Reinventing Himself

No longer quite the airborne force he'd once been, Jordan embarked on his second NBA career with renewed enthusiasm and a new weapon

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Posted: Wednesday January 13, 1999 06:18 PM

John Beiver

By Phil Taylor

Only Michael Jordan could come back and fade away at the same time. When he returned to the Bulls after his 17-month retirement, it was clear that Jordan was a different player, and not just because of the 45 that had temporarily replaced the 23 on his uniform. He was no longer the basketball stuntman who treated gravity as a suggestion rather than a law. He had toned down his game, deciding that at 32 the time had come to be more efficient than spectacular. That was evident almost from the first moment of the first game of his return. Jordan was ready to unveil a new style, and its signature was the fadeaway jump shot.

He had refined the shot in pickup games with his Birmingham Barons teammates. Jordan wasn't going to risk driving to the basket against a bunch of amateurs who might unintentionally hurt him, so he contented himself with turning and shooting over them, falling back as he released to keep himself out of harm's way.

Although Jordan had always been a good outside shooter, he had made his name on thrilling slashes to the hoop—that was what the people came to see. Every time he took the jumper, effective as it usually was, the fans were let down just a little, as when a Mark McGwire hits a single. But in that first game back, against the Indiana Pacers in March 1995, it was obvious that the fadeaway was Jordan's new best friend. He would create space by giving his defender a shoulder fake, then step back for the shot, often landing on one foot and contorting his body
as the ball sailed toward the rim—as if he were trying to will it in with body language. He appeared to be experimenting, determining if this new move was worth working on. "I was a little hesitant in that first game," he would say later that season. "I was testing things. I knew people were going to be playing me for the drive, daring me to hit the jumper. So if they were going to give it to me, I was going to take it."

That would be his approach to the final years of his career. Instead of soaring over or knifing through defenders, Jordan would counter the moves a defense made against him. When an opponent used a smaller, quicker guard to defend him, he would back his way into the low post and shoot the graceful fadeaway. When he faced a taller defender, Jordan would take him out on the perimeter, put him on his heels with a few fakes and create an open jump shot. Every now and then he would take the ball to the rim, just to remind everyone that he still could.

He took 28 shots in that first game back, many of them fadeaways, and made only seven. But the striking thing was how easily he was able to free himself for the shots, even after such a long layoff. Defenders still found themselves almost helpless against Jordan, reduced to hoping he would miss—a fact not lost on Larry Brown, the coach of the Pacers at the time. "If he ever starts making that shot consistently," Brown said of the fadeaway, "he's going to be even better than he was when he left."

Jordan did, of course, start making those shots, and the fadeaway became the trademark of the final stage of his career. But even in that first game against the Pacers, when he was rusty and in less than top condition, it should have been obvious that he would regain his old dominance. Jordan didn't try to work himself gradually back into the Bulls' offense, and he didn't come off the bench to play just a few minutes
as he worked himself back into game shape. Immediately he stepped into his old role as the leader and focal point of the Bulls. Jordan was still Jordan. He still considered himself the best, and it would not be long before the rest of the world once again agreed with him.

From Sports Illustrated Presents: A Michael Jordan Commemorative. Look for this special issue on newsstands nationwide beginning Friday, January 15. A numbered, hardbound collector's edition may be ordered by phone at (800) 662-4512.

 

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