Keith's talents and capabilities that John Calipari had. I'm not saying that to be critical or to contest it, but I just think that's the facts of life. His role had changed last year and I think looking forward it was going to be more diminished. I think this is a place where they need what he brings to the table."

Say it ain't Zo! Heat quashes Knicks rumor

Harvey Fialkov / South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Knicks Mum on Mutombo

Barbara Barker / Newsday

Falk Upset Knicks Didn't Get Dikembe

Marc Berman / New York Post

Van Horn Has Praise for Many Nets, With One Omission

Steve Popper / New York Times

Dolan didn't want Mutombo

Frank Isola / New York Daily News

Writers Bloc: Remembering Chick Hearn

Today, they come to praise Chick Hearn as well as bury him.

"We live in the world's seventh-largest metropolitan area, the nation's second largest. The World Almanac refers to it as an urban center. But there is no center here, not structurally, politically, economically or spiritually. There is a Main Street in name only. Our megalopolis is too densely populated, too sprawling, too diverse. On a day like Monday, though, we were living in just another small town, praying for the local basketball announcer . . . Jack Nicholson, Dyan Cannon, Denzel Washington and the working stiffs who pay $10 to sit in the upper deck at Staples Center celebrate together when the Lakers win a championship. Today, they mourn together . . . He had a job that he loved and that he was able to do until he was 85, and, when he died, he was as beloved as anyone whoever called this place home. He would put his life into the refrigerator as a triumph. He wouldn't want a funeral. He'd want a parade, down Main Street," says L.A. Times writer Randy Harvey.

"When the 405 was a parking lot, when it took four cycles to finally get the arrow to let you turn left, when 10 minutes of light rain turned the basin into a full SigAlert, you still had Chick. When your 30-minute trip home became an hour and 30, and the landscape was a sea of brake lights, you still had Chick, the commuter's best pal. He was your free pass into the diamond lane . . . But then again, if you were a Laker fan, no matter the method of delivery, you would only accept your news from one messenger. And, if the score came in by Pony Express, Chick had to be riding the horse," says ABC broadcaster Al Michaels.

"Death will prevent Chick Hearn from calling any more Lakers games, but we all know better. It's a 'slam dunk' he forever will be part of the team's broadcasts because his 'words'-eye view' will be carried on by successors who will describe a marginal call on Shaquille O'Neal as a 'ticky-tack foul' or will equate a gravity-defying move by Kobe Bryant to 'being faked into the popcorn machine' or a misguided shot attempt by Mark Madsen as 'an air ball.' . . . There never will be another Chick Hearn. Maybe death has put his broadcasting career into the refrigerator. And maybe the door's closed. And the lights are out. And the eggs are cooling. And the butter is getting hard. And the Jell-O is jiggling. But for those of us who knew him and listened to him and clung to his every frantic word, Chick Hearn will remain forever," concludes L.A. Daily News' Doug Krikorian.

He Turned L.A. Into a Small Town

Randy Harvey / Los Angeles Times

Sportscaster kind to young writer

Doug Krikorian / Los Angeles Daily News

I've lost a close friend

Mitch Chortkoff / Los Angeles Daily News

Peep Show

Cavs: Ron Harper is in demand. Not only do the Bulls want him as an assistant coach, so does Cleveland head coach John Lucas. This has opened up debate as to why a player who went on to win five NBA championships with two other teams was ever shipped out of Cleveland in the first place. "To this day, folks directly involved in the Harper deal — from Cavs officials on down — have remained tight-lipped about the 'whys.' "

Wizards: Center Jahidi White wants a third opinion on his left knee and he's enlisted the help of the same doctor who worked on Michael Jordan's joint. Up for debate is whether the big man needs surgery, which would keep him out of preseason camp and a bit of the season, or just rest and doses of anti-inflammatories, which White doesn't want totake for prolonged periods of time.

Nuggets; Jeff Bzdelik who? "He's a very dedicated and honest guy," Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe said while confirming Thursday that Bzdelik is being seriously considered for the team's head coaching job. "He is going to give you an honest day's work every day and get the best of the players. He works hard, is knowledgeable and is a student of the game. He knows the NBA players and the teams plays better. He's going to be a very good coach." Bzdelik, who has worked with the Heat and then-Bullets before becoming a scout with the Nuggets, is competing with Dallas assistant Del Harris and Clyde Drexler for the job. A decision isn't expected until Aug. 20. Meanwhile, the Nugs signed 7-footer Mark Blount to a one-year, $800K contract to beef up the middle. Blount averaged 17.8 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.6 blocked shots for the New Jersey ShoreCats of the U.S. Basketball League last season.

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