You figure there are some things that just have to scare Michael Jordan. Reduced demand for Nike sneakers, perhaps? A buried lie in a fairway bunker?
Well, they`re nothing compared to a night in the Coliseum here, where the Bulls met the Golden State Warriors.
Thursday the arena did its dirty work again, with a little assist from a double-teaming Warriors defense, which held Jordan to just 14 points (and 12 shots) in a 103-93 Golden State victory.
The loss dropped the Bulls to 4-4 and 1-1 on the current trip with the next game in Seattle Saturday. The Warriors, led by Chris Mullin with 30 points and Tim Hardaway with 23, raised their record to 6-2.
They did it in an unlikely way. With rebounding. The third-worst rebounding team in the league last season, the Warriors outrebounded the Bulls 50-44 and kept the Bulls from making any serious run in the fourth quarter by dominating their defensive boards.
The Bulls trailed 56-52 at halftime and shot just 41 percent in the third quarter to fall behind 78-71 after three.
The Warriors, with Jordan out of the game until 5:39 remained, maintained an eight-point lead by controlling the backboards on both ends.
The Bulls were led by Horace Grant`s 18 points. Jordan had 14 points, a two-year personal low and the fifth time in seven games here that he hasn`t led the Bulls in scoring.
No one has been able to stop Jordan like this building. No conservative coach, no pestering defense, no clawing defender. Jordan has been smashed to the floor by Karl Malone and belly-bumped by Charles Barkley. He nearly was decapitated by Rick Mahorn and was tripped, pushed and pulled by Bill Laimbeer.
But none have had quite the effect of the Oakland arena, where Jordan has his lowest scoring average, just 22.7 points per game in six games. In half of those Jordan has scored 16 or fewer points.
”Mostly bad luck, that`s all it is,” insists Jordan. ”But I do think about the frustrations I`ve had here. The place doesn`t scare me as much as it used to. But I`ve got to say it`s still my least favorite place to play.”
Because right away, Jordan didn`t get to play.
”My first year (coach Kevin) Loughery got upset with all the starters, so he took us out after the first half and none of us got to play again,”
Jordan recalled. ”We even made it back to three (behind), but he wouldn`t put anyone back in.”
That occurred in a 109-103 Bulls loss in which Jordan scored 13 points on 6-for-10 shooting, his best accuracy night ever here.
In fact, in the last six years, Jordan is not only averaging 22.7 per game here, fewer by almost five points than he averages against any other NBA team, but he`s shooting 44 percent, his worst marksmanship against any team.
”It seems like it`s the lights,” Jordan says. ”It`s kind of dim here.”
His brilliant career almost flickered out here in 1985 when Jordan broke his foot early in the game after scoring 12 points. He would go on to miss 64 games.
Jordan returned the next season, ever wary. Which might have had something to do with a horrendous 11-for-30 shooting night he had here. Jordan did rack up 40 points, his only game of 30 or more here, but the Bulls lost.
The next year, although the Bulls won by a point, Jordan scored just 16 points on 6-for-15 shooting.
Two years ago, Jordan scored 26 points in a Bulls loss while shooting 11 for 24.
It was apparent that Jordan`s frustrations and trepidation about playing here boiled over that night. On the bus ride back to the hotel, he confronted General Manager Jerry Krause, demanding Krause make some deals for new players.
But it took some of Jordan`s favorite things-TV cameras-to seemingly erase the jinx.
Last season, before a national TV audience, he scored 29 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. He still shot just 12 for 29 in leading the Bulls to an easy 104-91 victory.
There are other arenas that make Jordan`s least favorite list. The Capital Centre is one. That`s where he`s averaging his second fewest points, 27. But Jordan also rates Cleveland in his top-three worst.
”I`ve had some great games there, the 69 points last year and the shot in the (1989) playoffs. But I don`t like playing there,” said Jordan. ”It`s such a dingy place.”
And the favorite places for the man so often in the spotlight?
”I think my favorite is the Boston Garden,” said Jordan. ”I just shoot so well and play so well there.”
