Before Dennis "Cutty" Wise started mowing lawns or teaching boxing, he spent fourteen years in jail. The day before he finally got out, Wee-Bey Brice and Avon Barksdale asked him to chat.
"So what do you need to see me for?", Cutty asked. As Wee-Bey and Avon rarely ever chatted just to shoot the shit, the meeting served a purpose. Cutty had been a soldier prior to his fourteen-year stint in the clink, a legendary enforcer in the Baltimore drug game. Avon was soon getting out of jail himself, and the Baltimore Towers, which had been one of Avon's most profitable drug territories, had been torn down. Avon wanted to hire muscle to expand his crew and make up for losing his business from the Towers.
"A good soldier ain't gonna lack for work," Avon told Cutty. But after talking to Cutty, Avon wasn't sure the former legend still had what it took to pull the trigger. "The joint might have broke him," thought Avon. But Wey-Bey didn't think that was possible.
"Boss, you talking about homie who shot Elijah Davis; broad daylight; at Pensey and Gold; THEN picked up the phone, dialed 9-1-1 and told the police, 'I just shot a nigga. Come get him'," said Wey-Bey. "That dude ain't breaking."
Michael Jordan never shot Elijah Davis in broad daylight, and he never called the police just to tell them he killed somebody. But after what he did to Craig Ehlo, or Bryon Russell, or any number of other NBA players, maybe 9-1-1 should have been Jordan's first call. "I just killed someone. Come get him." Jordan wasn't a soldier, per se, but he certainly racked up a body count to rival even Chris and Snoop's.
Jordan's the best player ever to lace up a pair of basketball sneakers. He's basketball's Mozart. To paraphrase Will Hunting, when Michael Jordan saw a basketball, he could always just play. It didn't hurt his cause that he was as obsessed with basketball -- and winning -- as Liam Neeson was with finding his kidnapped daughter in Taken. Or that he could jump like a trampolinist on steroids. But he's been in jail -- err, out of the game -- since 2003. And even Cutty, Baltimore's greatest soldier, got affected by such a layoff.
After eight years away from the game, there's talk that the 47-year old Jordan (he'll be 48 next week) could potentially return to the NBA. He's practicing with the Charlotte Bobcats, and they've been impressed by Jordan's play. "He still has it," said Paul Silas, adding, "If he got in shape he could probably average about 15 to 20 points a game, no question, because he still has the shot. If he got in shape, he would probably average 20 because he can get the shot off, he can make them, and he has just an uncanny knowledge of the game."
Let's not lie to ourselves. The only reason we're having this conversation is because it's Michael Jordan. No other human being could conceivably contribute to an NBA team at age 48. I'm not even sure Jordan conceivably could, but I find it hard to bet against him because, well, he's the indomitable man who always wagged his tongue, the indomitable man who could only fail at one thing in his professional sports career -- baseball.
The thought of a Jordan comeback would make some people cringe. Many fans think he should have retired for good in 1998, after his second retirement, and that we should always remember the Bryon Russell shot as his final one. We should remember this picture as his final moment, rather than his stint with the Washington Wizards, or -- gasp -- struggling to make the playoffs (and maybe crack the rotation) in Charlotte.
But let's think about this for a second. Think about all Jordan's done in his career. The scoring titles, the MVP trophies, the championships, the did-you-see-what-I-just-did shrugs and the I'm-a-lot-better-than-anybody-else-on-planet-earth moments. Is anything he has already accomplished more impressive than succeeding in the NBA at 48 years old? Even if he's not an MVP candidate, or even a starter.
No man has ever played NBA basketball after age 45. The one man who played at age 45 was Nat Hickey, who played one game for the Providence Steamrollers during the 1947-'48 season (yes, the 1947-'98 season). Actually, that wasn't even in the NBA. The Steamrollers played in the BAA, the NBA's precursor. And Hickey shot six times during his lone game, missing all six attempts.
In modern NBA history, only one man has even played at age 44. That was Kevin Willis, who played five game for the Dallas Mavericks in 2006-'07, many moons after he should have been retired for good.
John Stockton and Karl Malone drank from the Fountain of Youth better than anybody else in NBA history, to this point. In his final year, at age 41, Stockton averaged 10.8 ppg and 7.7 apg. He also wore shorts that gave him a permanent wedgie. The Mailman scored 13.2 ppg and added 8.7 rpg during his final campain, when he was 40 years old. He would later take part in an odd Sketchers commercial alongside Kareem-Abdul Jabaar.
If Jordan could somehow whip himself into shape for a comeback (and sell his share of the Charlotte Bobcats, because NBA rules say no owner can play for a team) at age 48, after eight years away from the game, there is no historical comparison. If he could also, as Silas predicted, average between 15 and 20 points per game, it would be the greatest feat in basketball history. What else could be more impressive than scoring that many points, at that age, after eight years off? I remind you, nobody else has ever so much as played a single NBA game after turning 45 years old.
Of course, even if Jordan comes back, he's likely to fail. (I said I hate betting against him, but he's still damn near 48 years old. I have to bet against him, right? Even if he's Michael Jeffrey Jordan?) The human body isn't meant to play sports at age 48. Not basketball, at least. Even Jordan's body has to be deteriorated after eight years out of the game, right? Right?
On the other hand, it's Jordan. Michael Jordan. The man who adores competition, who even used his Hall of Fame induction speech as a platform for letting people know he was better than they were. I picture the practices he's going through in Charlotte, and I just see one image: Michael Jordan, frothing at the mouth, like a heroin fiend looking for one more fix, dying -- almost literally -- to play another NBA game. It's almost impossible to picture that Jordan, that singular-minded assassin focused only on improving his game and tearing out his opponent's heart, ever failing. Not even if he's almost a half century old.
Remember how he ended his Hall of Fame induction speech? "One day you might look up and see me playing the game at fifty [years old]," he said. "Oh, don't laugh. Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion."
Michael Jordan has spent his whole life breaking down the human body's barriers. He jumped higher. He trained harder. He knew himself, and his game, and winning, better than anybody else before or since. But he's almost fifty years old, and that has to mean something. Right?
Avon eventually coaxed Cutty into returning to the drug game as Avon's muscle. A little while after deciding to rejoin the game, Cutty was sent on a mission to shoot and kill a rival drug dealer. The rival drug dealer sprinted away when he realized what was going on, but slipped and fell as he rounded the corner. Cutty chased him and caught up to the fallen man easily. He looked down his gun's barrel, at the rival drug dealer laying helplessly on the ground. All Cutty had to do was pull the trigger. As he would later say, "I had that kid in my sights, close enough to take off his cango and half his dong with it." But he couldn't bring himself to fire his gun.
"Whatever it is in you that lets you flow like you flow and do that thang," Cutty told Avon later, "it ain't in me no more."
Avon told Cutty it was okay; the drug ring could use him in a different role instead.
"No, man. I ain't making myself clear," Cutty responded. "The game ain't in me no more. None of it."
The game shouldn't be in Michael Jordan no more, either. Not after eight years away from the court. Not at the age of 47, soon to be 48. Still, no matter how improbable a successful Jordan comeback seems, I keep remembering one thing -- the time Jordan shot Elijah Davis in broad daylight, then called 9-1-1 to tell police to pick up the body.
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