Jordan's turn to learn

By Bill Ingram Sports Central Columnist

Magic Johnson learned it as the head coach of the Lakers. Larry Bird learned it as the head coach of the Pacers. Clyde Drexler learned it as the head coach of the University of Houston Cougars. The list goes on, but the latest to learn today's lesson is Michael Jordan. True, he was a player, but it was his inability to get his players' attention that landed him on the unemployment line earlier this week.

"Today, without any prior discussion with me, (Wizards) ownership informed me that it had unilaterally decided to change our mutual long-term understanding," Jordan said on Wednesday. "I am shocked by this decision, and by the callous refusal to offer me any justification for it."

Sounds good. Jordan is playing the wounded party, but if you take a look at what the former Chicago great accomplished in his tenure with the Wizards, you might be able to figure out what Jordan has missed. Namely, his complete inability to reach any of the goals he was hired to achieve.

First and foremost, the Wizards have been unable to make the playoffs under Jordan's leadership. None of this changes have panned out, his draft picks have gone for naught, the trade for Richard Hamilton was a bust, and aside from selling out every arena the Wizards played in, Jordan has been a complete failure at the one thing he could always count on dominating: winning basketball games.

The primary reason for Jordan's failure is that he has been unable to find a successful way to motivate today's NBA babies. His old tactic of riding someone's butt until they either stepped up or asked for a trade was met with nothing but resentment and disrespect.

See, today's average high school or college athlete is coming into the league with such a huge chip on their shoulder that it makes it hard to work with them. They don't care who you are or what you have to say. It doesn't matter if you're Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, or the one and only Michael Jordan. Today's kids have that, "Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?" attitude and they won't listen to anyone. It's all about number one, and if you tell them differently, they shut you out completely.

Magic couldn't stand to see the selfishness that surrounded him. He got out. Bird had health reasons for leaving the game, but was also heard on several occasions talking about how today's players just don't get it. Clyde Drexler chose to coach at the collegiate level because he thought those younger players would be more likely to listen, but he found that he was wrong. Drexler said he may as well make the big bucks coaching the pros if he was going to have to put up with the same attitude either way. Jordan may say he doesn't understand why he was dropped from the Wizards, who probably feared yet another comeback try by the washed-out All-Star -- but deep down, he knows exactly why he's out.

It's a different game today. The era that ended with the retirement saga of the last few years -- Magic, Bird, Dominique Wilkins, Drexler, Hakeem Olajuwon, Jordan, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, John Stockton, and Jordan -- has ushered in a new era, an era where only one thing is more important than money: making more money. It's not about winning, it's about drawing attention to yourself and getting advertising dollars.

It's hard to understand the level of greed that would drive an athlete who already makes a lifetime's supply of money in a single season to desperately seek out money from hocking drinks, shoes, and underwear. But then I also don't understand why a soft drink company would pay an NBA player millions to say they drink something they clearly don't drink. Drink Sprite and play like Kobe? Yeah, right.

Drink Sprite while you're pretending to be Kobe on the PS2 is more like it. Soft drinks make you fat, and no professional basketball player short of Stanley Roberts or Thomas Hamilton would pour concentrated sugar down their throats on a regular basis. Nonetheless, companies hire athletes to lie, fans believe it, and millions of dollars exchange hands as a result.

The goal of far too many of our young athletes today is to draw the attention necessary to garner those advertising dollars. It's more important than the game itself, it's more important than teammates, and it's more important than winning. If Magic Johnson and Clyde Drexler can't get the attention of young athletes, how did Michael Jordan think he was going to do it?

The Wizards released Jordan, and it was not entirely Jordan's fault. Even Abe Pollin, one of the owners of the Wizards, said, "I do believe Michael's desire to win and be successful is unquestioned." No one would argue that. The problem is not that Michael Jordan doesn't want to win. The problem is that Jordan, like so many before him, has no idea how to convince NBA players that wins are more important than dollars. You can't teach a new dog old tricks.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.