Jordan makes preseason debut against Nuggets

John Mossman, Associated Press, Denver

Michael Jordan made his preseason debut, hitting his first shot after coming off the bench during the second quarter of the Washington Wizards' game against the Denver Nuggets.

Jordan had sat out the Wizards' first five exhibitions to rest his surgically repaired right knee, but he was growing concerned about getting his timing back for the regular season.

"It's hard to start the season cold turkey," Jordan said before Monday's game.

Jordan entered the game with 7:13 left in the second quarter and played the rest of the period. He hit a turnaround jumper about three minutes after entering. He was 1-of-3 in the first half.

Coach Doug Collins said before the game that he planned to play Jordan about 14 minutes. Jordan also will play in Washington's final two exhibitions. The regular-season opener is Oct. 30 in Toronto.

Prior to the start of training camp, Jordan - who turned 40 in February - said he probably wouldn't play in any exhibition games. But earlier Monday night he said he felt great, and his appearance gave Collins a chance to shore up his playing rotation.

"We've been practicing, and Michael came up to me and said, 'My timing is off. I want to get some kind of timing before we have to go to Toronto and play.' And I agree with that completely," Collins said.

Collins said Jordan would primarily be a sixth man this season, which hopefully would alleviate the wear and tear that plagued his star last season, when Jordan came out of retirement for the second time.

"I played with one of the best sixth men in basketball, Bobby Jones," Collins said. "Bobby would sit the first eight minutes of the game and basically the first eight minutes of the third quarter. So the most he could ever play was 32 minutes. It's a great way to keep someone's minutes down.

"We've got to keep Michael's minutes down. We let it get away from us last year. We got off to a horrible start, and we played him too much. We can't break him down early. We've got to build him, and we think we've got enough guys now on this team that can do that."

The Nuggets were expecting Jordan to play Monday night. They advertised his visit to Denver and promised fans a regular-season ticket if he doesn't play.

The Nuggets also offered the Wizards a US$200,000 incentive if Jordan played Monday night. If he would have sat out, Washington would receive only $50,000.

"I would never do this for the sake of money," Jordan said.

"My decision to come back is merely for the sake of trying to get my rhythm and timing back. I couldn't care less what was being paid or what someone was making."

Jordan had arthroscopic surgery in February to repair torn cartilage in his right knee. He was bothered by the knee so much late in the season that he wasn't able to play unless he pedaled an exercise bicycle in the tunnel during games.

Last month, he was fitted with a shoe insert to help relieve discomfort in the outside of his right knee.

Jordan averaged nearly 35 minutes a game last season, leading the Wizards in scoring (22.9), assists (5.2) and steals (1.4) but also leading the team in turnovers (2.7).

He scored 51 and 45 points in back-to-back games in December, but he also had five games in which he failed to score in double digits.

In his final game last season, he scored a career-low 2 points in 12 minutes in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.