Jordan To Announce Retirement

Michael Jordan said he would go out on top. Apparently, he will.

Jordan planned to announce his retirement Wednesday at a news conference in Chicago, a source with close ties to the NBA told The Associated Press on Monday night.

If so, it would be the second time in five years that the greatest player in NBA history and the most popular athlete since Muhammad Ali walked away from the game.

"I don't have any reaction. I don't have any comments," said Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf when reached at his Arizona home.

Asked about Jordan's retirement, Bulls spokesman Tim Hallam said, "At this particular time, I can't comment."

However, Jordan's retirement also was reported by The New York Times, USA Today and The Denver Post.

There had been considerable speculation about Jordan's future ever since he hit the final, thrilling shot in Game 6 of the NBA Finals in Utah to lock up the Bulls sixth championship of the decade. That speculation intensified last week, when the NBA players and owners reached a settlement to end the six-month lockout.

Jordan will turn 36 next month. He is a five-time league MVP, and led the NBA in scoring 10 times and averaged 31.5 points per game.

His agent David Falk said that "until he announces whether he is retiring or returning, anything else is speculation."

With NBA players preparing for a fractured season to begin Feb. 5, Jordan was expected to announce his plans before training camps opened Monday. He had been in the Bahamas on vacation, but returned to Chicago earlier this week. Another sourc, who also requested anonymity, told the AP that Jordan summoned teammates Scottie Pippen and Ron Harper to his home to discuss the team's future.

Jordan retired from the Bulls the first time in October 1993, saying he had accomplished everything he wanted to in basketball and planned to devote more time to his family. Instead, he spent 1994 playing minor league baseball for the Double-A Birmingham Barons, a farm team of the Chicago White Sox. The budding outfield prospect left baseball in the spring of 1995, and decided to return to the game he loved.

While his skills were still considerable, Jordan quickly learned he could no longer dominate the game the way he once did. The Bulls were knocked out of the postseason in the Eastern Conference semifinals by Orlando.

But then, just as he had in every previous off-season, Jordan went back to work. He added a nearly unstoppable fadeaway jump shot to his arsenal and after a rigorous weight-training and conditioning program, he came back the next season better than ever. The Bulls then set off on another three-peat that ended last June in Utah with Jordan stealing the ball and making the game-clinching shot in the final seconds -- one of the most memorable sequences of his remarkable career.

It was precisely the lack of off-season work this past summer that had many of Jordan's teammates doubting he would return.

"He prepares as well as anybody but from all I hear, he's been playing golf and going to the Bahamas," teammate Steve Kerr said recently. "Unless he's working out in a hidden gym somewhere down in the Bahamas, I don't think he's really preparing to play."

© 1999 SportsLine USA, Inc. All rights reserved