Jordan Leaves On His Own Terms

It was on his terms and in his words. The greatest basketball player we've ever seen retired Wednesday with six NBA championships, 10 scoring titles and five Most Valuable Player awards.

Although he retired once before for the 1993 season and until the 66th game of the 1994-95 season following the tragic death of his father to attempt baseball, he concluded he's 99.9 percent certain he's finished for good this time.

Why leave the crack open in the door to return?

"Because it's my one percent, not yours," Jordan said in a press conference from the United Center in Chicago. "That's why."

He smiled when he said that. He reiterated that he would "never say never" with his 36th birthday coming next month. He embarrassingly said he couldn't have played for two months anyway thanks to severing a tendon in his right index finger while cutting a cigar ... and therein is the story of why Jordan retired just seven months after his 18-foot jump shot with 5.3 seconds to go won the Chicago Bulls their sixth title in eight years.

Most people believe this is the end. He doesn't want to be Willie Mays falling down in center field trying to a catch a fly ball in a New York Mets uniform, or O.J. Simpson hobbling in a San Francisco 49ers uniform, or the embarrassing returns and re-retirements of Magic Johnson. When Jim Brown retired at the age of 29 with just one NFL championship, that was too soon. Jordan figured it out.

Part of his genius is understanding himself and the timing of his celebrity. He conceded his skill level and conditioning wouldn't be as much a problem as his competitive zeal and that has been the biggest part of his success -- if only because nobody ever has competed at a higher level of intensity than Michael Jordan.

esides, Jordan's endorsements are at an all-time high and he couldn't have scripted a better ending than the way the Bulls won the title last June. The protracted collective bargaining that had the game locked out until next month also played a role, ("but I think the decision would have been the same in October if they were playing," he said.)

In fact, he considered his late father James, who was murdered in his car in 1993 on a back road in North Carolina. And that was the closest he came to getting emotional during the one-hour press conference that included commentary from Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who gave him his 1998 NBA Championship ring; NBA commissioner David Stern; and a low-key comment from his wife Juanita.

"What you see from me, he would have done the same thing," Jordan said of his father. "He probably would have loved to answer the questions before I even answered the questions. He probably would have said, 'This is this perfect time. The writing is on the wall, take it, walk with your head held high, enjoy your kids and move on.'"

Hollywood couldn't have scripted a better ending than the one Michael Jordan wrote for himself. (AP)

So he will move on to focusing more on his endorsement obligations, multiple businesses, improving his golf game and ultimately Juanita and their three children ... Jeffrey, Marcus and Jasmine.

Jordan waxed on about how he enjoys taking the kids to school and Juanita and he love watching them play, especially Jeffrey and Marcus playing one-on-one. But she knows better than to presume he'll be a stay-at-home dad in their suburban Chicago home in glitzy Highland Park, other than occasionally taking the kids to school as he did Wednesday morning.

"Actually," she said in a bemused manner, "our life won't change at all. I see Michael doing more carpooling, but that's about it."

Because, after all, he is Michael Jordan. He is the consummate international celebrity and he refused to go into detail over the frustration of such status, despite his obvious displeasure over some presumptions in the media over the years that he said just weren't true.

Mostly, it's been the alleged gambling and womanizing, that Jordan insists, "Just aren't true, but it's part of what I have to deal with as a celebrity."

The sparkle came into his eyes when he talked about the phone calls he made to Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone and the other superstars who have failed to usurp his kingly status as a champion they could not dethrone.

The difference is, he was able to whisk away the championship mantel from Johnson, Julius Erving and Larry Bird. Today's players ave all tried but continuously failed. And now they never will.

"I like that," he said, glowing. "They can never say they did it, and I'll always kid them about it when I see them socially."

Above all else, Jordan is a gamesman of incomparable focus, and that includes playing politics. He has always, by design, stayed above the fray when it comes to matters of race and politics. He is the ultimate neutral statesman. Although the retirement of Phil Jackson from coaching initially was a reason for retirement, he backed off of that and said he hadn't spoken to Jackson since mid-summer. He isn't thrilled with the new collective bargaining agreement, but is OK with it since the majority ruled.

And as for his contentious relationship with Reinsdorf and club president Jerry Krause, he put that to rest too, saying when it mattered most, they all focused on winning championships. "Now they have to learn how to win without Michael Jordan," he said.

With regard to his successors atop the game, nobody can replicate him. Just as he was not Julius Erving or Elgin Baylor, Grant Hill and Kobe Bryant are not Michael Jordan.

"Everybody has to evolve in their own way," Jordan said. "You can pick up pieces from others, but you have to evolve as a person."

Which is exactly where Jordan is going. He isn't quite sure where just yet. But with his charisma and love of life, it doesn't really matter what he decides. Chicago will continue to be his home and we will see him through the eyes of others who won't let him go.

"I don't think I can go into seclusion and I don't think I can solve the world's problems," Jordan said. "I can't save the world by (any) means."

Nonetheless, he is Michael Jordan and he has helped the world turn through basketball for the better part of two decades. How basketball will proceed without him is a different story and will happen at a different rate of speed. Regardless, we have all been treated to a special entertainer since 1984 -- save 18 months of a poor but entitled attempt at baseball.

And it's his decision to bid farewell in any manner he chooses. We owe him that much.

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