Tank's Take 4/10/01

A whole generation of children up dreaming to be as the Gatorade slogan suggested Like Mike. However if Michael Jordan's first year and a half as President of the Wizards is any indication Mike grew up wanting to be Like George (Steinbrenner).

In just a little over a season and half Jordan has fired 3 coaches, and almost completely turned over his roster. One cannot blame him for being dissatisfied

with his team's play, as the Wizards have beenconsistently one of the worst teams in the NBA over the last 10 years.

When Jordan took over the Washington Wizards he could not possibly imagine how hard it was to turn a loser into a winner. Like everything in his basketball career he thought his magic touch was all that was needed. However, Jordan made a classic mistake of a great player running a team as a GM or Coach, and that was to assume the player's all could play at his level. However, the Wizards are viewed as a team that has woefully underachieved. This has only heightened Jordan's frustration, and led to

thoughts of a comeback.

The newest coach (interim coach, judging Jordan's patience so far) is Doug Collins who coached Jordan during his playing days with the Bulls. This has only added fuel to the rumors of a comeback.

A comeback for Jordan would be a big mistake, especially with a team as bad as the Wizards. One of the things that makes Jordan's career so great is his last 6 full seasons resulted in

a championship. His career also had the perfect Hollywood ending when he hit the game winning shot to clinch the NBA Championship in 1998.

That was 3 years ago now, and Jordan is now 39 years old. When he made his first comeback he was 33, and only missed a year and a half. He also remained in good playing shape by playing Minor League Baseball. This time he is not in good playing shape, and is much older. A comeback would give fans the only thing we never seen from Jordan, and that's looking old and washed up on the court. With a comeback that is what is likely to be seen. As for Jordan's new career as an executive, can he turn around the Wizards. I certainly would not bet against him.