Blood on the Horns by Roland Lazenby

Author:Roland Lazenby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SPORTS & RECREATION/Basketball
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2013-08-27T04:00:00+00:00

PAIR OF DICE LOST

After their win at home over New Jersey early in the 1997-98 season, the Bulls traveled to Cleveland and lost again, after which Jordan complained that they looked “like an expansion team.” Then they returned home and lost in the United Center to the Washington Wizards in a game remarkable for Jordan’s growing frustration. With Pippen out, teams could focus on him. Every basket became a fight. Normally a willing interview, he left after the game without speaking to the media.

Suddenly, Chicago’s record was 4-4, and observers suggested that perhaps Jordan was carrying too much of the burden. He was averaging 26 points a game but, with an inflamed right wrist and sore right index finger, his usually stellar field goal shooting had drooped to the 38 percent range. “When he does try to do too much it means that he feels there’s a lack of aggressiveness by his teammates,” Jackson told reporters. “They don’t know what to do or they’re floundering. So he picks up the ball and starts carrying it on his own, and right now he’s not shooting well enough to do that.”

What was worse, neither were his teammates. As a team, Chicago was shooting 41.5 percent and scoring 87.5 points per game. For 1997, the Bulls had averaged 103 points per game. Without Pippen, they had failed to score 100 points in any of their eight games. “Our offense has always been able to provide Michael space to score, and the other players an opportunity to hit open shots when he’s double-teamed,” Jackson said. “Right now, what’s really frustrating is that he’s finding guys off the double-team and we’re not making those shots.”

“Those of us around Michael aren’t contributing enough, and Michael’s trying to take it upon himself to score,” Steve Kerr agreed. “As a result, we’re out of whack.”

Kerr would finally figure that his own poor performances were a matter of worrying about the team’s conflict, about the future. It was then, early in the season, that he decided just to have fun, as Jackson had been encouraging them all to do, “to live for the moment.”

“We’re in a shooting slump. We have been since the season started,” Jackson acknowledged. “We’ll break free of it, and when we do we’re going to win games in bunches.”

It looked like Rodman would contribute to the woes that Friday night, November 14th against the Charlotte Hornets. As game time grew nearer, he was no where to be found. The next day, headlines would report the incident as yet another sign of impending doom for the team. Yet Rodman had actually been sidetracked by nature. Driving to the United Center, he had been suddenly struck by the need to go to the bathroom. Then the urge became immediate. Unfortunately, he was in a residential area. Frantically, he got on his cell phone and dialed the United Center looking for directions to a restroom. Apparently that effort produced no results,

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