Michael Jordan featured articles at Bulls website

“I knew he was really talented before that, but when I got to see him every day for a month, it was remarkable,” recalled Paxson from his Berto Center office. “You just knew that he had something special about him. He had such great physical gifts. They were a little bit raw, but his skill level was so good.”

It will be a great moment in the history of basketball during enshrinement weekend Sept. 10 through 12 when Michael Jordan joins the Class of 2009 for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

This is the greatest player ever to play the game being accorded the greatest honor in the game. This is Babe Ruth going into the baseball Hall of Fame. This is Bobby Jones at the first Masters, Ali winning out over Frazier. These are the historic moments of sport, and this year’s in Springfield, Mass. is special because it is a moment in history.

Look, let’s get this out there first. The Bulls didn’t want Michael Jordan in 1984. Oh, sure, they’d like to have had him then. But they really wanted Hakeem (then Akeem) Olajuwon. Just like everyone else. And they all wanted the University of Houston center so badly that the NBA had to change the draft rules to make a lottery because of the seemingly obvious throwing of games the Bulls and Rockets, among others, were doing to get a chance to draft Olajuwon.

Though Jordan’s commitment to put on a show even in those preseason games always draws a stark contrast when I see what goes on these days. I recall a game a few years back in northwestern New York—Rochester, I think—where the Cavs were playing. The rumor was LeBron James wouldn’t play because he had played the night before. James went so far as to pretend to go into the game by stripping off his warm-ups to the delight of the crowd, which rarely sees live NBA basketball. Then James walked back to the bench laughing with teammates about how he’d played a prank on the crowd. No, Jordan didn’t want to play in a lot of those games. And he had his issues. But he always understood his responsibility to the game.

In the second quarter at Golden State on Oct. 29, Jordan went down with what was initially thought to be a mild ankle injury. It wasn’t even the major story coming out of the game, as that was the day the Bulls signed guard John Paxson as a backup. Jordan was told to use crutches, but was downplaying the injury. It turned out Jordan had broken a bone in his left foot and would be out months. Jordan was devastated and couldn’t even stand to be around the game. He left and went home to North Carolina. Jordan said he could rehab better back home. The Bulls asked him to stay with the team. He refused, and this, too, would be just the beginning of another bizarre episode.