Fourth Mvp Has Most Meaning To Jordan Award Reafirms His Standing As The Best Player In The Nba

Chicago’s Phil Jackson held the Most Valuable Player trophy in one hand and extended the other to congratulate Michael Jordan.

“Michael,” Jackson said as he presented the trophy, “this MVP award, your third …

“Or is this the fourth?”

The award Jordan received Monday afternoon - with the Bulls holding a 1-0 edge in the Eastern Conference finals - is his fourth. It can also be argued it is his most significant.

Jordan said he never dreamed he would win the award again once he walked away from the Bulls to chase his field of dreams nearly three years ago. This trophy symbolizes that Jordan has re-established himself as the sport’s premier player. It also allowed him to move past Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird, the two players he most often finds his career measured against, in the accumulation of MVP trophies.

“I don’t view it as something where I feel I’m better than Magic Johnson or Larry Bird,” Jordan said. “We all have our place in our different eras. We each had our own significance, our impact, in the game of basketball. That is something I’m appreciative to be a part of.”

The voting wasn’t close.

Jordan received 109 of the 113 first-place votes cast by a panel of sports writers and broadcasters throughout the U.S. and Canada.

His percentage of first-place votes (96.5) is the highest since the media began voting on the award in the 1980-81 season. Bird received 93.6 percent of the first-place votes (73 of 78) in the ‘85-86 season.

Jordan finished with 1,114 points. San Antonio’s David Robinson was second with 574 votes and Orlando’s Anfernee Hardaway, who will go against Jordan and the Bulls in Game 2 tonight at the United Center, was third with 360 points.

Where does this award rank?

“I think it’s more meaningful because I was away from the game for a couple of years, came back and learned a lesson,” Jordan said. “I learned no matter how long you are away from the game or how great you were before you left, you can’t come back and think you can turn it back on and pick up from where you left off.

“I had to learn the game all over again. I had to get reunited with it.”

One question Jordan couldn’t avoid during Monday’s news conference was if he would return to the Bulls next season.

Jordan, who becomes a free agent July 1, was quoted in Monday’s Chicago Tribune as saying it would take a minimum of $36 million over the next two seasons to keep him in Chicago. He said he felt he would stay with the Bulls and had no reason to doubt owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s sincerity in the upcoming negotiations.

Still, Jordan stressed he and his family were prepared to leave if the Bulls didn’t meet those financial parameters. He also said he was willing, on principle, to take $10 million less from another team if Reinsdorf doesn’t hold his opinion.

Jordan declined to talk further about his comments Monday because he said, “it would be a selfish act” because the Bulls are trying to win their fourth championship in six years. Reinsdorf said he wanted to keep Jordan in Chicago and hasn’t even thought about numbers.

Jackson, meanwhile, was asked if he felt Jordan was worth $36 million.

“I don’t know what worth is in this game,” said Jackson, whose contract also expires once the playoffs are over. “I don’t deal with the balance sheets. I don’t know what values are to the NBA.

“But I do know this, if anybody gets paid money in this league, Michael Jordan deserves it. With the kind of salaries I’ve heard bandied about, Michael Jordan is the best player, and has been for the last eight, 10 years, in this league. So as far as marketing, premier player, I’m sure he is worth it.

“Sylvester Stallone is getting $20 million a movie,” Jackson said. “I can’t imagine why Michael wouldn’t get $20 million a season.”