Suddenly, the Bulls have this little problem.
Drinking laws being as confounding as they are in Utah, the Bulls may well need to eat something with their victory champagne.
This could be the first NBA locker room celebration with condiments.
How much simpler for all concerned had the Bulls just closed the thing on schedule Friday night, for Utah, too, which must now fail in front of friends.
Oh, sure, the Bulls are still going to win this thing. The Bulls have not come this far, become this celebrated, to now turn into historical flops, the first team to lose a Finals up three games to one.
“Don’t forget, this is a two-point win by the Jazz,” Phil Jackson said. “You don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. We’re fine.”
The dynasty will be undone from within, not from without, just as the Jerrys always intended it to be.
“I don’t want to be the person that breaks up the Chicago Bulls as long as they’re winning championships,” Jerry Reinsdorf said in a halftime TV kissup by NBC.
Well, Reinsdorf is still at the head of the line, though Karl Malone has been allowed back into the room.
Both sort of made their appearance at the same time. Welcome to the playoffs, Mr. Malone. Better late than never. The thing has missed you. That’s the way champions are supposed to play.
It is your fault it had lately been given over to Dennis Rodman. Now you and Rodman are even. Each of you has had a single worthwhile game.
“Karl got into a great rhythm,” Michael Jordan said. “Dennis, Luc (Longley), no one could stop him. That’s one game out of five, which is not bad for us. Now we’ve just got to clamp down on him again.
“For all the criticism he’s received, he put it to rest.”
Malone was not exactly accepting compliments.
“We have nothing to prove,” he said. “We have to play as a team. We need everybody. The Bulls might have one or two players who can do it all, but we need everybody.
“Now, I’ll take questions about the team. If there are any more Karl Malone questions, I’m leaving.”
And he just got here.
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If romance were in charge, this is how it would have ended, Jordan hitting a buzzer-beater for three. What a great exit that would have been. Jordan had the shot. And Jordan realized the moment.
“There for a split second, actually 1.1 seconds, no one knew what was going to happen,” Jordan said. “Everyone expected I’d make the shot. That’s the beauty of an NBA basketball game. I thought that was cute.”
Cute? The game, the dynasty, the legacy on the line, and Jordan thinks it was cute.
“I knew I wanted the ball,” he said, trying to explain. “But no one knew what would happen. I didn’t know for sure. For 1.1 seconds, everybody was holding their breath. Which is kind of cute.
“Great players thrive on those moments. You have the opportunity to decide happiness and sadness. We had the happiness and Utah had the sadness. And we just reversed roles.”
Not quite reversed. The Jazz is not happy as much as relieved, like someone in a falling elevator that manages to stop before it hits the bottom.
“It’s one loss–you can’t let it eat at you where it becomes two losses,” Jordan said.
The city was ready to party, sanely and safely one hopes. Procedures were in place within the arena. Camera angles assigned, confetti ready to fall, balloons ready to float. All of that can now be put away for the next dynasty, but don’t expect the balloons to keep their air for another 50 years or so.
“I would have loved to win it at home–that would have been a great scenario. It didn’t happen,” Jordan said. “They deserved exactly what they got tonight.”
All that’s left is to finish the job elsewhere.
“I’d love to fly to Utah and toss the ball up just as soon as we land,” Jordan said. “I’m looking forward to getting the same room with the piano.”
Will it take one game or two?
“How long do you want to stay in Utah?” Pippen asked.
He should have considered the answer when the champagne was cold.