JORDAN: BROWN'S KNICKS' BEST BET
By DAN MARTIN

"You can never count them out. Larry is an excellent coach. They have a high standard to hold on to in this city."MICHAEL JORDAN

Michael Jordan built much of his legend with late-game heroics against the Knicks, constantly preventing them from reaching the NBA Finals.

If the 42-year-old Jordan were playing nowadays, the Knicks hardly would present any challenge to the six-time world champion. But Jordan doesn't believe the Knicks will remain doormats for too long.

"I don't want to give my opinion [about the Knicks], because obviously it would be used as the bible," said Jordan. "Everybody goes through ups and downs. They have a great coach."

Jordan, like Knicks coach Larry Brown, a former North Carolina player, had plenty of kind words for the old Tar Heel, but left out anything positive to say about the rest of the team.

"They just haven't found the right mix. They're going to find it, but it's difficult," said Jordan, who was at the Garden yesterday to announce the teams for the Jordan All-American Classic, a high school all-star game scheduled for April 22.

The Knicks have one of the NBA's worst records. Still, Jordan thinks Brown will be able to turn things around.

"You can never count them out," Brown said. "Larry is an excellent coach. They have a high standard to hold on to in this city, and they have to try to live up to that."

One player Jordan did praise was Kobe Bryant, whose 81 points two weeks ago against the Raptors were more than Jordan ever scored in a game.

"Eighty-one points, and no one fouled out?" said Jordan, whose NBA career high was a 63-point night in the 1986 playoffs against Boston. "I can't imagine seeing someone on the other team score 81 points and still being out there at the end."

But he is impressed with how Bryant has played.

"He's certainly right up there with the best players in the game," Jordan said.

Jordan used this press conference a year ago for the NBA to institute an age-minimum. Yesterday he said he was pleased that the league had done so, but he noted that the NBA hadn't gone far enough.

"I think it should have been 20 instead of 19," Jordan said. "I firmly believe college prepares you for a lot of things. There's no way an 18-year-old kid can deal with the business things that you have to deal with.

"There are some exceptions, but for every LeBron [James] and Carmelo [Anthony], there are four or five others who miss the boat."

dan.martin@nypost.com




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oh yeah....the guy who built the wizards into a winner.......great, now I KNOW we are on the wrong track

Maybe Jordan meant Kwame Brown?

oohah

Also......Kwame looks so much like Jordan it's not even funny. I wonder

[Edited by - enyspree on 02-08-2006 2:20 PM]