His personal trainer, Tim Grover, tips a negative hand, saying Michael Jordan may not be in shape to launch a comeback.

	Hey kid, welcome to the NBA: Now meet surly forward Christian Laettner.

A few weeks before a self-imposed deadline to announce his intentions, Jordan says he doesn't know if he will be able to resume his career.

This is the back-and-forth of a story we've watched since late-Spring, a story that is becoming a bit tiresome, wouldn't you say?

Frankly, all of it begs an entirely different question: Why would Michael Jordan want to come back and play for the Washington Wizards?

We're talking about the Wizards, a team that is fit to be tied with the likes of Tyronn Lue and Tyrone Nesby, a team that that is so desperately bad it had to re-sign that always pleasant and fun locker room guy, Christian Laettner.

Hey, young Kwame Brown, you want to learn how to become miserable, surly and universally disliked? Locker up next to Christian.

The Wizards are a God-awful collection, 16 guys on the roster and maybe Richard Hamilton could start for a low-rung playoff team, but nobody else unless you project Brown three years down the road.

	Hamilton

	White

They have one legit banger inside. That's Jahidi White and Mike wants to unload his salary so he can go after a big-time free agent next summer.

This is a team that will pay Mitch Richmond $10 million not to play and will pay Rod Strickland another $2.5 million with the avowed hope that he remains outside the jurisdiction of District police department.

This is an organization that has made the playoffs once in the last 13 years and went four years in five without a first-round draft pick. Consider that degree of ineptitude.

This is a team that has not won more than 44 games since 1978-79. Folks, the Clippers aren't that bad. They won 45 games, only 10 years ago.

	Vaught

It's one thing for Michael Jordan to take part ownership and run a rescue mission for Poor Abe Pollin's basketball team. But play? Put on a uniform and play alongside Etan Thomas, Hubert Davis and Loy Vaught? Why?

It was only 1995-96 when Jordan took the Bulls to a swaggering 72-10 record. These Wizards, without Jordan on the court, can go 10-72. With him, what, 20-62, fewer wins than he got at North Carolina? Don't think so.

The Wizards are so bad, they invite paraphrase of a little baseball ditty that was popular in the '40s and '50s. The revised version will read: Washington, first in war, first in peace and last in the National Basketball Association.

Look, it is hardly Jordan's fault that the franchise is in tatters. He came on the scene long after the team declined under the auspices of an incompetent front office run by an owner who practiced orthodox cronyism like it was a religion. Even when the Wiz had draft picks they were almost universally bad. Check this run of first-rounders and fashion your own starting five: Greg Ballard, Bo Ellis, Roger Phegley, Dave Corzine, Wes Matthews, Frank Johnson, Jeff Malone, Melvin Turpin, Kenny Green, John Williams, Anthony Jones, Muggsy Bogues, Harvey Grant, Tom Hammonds, LaBradford Smith, Tom Gugliotta, Calbert Cheaney, Juwan Howard, Rasheed Wallace, Hamilton....

This Washington team could be the saddest of all and not much improved, even with Jordan at small forward.

Oh, you say, but Mike's looked great in pickup games. Everybody who's seen him says so.

Think about that. He's looked great in pickup games in July in August against young players who defer to him or veterans whose bodies have wound down from the last 82-game season and who are coasting until they have to crank it up for the next one.

A guy with Jordan's talent, even three years removed from the game and playing on 38-year-old legs, is going to look good in this kind of company.

But say Jordan does come back. Doug Collins already tipped his hand on a position change. Jordan will not come back at shooting guard where he would have to go at Tracy McGrady, Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen or Vince Carter. Maybe he plays point forward. Maybe he'd better because how else does he get the ball. From Chris Whitney?

And who does Mike play off? In Chicago he had Scottie Pippen completing the opposite end of the triangle. In Washington he has Courtney Alexander or Hamilton. Pippen commanded a double team. Name one Washington player who commands a double team. Hamilton doesn't. And who covers for Jordan when younger, quicker players beat him off the dribble? Does Collins employ a full-time matchup zone?

Is that what Jordan the once and future owner would want him to do? Who runs the team on the court? Collins? Jordan? And how well can highly emotional, extremely competitive men possibly get along when their relationship broke 12 years ago after a 47-win season and a wrenching loss in the Eastern finals? None of it makes any sense and if Jordan will not be the steward of his own reputation he at least ought to allow the fans who adored him to have the unspoiled image of that 1998 championship game-winner in their memory bank.

Stay in the front office, Mike. Smoke your cigar and wince freely as this awful team works through the next 82 games. Make changes from your office in Chicago.

You walked away clean three years ago. Don't get dirty with this bunch of losers.

Jeffrey Denberg, who covers the NBA for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.