Is Anybody Surprised Jordan Takes the Shot?

CHICAGO — OK, now that we’ve settled the MVP question . . .

Voters proposeth but Michael Jordan disposeth. He disposed of Karl Malone, the NBA’s official Most Valuable Player, and he disposed of the Jazz and its opportunity to break through on the Bulls’ floor.

Dribble, dribble, wait for the double-team, find none, cross over right to left, ditch Bryon Russell, fire from 19, thanks for coming and please drive home carefully.

As his commercial goes, Jordan has missed 9,000 shots--”Most of them this post-season,” noted a skeptic. He’s nine for 21 going into Sunday’s fourth quarter. Then he makes four of six and drops the hammer on the Jazz at the buzzer.

What can you say but to ask, as a European journalist did at the 1992 Olympics, “Are you of this Earth?”

“I think anybody watching the game anywhere in the world knew who was going to take that shot,” said Utah’s John Stockton. “He didn’t get to the basket. He didn’t have a free one, but he made it.”

Said Coach Jerry Sloan: “We know what we’re dealing with here. We’re not trying to fool anybody. We know we’re playing against a great, great team and Michael Jordan, probably the greatest player who ever played the game.”

Just so everyone is clear on that. As the MVP went to Malone, in a sentimental vote by writers--Malone had none and Jordan had four--this game seemed headed west. Who knows what might have happened after that? For sure, the local papers would have had to do updates on the uncertain futures of Jordan, Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman with the latest hints from the owner.

The Jazz led for 37:54 of 48 minutes and 22:18 of 24 in the second half. It was tied with 9.2 seconds left when Malone, battling back from a 3-for-11 start to a 10-for-22 finish, stepped to the free throw line.

Malone, a dramatically improved foul shooter, hit 18 of 18 in Game 4 of the Laker series, but this time missed twice.

He might have mentioned that floor burn about which NBC issues bulletins every 15 minutes, but he took his medicine straight.

“I’m from Summerfield, Loos-e-yana, and we don’t have any excuses,” drawled Malone. “I didn’t have any excuses growing up, and I’m not going to use any now.”

So the Bulls got the ball back and set up the last play for guess-whom and that was that.

Someone asked Malone later, not who was most valuable this season but who is best.

“What do you want me to say, Michael Jordan, like everybody else?” he replied, grimacing.

“Well, I think obviously it’s Michael Jordan. Whatever Karl Malone says, it doesn’t really matter. I think down the stretch Michael wanted the ball in crunch time. He got it, he made it. It’s hard to argue with that.”

The surprise is when Jordan misses. Sunday, Coach Phil Jackson remembered one shot at the end of Game 1 in the 1991 finals, after Sam Perkins put the Lakers ahead with a three-pointer.

Jordan said he thought about that one too. Nobody mentioned the 15-footer Jordan hit in the Forum in the closing seconds of regulation in Game 3, dribbling the ball up against the massed Laker defense, beating Byron Scott and a late-arriving Vlade Divac to tie the game, after which the Bulls won in overtime, took the next two games and triumphed, 4-1.

“I can’t really fathom the idea that everybody who’s watching the game, on TV, in the building,” Jordan said later, “knows you’re going to get the ball, knows you’re going to take the shot.

“And yet you’re able to come through in that situation. It’s an unbelievable feeling. I don’t want to be put in that situation too often, but when I am, I want to be successful.”

It was a good night for him then. The balance of power in this series hangs in the balance and he redressed it. Again.

The Jazz has to deal with Jordan and who knows what other powers? The Bulls’ Steve Kerr, a shooter who knows every inch of his arena, said it was more than luck that bounced Malone’s free throws off the rim.

“That rim down there the last two months has been loose because of our mascot dunking all the time,” Kerr said.

“They had to tighten the rim after the Miami series because if was rolling around so much, and thank God, because both those free throws were right there.

“They tightened them up with a screwdriver, just right. It’s about time Da Bull helped us--the guy can’t even make a dunk.”