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Don't count them out Jordan intent on leading the Wizards to the playoffsPosted: Thursday March 21, 2002 3:39 PMUpdated: Thursday March 21, 2002 9:33 PM
Exactly three weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, Michael Jordan returned to action for the Washington Wizards. No one, not even head coach Doug Collins, expected Jordan to recover that quickly. To push himself into action like that shows that MJ believes his team has a real shot at the postseason. The Wizards went only 4-8 in Jordan's absence, but they were very competitive and managed to stay within three games of a playoff berth. Now Jordan says he feels better than he has all year. The problem is, the Wizards have a monster schedule down the stretch, and even if they survive that, someone else will have to falter for them to move up. The Hornets are back because they're healthy, and Pat Riley's Heat are still hanging in there. If Jordan is able to go 100 percent, though, it will be fun to watch him down the stretch. He's proven that he's capable of keeping the Wizards competitive in every game, so don't count them out just yet.
Charlotte situation has become impossible for ownersCharlotte is a better basketball town than New Orleans, but the situation in North Carolina is such that the owners simply can't stay there. When the Charlotte City Council said a new arena would be built for the Hornets only under different ownership, that made it impossible for George Shinn and Ray Wooldridge to keep the team in Charlotte.
You can't blame the citizens for not wanting to finance a new arena, but you can't blame the owners for wanting a state-of-the-art facility, either, and New Orleans is offering that. A team needs luxury boxes to survive today, but it's still a shame the Hornets have to leave. The league sees it that way, too, and it will do everything it can to keep to the team in Charlotte, but it's a bad situation, and eventually the other NBA owners will allow the team to move. If they were put in the same situation as Shinn and Wooldridge, they'd want to leave, too, so it will go through.
Don't be fooled by Lakers' lullThe Lakers have stumbled during their Texas two-step, losing to the Mavs and Spurs on back-to-back nights, but don't be fooled into thinking they'll be vulnerable in the postseason. The team isn't as good as it was last year -- Ron Harper and Horace Grant were both very familiar with Phil Jackson's system, and Tyronn Lue did a nice job against Allen Iverson in the Finals. This season, Lindsey Hunter isn't playing as well as they'd hoped, and Samaki Walker has been hurt. But they've still got Kobe and Shaq, and that might be enough. The thing that makes L.A. so tough is that everybody looks at last year's postseason, when the Lakers went 15-1, and sees there was no way to handle Shaq. When the game is played in the half-court and the big man takes it up a notch, the Lakers don't beleive anybody can stop him. While the Mavs' strategy of drawing Shaq out and making him guard someone -- and possibly getting him into foul trouble -- has as good a chance as any, I wouldn't bet on it getting them past L.A. in the playoffs. I still like the Lakers.
Kevin Loughery is a former NBA player and head coach. He appears each Sunday on CNN/SI's This Week in the NBA.
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