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Thursday, April 4, 2002
Into thin Air: Jordan done for the season

By Joseph White
Associated Press
Knee injury finally forces Wiz guard out
   WASHINGTON - A day after his worst scoring game ever, Michael Jordan woke up with a swollen right knee and decided enough was enough.
   Jordan was placed on the injured list Wednesday by the Washington Wizards, and he said he is done for the season.
   "I think it is best at this point to rest the knee and let it heal properly," Jordan said in a statement. "I tried to get back and play as soon as possible and, early on, the knee responded well. But after the swelling this morning, I think it's best to give it rest."
   Jordan ends his season with a 22.9-point scoring average, the second lowest of his career. He averaged 22.7 in his second season with the Chicago Bulls in 1985-86, when played just 18 games because of a broken foot.
   "He's a great competitor and he demonstrated that he can come back and be a top-10 player," NBA commissioner David Stern said in Toronto. "I hope he's better for next year."
   Unless the Wizards overtake Indiana for the last Eastern Conference berth in the final two weeks of the season, Jordan will have played for a non-playoff team for the first time.
   The 39-year-old star reiterated he plans to play next season if he is able.
   "I signed a two-year contract to play," Jordan said. "Obviously, my health will always determine my playing status. But at this time, my plan is to play next season."
   Jordan rushed his rehabilitation from the arthroscopic surgery Feb. 27 that repaired torn cartilage in the knee. He missed just 12 games and returned March 20 in Denver. He was a reserve in all seven games after he came back, and his knee bothered him so much that he wasn't able to play unless he pedaled an exercise bicycle in the tunnel during games.
   "I think Michael realizes he pushed the envelope trying to come back too quickly," coach Doug Collins said. "Last night before the game I went in to see him and I could see it was physically swollen. I didn't even want him to play last night, and you know Michael being the competitor that he is said 'I want to give it a whirl or whatever' and I said OK.
   "Now I got the call this afternoon that he recognizes the fact that the only way that knee is going to get better is to rest. And what he said to me was he's going to shut it down, let the thing heal, get the inflammation out of there. And whether that's six weeks or eight weeks or whatever it might be.
   "And he's doing it with the idea that he wants to play next year."
   Jordan played a career-low 12 minutes and scored a career-low two points - all in the first half - in Tuesday night's 113-93 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. For the first time in his career, he was a marginal, no-factor player off the bench.
   Collins said he didn't play Jordan in the second half because the game was one-sided. Afterward, Jordan said his knee felt fine, but Lakers coach Phil Jackson, Jordan's former coach with the Bulls, knew better.
   "He was a shadow of himself. ... You could see it coming by the way he played that it was a struggle," Jackson said Wednesday night before the Lakers game at New Jersey.

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