No, apparently one day he decided he should sell his share of the team he owned and come back and play with the collection of sporting misfits on the roster. Maybe he had visions of grandeur, of writing a new legacy ¯ benevolent father figure leads dysfunctional tykes to ridiculously unlikely championship. More likely he was smoking something that should not be allowed under the league's substance abuse policy.

Anyway, sober or not, Jordan came back. And I'll grant you that he didn't do as badly as I expected. He helped turn a grossly horrible team into a mildly mediocre one. He scored when he had to, he hit a couple of last second shots and he tried to control games with passing and smarts.

But he also got blocked, converted lay-ups instead of dunks and generally looked old. When he left, it was evident that his physical skills were waning. He wasn't his youthful, spry, "Air Jordan" self, but he still dominated games and could summon the leaping and quickness when he needed it.

Now he more resembles a 40-year-old playing intra-office pickup games than the man that out-dueled Dominique Wilkins for the Slam Dunk title oh-so-many years ago.

Announcers kept saying that he was just working his way into game shape. If a half season in the NBA isn't enough to work yourself into game shape, you need to go back to the couch and eat Twinkies. And now, it may all be over.

After coming back early from knee surgery to repair torn cartilage, Jordan struggled through the worst game in his career April 2, as he scored a career-low two points in 12 minutes in a blowout loss to Kobe "New Jordan" Bryant and the Lakers.

After waking up April 3 with considerable swelling in said knee, Jordan decided to call it quits for the season, and there is some question as to whether that will be it, although Jordan maintains that, health permitting, he will absolutely be back next year after signing a two-year contract at the beginning of the season.

The problem isn't that Jordan was bad by regular NBA standards. He finishes the season with a very respectable 22.9 ppg scoring average, a good mark in the NBA. The problem is that Jordan has never been compared to regular NBA players. In the past he was faced with tough standards, being compared to legends such as Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson.

But this season he was faced with standards that were possibly even tougher: he was compared with himself. And, when sized up against Michael the Legend, Michael the Wizard did not fit the bill. There were flashes of the old one, with the game winner in Cleveland and other isolated plays, but they were like looking at pictures of a better time: they just served to make one want the old Michael back that much more.

Jordan explains that his comeback was about the love of the game and nothing else. After the game against the Lakers, he talked about how every little moment is special as he comes toward his end in basketball, how he remembers back to when he was young and took playing for granted. Looking at it that way, I realize I may be partly wrong. Looking at it from Jordan's point of view, the comeback was a good thing. It gave him a chance to live the old times from the old photographs, the chance to go back to that better time. That is a chance that not many people have. But, I'm looking at it from my point of view, and from the point of view of the fans and of history.

After all his accomplishments, after dropping 63 on the Celtics, after taking down Magic and crying with the trophy, after one semi-miraculous (successful) comeback, after the fairytale night in Utah, will people remember all that? Or will they remember an aging player in a purple uniform, fighting off a decaying body and being made to look physically normal every night?

I'm happy for Jordan the man, and I think he should have done whatever he wanted to do. The problem is that Jordan the man is also Jordan the Legend, and when he came back, he stepped down from godliness and made himself human.

The problem is, for me and so many others, he will never be able to go back.