WILMINGTON, N.C. -- It hasn't happened in the NBA, or in a charity game over the summer, or even in one of those famed pick-up runs at Chapel Hill exclusive to former Tar Heels.

Michael Jordan? On the same team with Jerry Stackhouse?

Stack remembers precisely the first time it actually did happen. That's because it was last week.

	Jerry Stackhouse will allow Michael Jordan to rest his aching knees.

"Before the first day of training camp, I had never played on the same team with MJ in my life," Stackhouse said. "We've always matched up head-to-head."

Now, finally, they're teamed up, for 82 games and as many in the playoffs as the Washington Wizards can tack on. They've been together at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, trying to forge a tag team behind closed doors, figuring out if they will really be able to alternately dominate and defer and make those handoffs smoothly.

The progress report, so far, is cautious. After earning widespread praise for changing his game in Detroit, Stackhouse is being asked to tweak again and admits, a week in, that "I'm just feeling my way." It likewise figures to be a challenge for Jordan, given that his last marriage to an All-Star talent -- six rings' worth alongside Scottie Pippen -- never left any doubt where the ball was headed at crunch time.

It's a little less certain here. Jordan will turn 40 this season and is vowing to sit out every exhibition game to spare his limbs from some early wear. That means opening night in Toronto, on Oct. 30, could be the first time Jordan and Stackhouse will share the ball in a game situation, ganging up on Vince Carter.

Jordan also only takes questions after selected practices and Monday's session, when ESPN.com's Training Camp Tour rolled in, wasn't one of them. Asked to gauge his to play to date as he walked out of the gym, Jordan simply pushed his palms toward the ground and said: "Just hanging. Holding my own."

Yet this much we know: Jordan and Stackhouse are sharing everything they possibly can in preparation for the alumni meeting with Carter, and it doesn't stop with practice. They ride together to and from every session, and they meet up at 8 a.m. every morning for Jordan's trusty Breakfast Club workouts in the gym.

All of which reminds us that Jordan and Stackhouse wouldn't be on the same team at last unless MJ approved it. He's not officially team president any more, but it's little secret that Washington's decision-making -- like the ball itself -- still runs through His Airness. In other words, Jordan, in essence, handpicked Stackhouse to be his sidekick when the Wizards acquired Stack from the Pistons in a September surprise.

"Mike can basically go out there and play with anybody, but it's going to be an advantage for both us," Stackhouse says. "I'm looked at as the guy to kind of get things started. I'm manning the first unit and he's manning the second unit so we always have a very capable scorer on the floor.

"Of course, at the end of the game -- and during the course of the game -- we're going to be out there playing together. He and I are going to be slashing and cutting to the ball and playing off each other. That's what you're going to see this year from the Washington Wizards."

Added coach Doug Collins, answering before the question was all the way out: "They're going to be great together."

Collins stresses that nothing has been decided about Jordan's role -- starter or sixth man -- and that every position on the club remains open. It's an understandable approach, with the Wizards trying to break in so many new guys (Stackhouse, Larry Hughes, Bryon Russell) and so many young guys (Jared Jeffries, Juan Dixon and a sophomore named Kwame Brown).

Collins, though, insists that he isn't fretting about continuity, not even with Jordan's no-exhibition plan. If there's an overt worry coming from the coach these days, it's rebounding, something the Wizards are going to have to do as group. Even if they eventually sign Charles Oakley, as team intimates continue to expect, there is no board-gobbling size on this squad. Jahidi White is recovering from a knee problem and the kids are, well, still kids.

Anticipating the big-man issue, since just about everyone in the East is facing something similar, the Wizards decided to bulk up on the perimeter with Stackhouse, Hughes and Russell. If it all clicks, the Wiz will undoubtedly try to trot out a modern facsimile of the Bulls' arrangement of big ball-handlers -- Jordan, Pippen and Ron Harper -- with Jordan, Stackhouse and Hughes.

	“	Mike knows what I'm about. And for him to want me here says a lot. I'm getting a huge benefit from that. He's showing me the things that a 6-6 player from North Carolina has to do to win a championship. I hope some of those things come about for this 6-6 player. ”
		— Jerry Stackhouse

"Michael and I know what we want to do," Collins said with a sly grin. "We're on the same page with that."

It's confidence that undoubtedly comes from experience. Collins has coached Jordan and Stackhouse before and already knows what to expect. Jordan, meanwhile, has to do more than he did last season to make his teammates feel like equals, but he'll surely find that chore more palatable surrounded by veterans who have proven something.

And if the history of Jordan Psychology is any guide, MJ should soften his approach to Stack now that they're on the same side, after years of tough (some would say excessively tough) love.

He no longer needs a mental edge over Stackhouse, the first former Tar Heel who had to wear the Next Jordan label every day as a freshman in the starting lineup. What Jordan needs from Stackhouse is help.

Stackhouse, for his part, is ready, after working through the initial shock of being traded -- part of which stemmed from the call he received from his agent just minutes before the deal, warning him to prepare to play out the season as a Piston. Settling in now, Stackhouse sounds eager to play alongside a fellow elitist after a couple seasons away from Grant Hill (and Allen Iverson).

"You take for granted situations until they're gone," Stackhouse said. "I didn't understand until Grant was gone how much easier he made the game for me, and how much easier I made the game for him.

"This is my eighth year, so I'm kind of past what people think about my game. I know what I do well and I know what I don't do well, so I try to stay away from what I don't do well.

"But Mike knows what I'm about. And for him to want me here says a lot. I'm getting a huge benefit from that. He's showing me the things that a 6-6 player from North Carolina has to do to win a championship. I hope some of those things come about for this 6-6 player."

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. E-mail him at marc.stein@espn3.com.