Michael Jordan was sitting in front of his locker stall in the cramped visitors' locker room in San Antonio last Jan. 31 before a game the Bulls would lose, 106-102. He'd rarely felt lower.
Jordan was holding the portable compact disc player he carries everywhere, and he had on his headphones. He might have been sleeping, though it was hard to tell because he was wearing dark sunglasses. He wasn't going out to shoot before the game for the first time in more than two months. He hadn't said anything earlier in the day at shootaround.
"What's wrong with the General?" Craig Hodges asked Horace Grant, using a nickname for the superstar as the two eyed Jordan from across the locker room. "He's been in a big-time pout all day."
"I don't know," Grant responded. "Must be some problems at home."
(After learning that NBA veteran and former North Carolina Tar Heel Walter Davis had been traded to Portland and not the Bulls, Jordan responded before a game against the Nets: “As soon as we get back, I’m calling {Jerry} Reinsdorf. Krause has messed everything up again. He can’t do anything.”
(
Two days after that, Jordan had taken off after Krause again. “If I were general manager, we’d be a better team.”)
Reinsdorf had been obligated to respond publicly, and the situation clearly made him uncomfortable, though his support for Krause was unequivocal. “Michael Jordan,” said Reinsdorf, “is undoubtedly the greatest player that ever lived. He’s probably one of the three greatest competitors of all time in any sport, the other two being Jake LaMotta and Muhammad Ali. Guys you had to kill to beat. Michael’s like that.
“But he’s still a player and, quite frankly, players don’t know a whole lot about coaching, and they don’t know a whole lot about what it takes to make a deal. If Michael knew what we tried to accomplish and the pitfalls and problems we ran into {trying to obtain Walter Davis}, he probably wouldn’t feel as frustrated. But he doesn’t, and we can’t sit and explain to every player what moves we are trying to make. And we cannot single out one player and make him consultant to the general manager.”
AIR JORDAN OFTEN FLIES SOLO, GUNNING FOR THE TOP
