Jordan Ashamed of Wizard Years

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The first two installments of Jordan's career were an unmitigated success -- with him winning six NBA championships, five NBA most valuable player awards and 10 scoring titles with the Chicago Bulls and becoming a global marketing icon who made kids want to "be like Mike." But Jordan's third and final installment, with the Wizards, remains a blip on his otherwise illustrious career, partly because his game bore little resemblance to that legendary figure and mostly because of an acrimonious split from the organization.

"I think Michael feels very bad about the two years he spent playing here," Jordan's Washington-based representative, Curtis Polk, said in a recent telephone interview. "It's not something he wants out here, but obviously, it's part of history."

Jordan has rarely spoken about his final two seasons with the Wizards and declined to be interviewed for this story through a spokesman. Former Washington Sports and Entertainment president Susan O'Malley and Wizards minority owner Ted Leonsis, who was instrumental in helping lure Jordan to the organization, both declined to comment.

That is the extent to which the Wizards will acknowledge one of their former players entering the shrine in Springfield, Mass. Jordan's time in Washington hasn't exactly been redacted from the Wizards history books, but it is hardly glorified. His jersey has been retired by two franchises, but Washington isn't one of them. (The Bulls, who have also honored Jordan with a statue in front of United Center, is one. Miami is the other.)


Aside from a few mentions in the team media guide and the occasional sight of a fan in a Wizards No. 23 jersey at games or on the street, that period in franchise history is mostly ignored. You certainly couldn't purchase his jersey in the team store.

"The people who ask why the Wizards don't celebrate Michael Jordan, my question is, 'How do you do it?' We had the greatest player of all time playing in our uniform and it was great. Did we sell out the building? Yes. Did we win? No," said a Wizards official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the individual was not authorized to make public comments. "How do you celebrate it appropriately? I don't think it's something we sweep under the rug. In some ways, we'd get criticized if we did celebrate it."

In an interview with "60 Minutes" in October 2005, Jordan said the Wizards "used" him and he never would have come back if he had known that Pollin wouldn't welcome him back to the front office. "I didn't have to" come back, he said. "But I did it with the benefit of trying to help an organization to get back on their feet. And the gratitude that was given? It was, 'Your service is no longer wanted or needed.' So I felt like I was used in a sense."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/08/AR2009090803277.html

 

[Newskoolbulls]

Ashamed of the two years he played? why he should just be ashamed of all the moves he made not what he did on the court.