Michael Jordan began the weekend with just 15 games remaining in his career, unless the Washington Wizards can qualify for the playoffs.
What should not be at stake is Jordan’s distinction of having the highest career scoring average in NBA history.
Jordan began the season with a career average of 31.0, a number that has shrunk to 30.2 in the first 67 games of this season.
In order for Jordan to stay ahead of Wilt Chamberlain’s career average of 30.06 (listed as 30.1 in the official NBA guide), he needs to score 259 points in the final 15 games – an average of 17.3.
The success or failure of Jordan’s final comeback will be determined in large part by the way the Wizards play on the road during their current six-game Western swing that began with a game Friday night at Phoenix.
Washington began the weekend a half-game behind eighth-place Milwaukee in the East, but the Wizards actually need to finish ahead of the Bucks because they lost the season series – and the playoff tiebreaker – to Milwaukee.
And while the Bucks finish their season with a relatively easy schedule (five of their seven April games are at home; with road games vs. Toronto and Chicago), the Wizards must play 11 of their final 15 on the road.
“No one expects us to do well, so what’s the purpose – other than to go out there and let it go and see what happens?” Jordan said.
Playing in front of flashbulb-popping sellout crowds on the road, Washington has struggled – going 9-21 overall and 2-10 in its last 12. The current trip takes the Wizards to Phoenix, Golden State, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles and Denver.
“We’re a team that doesn’t have a margin for error,” coach Doug Collins said. “We can’t dwell on the fact that we’ve won two of our last 12. If we do, we shouldn’t go on the trip. We have to go out there with positive thoughts.”
Bird watch
Larry Bird still wants to be part-owner of an NBA team, but not the Milwaukee Bucks.
“It’s too cold in Milwaukee,” he told the Naples (Fla.) Daily News. “Milwaukee’s got a great team. It’s a good city. I always enjoyed playing there, but that’s a little bit too far north for me.”
The Bucks are one of a handful of NBA teams that are for sale, and Bird wouldn’t tip his hand when asked which ones he was looking at.
He was a partner with Boston businessman Steven Belkin in the group that bid on the Charlotte expansion team that instead was awarded to billionaire Robert Johnson.
“I’ve got a few things going on,” Bird said. “I’m still very disappointed over the Charlotte deal, but that’s the way it goes.
“It hurt. We’ve got to move on. We’ve got some things going on, and hopefully in the near future we’ll get one.”
The Hall of Famer retired as a player in 1992 after 13 seasons with the Boston Celtics, then coached the Indiana Pacers for three seasons before stepping down in 2000.
Bird has been out of professional basketball since, although he has been a season-ticket holder at Florida Gulf Coast University, where he was especially fond of the women’s team that went 30-1.
The Darko Rule
Commissioner David Stern misspoke at his All-Star news conference when he gave the details of a rule change regarding the eligibility of some international prospects for the 2003 draft.
Now commonly called the “Darko Rule,” it will make 17-year-old Yugoslavia prospect Darko Milicic eligible for the upcoming draft. Milicic turns 18 a few days before the draft.
At his news conference, Stern said any foreign player turning 18 in the calendar year of the draft could make himself eligible. That would mean a player who turns 18 as late as Dec. 31 could be eligible.
But the league and the players’ union actually agreed to open the draft to anyone who turns 18 prior to draft night, which is June 26.
“There was some confusion when the announcement was initially made,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank said Friday. A union attorney confirmed that assessment.
One player who could be affected by Stern’s misstatement is 17-year-old Korean high school junior Ha Seung-Jin, a 7-foot-3, 305-pound center who turns 18 in August – making him draft-ineligible until 2004.
Ha recently spent several days in Los Angeles with representatives of SFX Sports, who carried out a series of training sessions that measured shooting accuracy, pivot play, flexibility and physical strength, the Korea Times reported.
“A high-ranking SFX official told me that my son will surely be a first-round pick in the NBA draft next year,” said Ha Dong-ki, the player’s father.
Euroleague on TV
NBA TV, the league’s 24-hour television network, will begin showing an International Game of the Week on March 22.
The first game is a Euroleague matchup of FC Barcelona vs. Alba Berlin. Barcelona features Dejan Bodiroga, the MVP of the 2002 World Championships whose NBA rights are held by the Sacramento Kings.
“He could play in the NBA. He plays in Europe because of the money,” Kings center Vlade Divac said of Bodiroga, who was taken with a second-round pick in 1995.
Fans of former NBA journeyman center Victor Alexander can catch him during the next week’s telecast of CSKA (Russia) taking on Virtus Bologna. Alexander plays for the Russian club.
“With 65 international players now playing in the NBA, there is an increased interest in the best basketball and best players playing overseas,” said Gregg Winik, vice president of programming for NBA TV. “It is only fitting that NBA TV lead the way with weekly coverage of international games.”
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