A prerequisite for playing with the Bulls is the ability to defer graciously to No. 23.
Ron Harper learned long ago not to cop an attitude when Michael Jordan craves the basketball and slips into his zone.
“I saw it when I was not on this team, and I saw it while I was on this team,” Harper said. “He told us he was very sorry for scoring all the points. I told him he had nothing to feel sorry for.”
Indeed, Jordan scored more than half the Bulls’ points when he wound up with 55 in their 109-104 playoff win Sunday over Washington.
“He had a very sensational game,” Harper said. “And as a team, we have to definitely improve the way we play. We can’t rely on him to score all the time.
“But since he did score all the points . . . he did have two assists though. He was very unselfish,” Harper said with a laugh.
Harper contributed 10 points, a blocked shot, a steal, two assists, seven rebounds and steady defense in 29 minutes.
“When MJ takes over a game, it’s hard for (another) guy to find his own game,” Harper said. “Because MJ is getting off all of those nice shots, for us to pass the ball to him is fair. That’s the way it goes.
“This is the fun time of the season because this is the time you know that if you lose a game, it will definitely hurt,” Harper said.
“As long as we can stay in the ballgame late, we have a guy who can do it all. So that’s OK with us.”
The Bullets led 65-58 at the half and kept the pressure on with forwards Tracy Murray (22 points) and Chris Webber (21).
“They are a very strange team,” Harper said. “They have size. They can score both inside and outside. They are a very good young ballclub. And they have grown these last two games.”
The Bulls can wrap up the first-round series with a victory Wednesday at Landover, Md., which would give them a few extra days of rest to get ready for the second round.
“We’re a very old team, and the more days we can have off, the more it will for sure help us,” the 33-year-old Harper said.
And if it takes another 55-point performance by Jordan Wednesday night to win, Harper won’t complain.
“Everyone knows MJ is capable of taking over a game. And when he wants to take over a game, there’s nothing Phil (Jackson) or Scottie (Pippen) can say to stop it,” Harper said. “He’s a guy who can change this team around.”
