Casual
BARNES, FRED
Casual OFF TO SEE THE WIZARDS Where there was economic stagnation, now there's prosperity. Where there was weakness in confronting rivals, there's strength and cunning. Where there was a moral...
...The low point was last season...
...Wizards-avoidance also extended to my family...
...And my quality of life is a lot better, too...
...By reconciling, by their behavior, the Jordans did exactly that...
...The area around the MCI Center, where Jordan plays for the Washington Wizards after ending his retirement from basketball, is booming like never before...
...I was a Wizards fan even before they moved to Washington in 1974...
...My son Freddy, quite a sports fan in his own right, didn't bother with an excuse...
...Now to my quality of life...
...Wrong...
...Anyway, I splurged and got season tickets and have kept them year after year...
...It's literally true that you couldn't give Wizards tickets away...
...The team was bad and boring...
...If they've lost, there's a reasonable expectation they'll win the next game, and go to the playoffs and perhaps to the NBA championship, and be an enduring source of happiness for me and thousands of others...
...Who has produced all this...
...As for family values, remember that Jordan's wife Juanita filed for divorce a few weeks ago...
...Others suddenly recalled they had visitors arriving from the hinterland...
...But it's the games themselves that are mainly responsible for my enhanced quality of life...
...But since my family has first claim, the tickets aren't available very often...
...Freddy doesn't want to miss a game...
...Where there was a moral swamp, there's a return to family values...
...The only time recently when visions of another championship danced in the heads of fans like me was when two former University of Michigan stars, Juwan Howard and Chris Webber, showed up...
...I'm not kidding...
...This was motivated, I guess, partly because hockey's exciting, partly because he was given a stick once used by Mario Lemieux, and partly to erect a wall of separation from the Wizards...
...It would be powerful if he would say (either publicly or by his behavior) marriage can be tough, but it's important, worth some significant sacrifice, some trying again...
...The only time the franchise won the National Basketball Association championship was in 1977-78, the year I had a sabbatical from journalism and was out of town...
...Both have been traded to other teams...
...My daughters want to go, all three of them...
...My wife Barbara, whose interest in the team waned when Earl (the Pearl) Monroe left eons ago, is pleased to join me...
...They're fun to watch...
...Turn down tickets...
...People would come up with the darnedest excuses to avoid going to a game...
...Jordan has molded them into a thrilling team in which every player has a role...
...He just said no way...
...Sure...
...They are great players, but it didn't work out...
...The games are totally absorbing...
...After an early losing streak, the Wizards are now winners...
...Its point guard not only got arrested several times, but he also was famous for barfing while sitting on the bench during a game...
...FRED BARNES...
...It was a downer for fans who admire Jordan as a personality and leader in the sports establishment as well as a player...
...Now, with Jordan on board, all that has changed...
...Not a day goes by when someone doesn't say they'd love to go to a Wizards game with me or without me...
...A young man who loves basketball said no because of an urgent need to clean his apartment...
...If the Wizards have won, there's exhilaration and plenty to talk about...
...Exaggerating...
...Michael is a role model for millions of the young and not-so-young," Raspberry wrote...
...The basketball team, a pathetic bunch of journeymen, role players, and malcontents in recent years, is trans formed into a tough and smart contender with Jordan on the court...
...And while rooting for a perennially bad team may not drive them crazy, it does make them miserable a lot of the time...
...The answer is Michael Jordan...
...One hundred dollar seats and you couldn't get rid of them...
...And so on...
...I know...
...It hasn't been a pleasant experience...
...But let me explain...
...As an alternative, he developed a fanatical interest in pro hockey, the Pittsburgh Penguins in particular...
...I don't blame the refuseniks, though...
...So I don't have to go alone anymore to see the Wizards...
...The suit prompted William Raspberry, the influential columnist for the Washington Post, to urge, in print, that Jordan and his wife reconcile...
...At least there was never a letdown...
...Most of them don't take an above-the-fray, aesthetic view of sports...
...Never happens...
...Who could blame him...
...Thanks, Mike...
...I suspect readers know many Americans spend an inordinate amount of their discretionary time attending athletic events or watching them on television...
...They root for specific teams...
...Since then, the team has bounced between being mediocre and merely lousy...
...They were the Baltimore Bullets then...
...There's no more despair afterwards...
...You probably expect me to say President Bush...
Vol. 7 • February 2002 • No. 22
