Chicago Sun-Times: MJ gambling with more than he has to lose

WASHINGTON -- It's sad, not to mention haunting and troubling, that Michael Jordan's only association with a Bulls-Wizards playoff series would involve gambling. He has yet to appear at a competition that links his two NBA pasts, but his ghostly presence hovers nonetheless with this cold news: His insatiable lust for wagering spilled into his fruitless, ill-advised comeback in D.C.

Once again, as he was a dozen springs ago, Air Jordan is Dare Jordan. Or Michael the Welcher, if you prefer.

No one is shocked anymore by reports about Jordan and gambling, simply because we've known about it since the days of Richard Esquinas and Slim Bouler, known that he hasn't stopped gambling and known that $100,000 in his hand is the common man's equivalent of $100. But what's bothersome about the latest tale -- that he and Richard [Rip] Hamilton participated in high-stakes shooting contests as Wizards teammates three seasons ago -- is Jordan's involvement in that period as a front-office executive who owned a piece of the franchise. True, he was forced to sell his ownership stake in the Wizards when he suited up for two playoff-less seasons, but he still was making the big decisions for the basketball operation and still had every intention of returning to the board room before owner Abe Pollin fired him. Once he crossed into management, with a stated goal of becoming a controlling owner of an NBA team, it was a reckless breach of responsibility to shoot for post-practice megabucks with Hamilton -- inside league arenas, mind you -- while making teammates wait outside on the bus for as long as 90 minutes so Jordan could recoup his losses.

The way Hamilton explained it to Bloomberg News, Jordan refused to leave the court until he had broken even in their regular competition of halfcourt heaves, regardless if he was down as much as a reported $40,000. This tells me Jordan, once described by his father as having a competition problem," hasn't shaken what accurately can be termed a competition sickness. It's now channeled awkwardly into his AMA Superbike racing team, which competed over the weekend in Southern California, far from the city where his former teams collide and another gambling story has surfaced.

We never exchanged money. We played until he got even," Hamilton said. When you are Michael Jordan, the best player who ever played - - and the team president -- nobody is going to leave until you get even."

All sorts of questions are valid, such as whether the gambling contests were a factor when Jordan sent Hamilton to the Detroit Pistons in a 2002 deal for Jerry Stackhouse. The Bloomberg News piece also detailed stories about NBA players and high-stakes dice games and poker games, mentioning that Jordan's close pal, Charles Oakley, once slapped Tyrone Hill and threw basketballs at him after Hill didn't pay a $60,000 debt. And how much money really was involved here? Considering Jordan has been known to make routine seven-figure plays in casinos and on golf courses, let the imagination wander. I can't say how much we were playing for, but we were betting a large amount per shot," said Hamilton, now a star making $7.8 million this season.

Stern needs to step in

Assuming Hamilton is telling the truth about money not being exchanged, the matter likely will be downplayed by NBA commissioner David Stern, who seems to be waffling on his anti-gambling platform after investigating Jordan's gambling activities in 1993. Despite his vigorous crusades against legalized betting on games, Stern may place his 2007 All-Star Game in Las Vegas, which could be a way of greasing the skids for an NBA franchise in Sin City. Stern says he has been assured by the city's sports books that they won't accept wagers on the All-Star Game, but doing business with the devil in any way is suspicious at best. Knowing Jordan's love of Vegas and his business ventures there, wouldn't he foam at the mouth to own the local team?

Hopefully, I am getting way ahead of myself about Vegas. Because any link of Jordan to gambling -- and this is what is so disturbing about the Wizards report -- only brings back distant, dark and damaging memories of his relationships with shady people. With the final chapters of his life story still in development, Jordan risks further harm to his movie script by going down the wrong road again. Betting with Hamilton on halfcourt practice shots isn't exactly a Pete Rose scandal. But it does send mixed messages about that still- hazy issue -- just who exactly is Michael Jordan? -- while leaving an impression not nearly as warm and fuzzy as his Hanes commercials, in which he's shooting billiards with actor Matthew Perry.

Uh, did anyone check with Perry to see if Jordan was down $40,000?

Jordan's future is at stake

It's difficult to imagine Stern, even in his pro-Vegas mode, approving Jordan as an owner without assurances that gambling will be out of his life. The NBA office refused comment on the Jordan- Hamilton story, as did the Jordan camp. But if I were Stern, I'd say something publicly, just to reaffirm his anti-gambling stance. I'd also say something in private to Jordan, such as, You're gambling with your ownership future."

It's a shame Michael isn't part of this series in a more harmless, visible way. For those loons who think Ben Gordon is a sufficient replacement, I seem to recall Jordan turning the Chicago Bulls into a global phenomenon and bringing six titles to a city that is working on 185 collective seasons without a World Series champion and has been to one Super Bowl. And while they mock him here for his sluggish performance as a Wizards decision-maker -- the media guide barely makes mention of him -- he was more effective than critics want to believe. Yes, he drafted a bust, Kwame Brown, with the No. 1 pick in 2001. But he did assemble half the playoff roster, including Larry Hughes, Brendan Haywood, Jared Jeffries, Etan Thomas and Juan Dixon. And please don't forget how he bailed out Pollin's shaky franchise and turned red ink to black.

Also, take a look around the MCI Center. All you see are long blocks of new retail strips -- a 14-screen movie theater, a Starbucks, upscale lounges, fine restaurants. While Pollin's people won't admit it, Jordan revitalized a neighborhood that was hopelessly rundown before he put sellout crowds in a new building. All that said, he never should have hitched his name to the Wizards. He muddled the Greatest Ending Ever, a flick of the wrist in Salt Lake City that needed no mediocre addendum.

The Wizards suspect Jordan is pulling for the Bulls. My guess is, he's not paying much attention. His rooting interest is for all of us to stop bugging him about his gambling life, but for the biggest athlete of a generation, it isn't that simple.

Not when you're the boss and you're playing double-or-nothing with your legacy.

Jay Mariotti is a regular on "Around the Horn" at 4 p.m. on ESPN. Send e-mail to inbox@suntimes.com with name, hometown and daytime phone number (letters run Sunday).