You don't get many bigger games than the one they're having in Chicago on Saturday.

Michael Jordan's return to the Windy City to face the Bulls?

Please, we're talking about Bears vs. Eagles. A game that really means something.

	“	Michael was like The Beatles. It was incredible. When we got him, I thought he may be a very good player who has the potential to be an All-Star. But we got him in an Olympic year and he had a spectacular Olympics and that's when he got a national following. So when he came to us, he was sort of a celebrity already. But nobody could have expected what happened with Michael and the team and the entire city. ”
		— Thorn on Jordan

You can have Bulls-Wizards.

Jordan's return -- part of what they're hyping out in Chi-town as Super Saturday -- is nothing more than an exhibition game, pitting the sorriest team in the NBA against a Wizards team coming off a 44-point shellacking to the Nets.

"I'm pretty sure it will be made into a playoff game," Jordan said. "As for myself, I go in there knowing I'm wearing a different uniform and I'll probably be considered the opposition. I don't know if I'll get booed or not. I expect I will."

Why not? He is the opposition now, right? If fans want to boo him, there's nothing wrong with that.

It doesn't change what he did in Chicago, how he singlehandedly turned a struggling franchise into a world-famous operation.

Nor is there anything wrong with the Bulls not doing anything special to mark his return.

Hey, they already gave the guy a statute. What else do they have to do?

They've retired his number. They've gave him a special night after he retired the first time.

They hung up championship banner No. 6 and moved on.

"Do I have any regrets? No, I have no regrets," Jordan said. "It wasn't my choice to leave them. But they decided to go in another direction and I chose not to go in that direction. And I can't blame them for that. They made their choices and I made my choices."

Boy, did the Bulls ever screw up. But let's remember, Phil Jackson wasn't coming back to coach for one more year. And Jordan wasn't ever going to play for anybody else, least of all Tim Floyd. So the Bulls embarked on rebuilding. We all know how that's been working out. They've strung together seasons of 13, 17 and 15 wins. They drafted a legitimate building block named Elton Brand, then traded Brand for two high school players. As the Bulls slog through another hideous season, nobody has used the term "future stars" to describe Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler.

And Jerry Krause has yet to land a big-time free agent.

As Jordan returns to Chicago, there are all those nasty rumors how he called Tracy McGrady and others to tell them to stay away from the Bulls. He might have to address those, just as he did after the Wizards were embarrassed by the Nets.

"All the rumors about me not recruiting for Chicago or telling guys not to go -- that is all false," Jordan said. "I didn't have any dialog with any player that they were involved trying to get. And if they did ask me, I wouldn't give a comment. I wouldn't try to pollute the situation. Especially now that I'm not part of it, I'm not going to say anything that's going to hurt them. None of those guys ever talked to me and I never tried to steer them away from Chicago."

Face it, high-profile free agents just don't want to go into a city where everything they'll do will be measured against what Jordan did. That's the primary reason Grant Hill refused Chicago's big-money offer. He told friends in Detroit that more than once.

What Jordan did, for those of you who spent the 80's and 90's on Mars, was only to put an entire city on the NBA map. The Celtics had won 13 titles and featured the NBA's greatest dynasty before Larry Bird arrived on the scene. The Lakers had legendary teams, featuring legendary players like Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, before Magic Johnson ever rode into town.

But Chicago was nothing before No. 23.

"We had a lot of struggles," said Rod Thorn, the former Bulls GM and coach who drafted Jordan. "I remember a lot of nights where the arena was empty. We'd sell out for the Lakers and Boston and we had a great rivalry with the Bucks. But we had nights where there was nobody in Chicago Stadium."

Before MJ, the Bulls posted losing records in 11 in their first 18 seasons. They never made a Finals. They never had an MVP. They never had the league's leading scorer. They never had a first team All-NBA selection. Once, they won 57 games and made a conference finals. But Chicago was just another stop in the NBA.

"Before Michael got there, you'd go into Chicago Stadium and it would be cold and the fans would be scattered," said ex-Net Mike O'Koren, now a Jersey assistant. "Playing the Bulls was just another game. We'd go in thinking, we're winning."

It all changed when Thorn selected Jordan with the third pick overall in the 1984 draft.

Not just in terms of wins and losses and the establishment of one of the great dynasties, but the entire city.

"Michael was like The Beatles," Thorn said. "It was incredible. When we got him, I thought he may be a very good player who has the potential to be an All-Star player. But we got him in an Olympic year and he had a spectacular Olympics and that's when he got a national following. So when he came to us, he was sort of a celebrity already. But nobody could have expected what happened with Michael and the team and the entire city."

What happened was special. It's long gone now.

You want a big game Saturday in Chicago that means something?

There's only one: Bears-Eagles.

Mitch Lawrence, who covers the NBA for the New York Daily News, writes a regular NBA column for ESPN.com.