Bulls, Jordan Were Ready to Humble

SEATTLE — Apparently, they weren’t really ready to rumble.

The SuperSonics had it all: “The world’s biggest cheer,” the laser show, the sasquatch zooming down from the roof, the din, the fight announcer, Michael Buffer, and his trademark, “Are you ready to r-r-rumble?”

All they were missing was a basketball team. In retrospect, it turns out the SuperSonics weren’t ready for Game 3, Michael Jordan or the entire 1996 NBA finals. After playing two lackluster games--and winning them--the Bulls played a good one and suddenly it was an official mismatch.

One thing you have to give the SuperSonics, young or not, they can read the handwriting on the wall. It’s a lot easier when you’re plastered up against it.

“They’ve been to the finals three times and they’ve won it three times,” said mouthy Gary Payton, in what amounted to a concession speech. “This is our first time. This is a learning experience for me.”

Here’s lesson No. 1: Don’t stick your hand in the lion’s cage.

Payton has been running his mouth at Jordan all series, an act of folly, the dimensions of which he may now be beginning to understand. Jordan tried to put up a big number in Game 2, but flamed out and took the floor Sunday in a very determined frame of mind.

“I must admit,” Jordan said, “trash-talking is a part of the game. I give everyone their respect. I talk trash too. In these circumstances, a veteran team knows you can’t just talk, you can’t go out there with a lot of lip service. You’ve got to go out there and play the game eventually sometime.

“When we’re in someone else’s home, I don’t think we become more talkative. . . . It’s hard to come in here and talk trash because they have 17-18,000 people here. We have our wives and a couple of office people. . . .

“Physically, I just wanted to go out and play my game and not give anyone an opportunity to get in my head or talk trash. If they talked trash, I tried to crush them with the game of basketball.”

Of course, he had to wait a while to crush them, while the SuperSonics whipped their fans up. For the piece de resistance, Jack Sikma, a member of their ’79 champions, led fans in Key Arena and “at the more than 300 locations around Puget Sound” in a Go Sonics cheer that they nominated as the biggest ever.

“Are you ready, hundreds of thousands of fans in bars and restaurants?” roared Sikma.

Then Buffer came out and led his cheer and finally, everyone was ready to start the game, especially Jordan.

He had 12 points in the first quarter as the Bulls romped to an astonishing 22-point lead. The SuperSonics regrouped, but just before halftime Jordan went on a 15-7 run, all by himself.

“I’m not looking forward to looking at the film,” said SuperSonic Coach George Karl, wincing, “but I think he hit a lot of tough shots in that period of time that borderline are unstoppable. Which we know . . . three or four guys in the NBA are capable of doing. Tonight Michael did it to us.”

Karl would probably like to hold off falling to his knees to kiss the hem of Jordan’s garment until the series ends, but there might not be three or four players in basketball history who could have put on a show such as Jordan’s on Sunday.

The SuperSonics disintegrated. The Bulls changed up on them defensively, double-teaming Shawn Kemp who had torched them in Games 1 and 2, and the SuperSonics couldn’t adjust. They missed open shots, turned the ball over 20 times and mounted no serious challenge. Payton, who had emerged in the first three rounds of the playoffs, became a minor factor once more.

“The hoop looks like an ocean to him,” Payton said of Jordan later.

And what does it look like to him?

“It looks like a basket,” he said, laughing, “a basket with a net. It may look like an ocean to him but it’s a basket with a net to me.”

Garbage time set in early. Unfortunately, when things get loose, Dennis Rodman’s mind turns to buffoonery and he embarked on a series of provocations, entangling himself and wrestling with various SuperSonics. Finally Frank Brickowski got him with an elbow and was ejected for a flagrant foul.

“My job is to go out and do my job and get in their heads,” Rodman said. “That’s what I get paid for but not enough.”

Let’s just hope if he does it again, some SuperSonic really gets his money’s worth.

Thankfully, there may not be many more chances for a rematch. The SuperSonics, however, vow to go down fighting and are sure to turn their loudspeakers up to the max for another ear-splitting pregame.

What does Buffer go with this time? How about, “Are you ready for summer?”