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 swamp, there’s a return to family values. And my quality of life is a lot better, too. Who has produced all this? You probably expect me to say President Bush. Wrong. The answer is Michael Jordan. I’m not kidding. Exaggerating? Sure. But let me explain. The area around the MCI Center, where Jordan plays for the Washington Wizards after ending his retirement from basketball, is booming like never before. The basketball team, a pathetic bunch of journeymen, role players, and malcontents in recent years, is transformed into a tough and smart contender with Jordan on the court. As for family values, remember that Jordan’s wife Juanita filed for divorce a few weeks ago. It was a downer for fans who admire Jordan as a personality and leader in the sports establishment as well as a player. The suit prompted William Raspberry, the influential columnist for the Washington Post, to urge, in print, that Jordan and his wife reconcile. “Michael is a role model for millions of the young and not-so-young,” Raspberry wrote. “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.” By reconciling, by their behavior, the Jordans did exactly that. Now to my quality of life. I suspect readers know many Americans spend an inordinate amount of their discretionary time attending athletic events or watching them on television. Most of them don’t take an above-the-fray, aesthetic view of sports. They root for specific teams. And while rooting for a perennially bad team may not drive them crazy, it does make them miserable a lot of the time. I know. I was a Wizards fan even before they moved to Washington in 1974. (They were the Baltimore Bullets then.) Anyway, I splurged and got season tickets and have kept them year after year. It hasn’t been a pleasant experience. 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. Since then, the team has bounced between being mediocre and merely lousy. At least there was never a letdown. 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. They are great players, but it didn’t work out. Both have been traded to other teams. The low point was last season. It’s literally true that you couldn’t give Wizards tickets away. People would come up with the darnedest excuses to avoid going to a game. A young man who loves basketball said no because of an urgent need to clean his apartment. Others suddenly recalled they had visitors arriving from the hinterland. And so on. One hundred dollar seats and you couldn’t get rid of them. I don’t blame the refuseniks, though. The team was bad and boring. Its point guard not only got arrested several times, but he also was famous for barfing while sitting on the bench during a game. Wizards-avoidance also extended to my family. My son Freddy, quite a sports fan in his own right, didn’t bother with an excuse. He just said no way. As an alternative, he developed a fanatical interest in pro hockey, the Pittsburgh Penguins in particular. 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. Who could blame him? Now, with Jordan on board, all that has changed. Turn down tickets? Never happens. Not a day goes by when someone doesn’t say they’d love to go to a Wizards game with me or without me. But since my family has first claim, the tickets aren’t available very often. My daughters want to go, all three of them. Freddy doesn’t want to miss a game. My wife Barbara, whose interest in the team waned when Earl (the Pearl) Monroe left eons ago, is pleased to join me. So I don’t have to go alone anymore to see the Wizards. But it’s the games themselves that are mainly responsible for my enhanced quality of life. After an early losing streak, the Wizards are now winners. Jordan has molded them into a thrilling team in which every player has a role. They’re fun to watch. The games are totally absorbing. There’s no more despair afterwards. If the Wizards have won, there’s exhilaration and plenty to talk about. 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. Thanks, Mike. Fred Barnes
