Michael Jordan announces retirement at season end

[Nick]

No, this is not a jordan flame session...

WASHINGTON -- Michael Jordan said Thursday he will retire for the third and final time after this season and resume his role as partial owner of the Washington Wizards.

Jordan told reporters after practice that there is "zero chance'' of him coming back again, The Washington Post and the Carroll County (Md.) Times reported.

"I tell you right now that I'm just fulfilling my contract,'' said Jordan, who signed a two-year, $2.1 million deal with Washington last year after stepping down from his executive duties. "At the end of this season, I'm not looking at another contract. I just want to finish this year out and hopefully fulfill my obligations and let this team take its own course.''

Some said he was the greatest...some didn't...


His presence will be missed.......for the third time


Read here for more details... http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2002/1128/1468224.html

[mkool8]

Personally, I could care less about his future plans about his career as a player. I'm just tired of it now.

He's still the greates though.

[Andrew]

I'm a Michael Jordan fan, but I'm still glad to hear it. Jordan himself said that he was not the future of the franchise. Having him around for the long term would not help the franchise. He's brought some attention to the Wizards, probably drawn a few fans back to the NBA because of his fame, and he's contributed to the Wizards' modest success. But it is still time for him to head off into the proverbial sunset. Hopefully he'll have a few "vintage Jordan" moments en route to his final retirement, since this Wizards' season has now become the Michael Jordan Farewell Tour - though deep down, I still think that should have been the 1997/1998 season.

[Andrew]

On a related note: Jordan ready for more minutes if Wizards don't play well

[Brave Sir Rubin]

it's good to see Michael Jordan stop playing after this season...no need to pull a stockalone and get crazily criticized...

he will be a great GM for the Wiz, might take them far....i just hope to see him in tha playoffs this year...

[poorch]

Jordan was truly one of the greastest of all time...
but sometimes its jus the rite time to call it quits, this would be his 3rd
retirement... best to retire b4 doing further damage to his legacy
signs that point to retirment when u cant dunk at all

[MC Hao]

Hey! PoorCH! I like your SLAM DUNK picture, I am a big fan of that cartoon series!

[Tyus Edney's Agent]

All i have to say is finally. The whole retire and comeback thing is ridiculious. He embarassed himself by coming back. He had nothing to gain and respect to lose. he could have ended his career on hitting to finals winning shot against utah but instead i will remember his missed dunk at the all star game. It's just sad when a player holds on to his sport to long.

[Nick]

Well his wizard comeback did place him higher on the All time highest career points rankings...He made a lot of people happy...and made the wizards a better team, not to mention more respectable...

[GloveGuy]

All i have to say is finally. The whole retire and comeback thing is ridiculious. He embarassed himself by coming back. He had nothing to gain and respect to lose. he could have ended his career on hitting to finals winning shot against utah but instead i will remember his missed dunk at the all star game. It's just sad when a player holds on to his sport to long.

Michael's comback was all for the love of the game. Who are you to say that it was stupid of him to comeback? And don't you think that he thought of the chance that he would ruin the significance of the last shot? He definitely didn't embarass himself, scoring in the 50's one game and 45 in the next. Now about the missed dunk, that was the all-star game. Had it been a real game, he might have just layed it up. I found it funny and so did he. But embarassing himself? Yeah, a few times he did but do some spectacular things that most players still can't do. He still mastered the fadeaway and he still hit the winning shots when he had to. Had the MVP award been given at the all-star break, he wouldn't have been to far from winning it. Yes, he did get injured, and yes, the Wizards didn't make the playoffs, but he it would be very Jordan-hating to say that his comeback has been a failure.

[:digerati:]

signs that point to retirment when u cant dunk at all

Silly John Stockton, Isiah Thomas, Nate Archibald, John Havlicek, Bill Laimbeer, Jerry Lucas, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (in LA), Bob Cousy, Jerry West, Lenny Wilkens and all those other NBA players that couldn't ever dunk. Why didn't they just retire from the start?

[Stevan]

Kareem couldn't dunk? Yeah that midget, no wonder he had to use the hook! LOL.

[BIG GREEN]

bout time he retires...hehe..for the 3rd time.Guy retires more than george foreman

[:digerati:]

Kareem couldn't dunk? Yeah that midget, no wonder he had to use the hook! LOL.

Well, he never dunked. Consider it like Iverson. We all know Iverson can dunk but he just never does it.

Actually, should Iverson retire? He never dunks? Do we even know if he can dunk more than Jordan?

[ningtong88]

good, I don't want to see my hero score only 6 or 8pts a game anymore, he should have quited last year.

[air gordon]

"We all know Iverson can dunk but he just never does it. " i'm not sure which iverson you are referring to but i've seen allen iverson dunk in a nba game versus the knicks. in fact, he's dunked the ball many times.

[Tyus Edney's Agent]

in fact, he's dunked the ball many times.

He lays up the ball 99.9 percent of the time. I can count all the many times iverson has dunked on my hand.

[GloveGuy]

Interestingly enough, in the SLAM Classic: 50 Greatest Dunkers Of All Time, the Answer is #30. In college he would dunk nightly but now he doesn't much. BTW, he was voted over guys like T-Mac, Terence Stansbury(Statue of Libert 360), Darvin Ham, Maggete, and Larry Johnson.

[:digerati:]

i'm not sure which iverson you are referring to but i've seen allen iverson dunk in a nba game versus the knicks. in fact, he's dunked the ball many times.

I've seen him dunk in NBA games too. He did it all the time as a Rookie, he just doesn't do it anymore, does that mean he should retire?

[air gordon]

"He did it all the time as a Rookie, he just doesn't do it anymore, "

it would be really amazing if all of iverson's fgm were dunks in his rookie year. if i'm not mistaken, iverson has dunked the ball this year.

[:digerati:]

So has Jordan. The point is, Iverson dunks nowhere near as many times as he used to. Someone stated a sign of time to retire is when you dunk as much as Jordan. So, should Iverson retire because he isn't throwing them down left and right every game?

[Bill Russell]

No, he shouldn't... Now let's stop with this nonsense logic bullshit.

[Andrew]

I don't know about anyone else, but it's my understanding the point about not being able to dunk anymore was an example of how age has seen a decline in MJ's physical ability, the old cliche of the mind being willing but the flesh being weak.

[TheBob]

Ya, I agree with Andrew. The fact of the matter is that Jordan doesn't dunk as much as he used to because of his deminished athletic ability unlike Iverson who choses not to dunk. Btw does anyone know why Iverson doesn't dunk anymore? It seems kind of odd that he would just stop. I'm thinking that it may be to conserve energy but thats a complete guess.

[scubilete]

Sure Jordan should retire, I loved his comeback to the wizards cause made things interesting regarding competition but now that they have a team to have a good run, I don't think MJ is doing much out there anymore.
Regarding the missing dunks I think is part of the show, Dominique Wilkins, one of the best when dunking we are talking, has missed dunks as well, even in an all star game as well. We will see Vince in a short time missing as well, lol

Yeah right, Jabbar couldn't dunk a ball, lol. I read Lew Alcindor (K.Abdul Jabbar) while in high school he dunked the ball so many times that the Assoc. in charge had to get some strange rule about not allowing more dunks, that's when he had to develop his sky hook, bcause all his other shoots were going to be rejected directly to his face now that he couldn't dunk.