Grounded Jordan Gets the Wizards to Fly

He doesn't defy gravity, space jam or rock your world any more, but Michael Jordan is still doing the impossible: making a success of the Washington Wizards.

After a break for the All-star game, the Wizards begin the second half of the season as the hottest team in the NBA. They go into tonight's game against the Los Angeles Lakers at the Staples Center on the back of a five-game winning streak.

The once ramshackle vehicle, packed with raw kids and hitched to a faded legend, has actually picked up some serious momentum. After starting with nine defeats in 11 games, the Wizards have steadily advanced to third place in their division, with the fifth best record in the Eastern Conference. They have already won more games than they did in the whole of last season.

"We've got a good chance of putting ourselves in a good predicament, which all along I felt like we could," Jordan said after the latest win, over the league-leading Sacramento Kings. "In some ways you want to think greedy, but nut-cutting time is starting to come." In other words, it's coming to the crunch.

Jordan, back in the NBA after a three-year retirement, leads the team in scoring (25.1 points a game) and assists (5.3). He made an undistinguished appearance in the All-star game in Philadelphia on Sunday, when he mangled his one attempt at a dunk, but he has already stuffed his critics' words back down their throats.

"It's a bad team and he's stuck playing with bad players," said his former Chicago Bulls team-mate Scottie Pippen on Jordan's return to the NBA. "It was a bad decision."

It has not looked so bad recently, though there was a time when Jordan might have feared that Pippen was right. When his arthritic knee was swollen, for example. When his wife Juanita filed for divorce. That night in Cleveland when he said: "I just think we stink."

Then it suddenly turned around. Doug Collins, the once burnt-out coach, raised the levels of organisation and intensity, beginning with the defence. Richard "Rip" Hamilton, the gunner who was meant to take some of the offensive load off Jordan, reclaimed his starting place. Juanita withdrew her divorce petition. And Jordan's knee got stronger, along with his game.

"I was sure he was going to average 20-plus," said the New Jersey Nets coach Byron Scott. "I didn't think he would do this well and have his team playing as well as they've been playing so far. One man can change the total attitude and the total make-up of a team."

It has been an unspectacular transformation. Even with a fit Jordan, even with all that youthful energy, the Wizards are not among the league's most exciting teams. And Jordan is no longer one of the league's most exciting players.

"He's no longer transcendent, merely ascendant," Mark Heisler of the Los Angeles Times explained this week. He lives, he added, "on his skill, of which there is a lot, and his wiles, of which there are many".

"He's lost a step and thank goodness," said the Bulls coach Bill Cartwright. "Now he's halfway normal."

He is 39 on Sunday and he no longer possesses the explosive athleticism that once led over-excited observers to claim that he could manoeuvre in mid-air, but Jordan's game is still more complete than almost any other player in the world. Against the Charlotte Hornets on December 29, he scored 51 points. Two nights later, against New Jersey, he had 45 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.

He is still wonderful, and he is getting better. Look at the proportion of shots he is hitting, which has gone up from 33% in October to 41% in December to 43% in January to 46% this month.

And the Wizards have responded. Though they look underpowered inside and unremarkable at the point, they have proved efficient enough. The veterans - including the piano-playing Christian Laettner, the cello-playing Hubert Davis and the chess-playing Popeye Jones - have filled out Collins's orchestrations; the rookies have contributed; the point guards have had big nights. Hamilton, who is averaging close to 20 points a game, missed all of January with injury, but his return coincided with the team's recent upsurge. In fact, the Wizards have won the past 13 games Hamilton has played in.

The look as ready as anyone for nut-cutting time, but the NBA finals are still a long way away. "Philly's the team to beat," Jordan says, referring to the Philadelphia 76ers, the Eastern Conference favourites. "I'm not going to sit here and say we can contend with them in a seven-game series. I'd like to think that if we can continue to progress and maybe make a move or two, we could make a run at it. But getting to the play-offs is still our first goal. To contend for the Eastern Conference final - that's a dream that's so far away, we don't want to jump ahead of ourselves."

Still, the dream is there, move vivid than when he first announced his comeback, more credible than any time since. "One thing you don't want to do is wake up too quick," Jordan says. "We just want to keep dreaming."