He was Defiant MJ.

	Hamilton figures to improve with his new teammate.

Which means these won't be your father's Washington Wizards.

I expected Michael Jordan to announce his return to hoops with some whimsy, some sense of his own athletic mortality. Some golly-gee talk. Like, 'well, I know what I said before, but you know, things change. Got tired of Pebble Beach. Boy, I sure hope I can hold my own against Kobe and McGrady.' You know, low expectations.

What was I thinking?

There was none of that in Washington on Monday.

This was '93 MJ, the First Retirement. So angry at the media he could barely get the words out. Not ready to leave the game, but feeling he had no choice. Still full of ready-to-use rage and mad skills. Which came back after 30 games -- and getting taken by Nick Anderson in the '95 playoffs. The next fall, Jordan had perfected his jumper, and the Bulls were once again unbeatable.

The Wizards will not be unbeatable. But they will be damn interesting to watch.

"You can say, 'well the young dogs are gonna be chasing you around,'" Jordan said. "Well, I'm not gonna bark too far away from them, either. I'm not running from no one. I think it will be a great challenge. I'm not saying I can take Kobe Bryant or Tracy McGrady. You guys are the ones saying they can take me ... I'm not walking in the dark here. I know what I'm capable of doing. I know what's expected of me. I know I've got my head on the block. Everybody's motivated to come and play against me. Everybody was motivated to play against me when I left. So nothing's changed."

This is the Jordan that inspires teammates, casts fear into the opposition.

Or as his new/old coach Doug Collins said, "don't read into it like Michael's going to come back like Socrates or somebody, and losing's going to be okay."

Now look, I know that Washington doesn't have enough yet to beat the Lakers four out of seven. But I also know that look in his eye. Seen it too many times.

That's the look he had for Jeff Van Gundy. The look he had when he knew the Pistons were toast. The look he had after LaBradford Smith went for 36 against him. The look he had after much too much was made of a perfectly legal trip to Atlantic City in '93. The look he had when George Karl challenged him during the '96 Finals. Nasty, mean, brutish. The MJ you don't see in 30-second commercials. And I know that this is a team in desperate need of some attitude. A team that's gotten punked for years and years, despite having more than enough talent to be competitive. Not victorious. Merely competitive.

That's the look Kwame Brown will see when he tries to do too many things too fast. And the look Courtney Alexander will get if he forces shots out of the offense. And the look Richard Hamilton can expect if he doesn't body up on his man and force him to the help. And one of two things will happen to these guys, and any others. They'll fold up like an accordion and be bum-rushed out of town, or they'll toughen up and become complete players.

Bet on the latter.

I wonder, still, what Jordan will do when he's lost more in November and December than he did in entire seasons in Chicago. And I wonder, still, if Collins will be able to truly get in Jordan's grill when he needs to -- as every coach has to occasionally do with every player. Because no head coach, as far as I can remember, has ever been hired by someone who wound up playing for him that very year. But Collins, who is as brilliant as any teacher of the game when the mood hits him, doesn't see it that way.

"The reason is because he wants me to coach him," Collins said. "He wants me to coach him. I'm here for that reason, because he trusts in me and believes in me. And feels like if he's going to play, he already has someone here who knows him, and knows how he feels, and knows how he likes to prepare."

Collins believes Jordan can play some point for him, but only if he doesn't have to bring the ball up. Like me, he remembers when Jordan averaged near triple-doubles with the rock for Chicago in the 88-89 season. And let's face it, Washington can use all the boards and assists Jordan can will out of his body.

But what the Wizards need most from Jordan is what he still seems to have a lot of in his tank. Will. The will to dog any and everybody -- including friends like Charles Barkley -- when they dare to speak ill of his game.

"I think I can do what I set out in my mind to do," Jordan said. "I come from where you're expected to dominate. You're the target. Everybody's shooting at you. Here, no one's expecting anything. So I can come at it from the underdog aspect of it. It's kind of different, but yet it's fresh. It's new. We're not expected to win 50 games. From what I hear from you guys, we're not expected to win 30 games. It's a challenge."

Even Jordan says he doesn't think his team will go 50-32. But -- big but -- if he stays healthy for 75 games, they'll be a lot better than 19-63.

A lot better.

Take a chance on me...

	Jackson

	Strickland

Your starting point guard is Rod Strickland.

At shooting guard, Jim Jackson.

Small forward is manned by Anthony Mason.

Gary Trent opens at power forward.

The Man in the Middle is Olden Polynice.

Off the bench comes Chris Gatling.

The interesting thing is, if you had the dollars this morning, you could bring each and every one of these guys into your camp.

Training camps open today, and none of these guys have a gig.

Now, almost no one is surprised by this. Because most of these guys have more baggage than Zsa Zsa at LAX.

But it does speak to the new, luxury tax reality of the NBA. Players with pasts, with histories of run-ins with teammates and coaches, are less likely than ever to get the benefit of the doubt. In past years, you'd have a half-dozen teams all willing to take a chance on a talent like Mason's, if only for a year. At least a couple of teams that need a point guard willing to gamble on Strickland's game. But this year, the door is closed. At least for now.

"The difference is the market," one general manager said. "The market is real dry now. It's a reality of where we are, and where spending habits are gonna be."

	Rider

The Nuggets finally signed Isaiah Rider (and Cedric Ceballos; quite the doubleheader) at long last, but the skeptics are numerous.

"If it didn't work there (in Los Angeles) with Phil Jackson, why would it work anywhere?," the GM asked. "It's like with Dennis Rodman, where he just ran out of chances."

With a lot of teams dangerously close to paying the tax after this season, it's very hard for an executive to convince his owner that it's worth it to go over the tax threshold because of a guy with a questionable past. The Bucks, for example, aren't going to exceed the tax in order to bring in Mason, a guy who could definitely help them. Herb Kohl has laid down the law. And since Riles isn't willing to entertain any sign-and-trade deals for the same reason, Mason just sits there. It doesn't help him, or Gatling, that both are holding out for the $4.5 million exception: "he's made it very clear that he's not taking that kind of (lesser) deal," says Mason's agent, Don Cronson.

"And it's not just the dollar for dollar (tax)," another GM points out. "It's the money you're not getting back." He's referring to the fact that teams in excess of the tax won't get the tax dollars that teams below the tax will receive from the Allens and Cubans of the league.

Now you have to keep one thing in mind. As soon as someone's roster takes a hit, one of these guys will almost certainly get scarfed up. But they have to be careful. The landscape has changed. And troubled talent isn't as automatically accepted as it used to be.

Around The League
A couple of musings as we get going here...

The Spurs won't fall off as far as you think. Lots of folks seem to think San Antonio is heading for a fall. Okay, I was one of them, after watching them get slapped around by the Lakers like that in the Western Finals. But the Spurs didn't have the disastrous offseason some people seem to think. True, their window is exactly two years, because that's when TD's contract is up. But that's two more years than most teams have. They replaced Derek Anderson with Steve Smith and Bruce Bowen, which is a pretty potent offense -- defense combo. And Antonio Daniels is ready to run a team now -- at least that's what Jason Jackson, like AD a fellow Bowling Green State University Fighting Falcon, tells me.

	Brand