Jordan's wizardry falls victim to reality

Basketball: The much-hyped return of basketball's favourite son had more spills than thrills

What did we expect? For 18 months the world of basketball has quivered at the prospect of a return to professional competition by Michael Jordan, the greatest player of all time, and when the moment came on Tuesday night in New York the outcome was almost inevitable. He played pretty poorly.

It could have been different if only he had not thrown short right at the end of the season-opening game between his new team, the Washington Wizards, against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. With 18 seconds to go, Jordan popped the ball high in the air to the basket to force the game to a tie and into over-time. But instead of dropping through, the ball clanged off the rim and it was all over.

Jordan, who has not played an NBA game since he walked away from the legendary Chicago Bulls three and a half years ago, finished with a respectable 19 points. But nobody could say that he showed the dazzle that once made him the most admired and popular sports figure on the globe. He missed shots and found himself eclipsed by Latrell Sprewell of the Knicks, who hounded him all the way through.

Surrounded by the young and mostly inexperienced players of the Wizards, Jordan still stood out. No one is questioning whether he should be out there playing. Not yet, anyway. But the Wizards are part of his problem. The talent that was all around him in Chicago, when other top players like Dennis Rodman and Scottie Pippen shared his galaxy, is missing now. Now he is more a one-man band. And he is faltering.

"The game is a little bit different, my team-mates are a little bit different, and obviously the outcome is a little different from what I wanted," Jordan said in the interview room beneath the Garden after the game was over. "I had a good look and it came up short. My shot was pretty short and pretty flat. It could have been a great situation, but it's the beginning of a long season – that's the way I look at it.''

Jordan, who has taken to wearing a trim moustache, is also older now, or course. He is 38, visibly heavier in the top half of his body, and his knees are famously worn out. No one will say much about that, but a reporter who saw Jordan return to the lobby of his Central Park hotel after a shootaround on Tuesday morning saw him hobbling and wearing ice packs on both knees.

Jordan was always going to be a victim of super-oxygenated expectations. (Expectations he helped to fuel.) The atmosphere in the arena was more akin to an NBA final rather than a match starting the professional season. No fewer than 600 journalists were accredited for it, 200 from abroad.

And the stars were there in force. Kevin Kline, David Spane, Kevin Bacon were there as well as regulars in the front rows, Spike Lee and Woody Allen. Mr Lee had auctioned off the seat next to him for $101,300 to an unidentified bidder for a World Trade Centre fund. The lucky ticket holder was Jessica DeRubbio, the 12-year-old daughter of a fireman who died in the disaster.

As that final shot soared over the Knicks defenders it seemed impossible that Jordan could miss. Everyone in the Garden was surely thinking overtime when the ball spun off his fingertips. "I think we were all surprised – at least I was – when it went up, that it didn't go in," said the Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, beaten by more last-second Jordan shots than he would care to remember.

Sprewell sympathised with the predicament of the one-time master. "He's used to being around Scottie Pippen and guys knocking down shots around him," Sprewell said. "We definitely forced their team to have guys make the plays other than Michael. It just worked out for us tonight."

As the man said, the season has a long way to run. This man, as much as we want him to be, is not superhuman. But if his shooting touch returns – and those creaky knees hold up – Jordan might yet reemerge as the only true wizard in his new Washington home.