Angry Jordan burns Knicks

Wednesday, Jan. 22, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Accused by New York coach Jeff Van Gundy of befriending opposing players only to crush their spirits later, Jordan buried the Knicks with 51 points and carried the Chicago Bulls to an 88-87 victory Tuesday night.

"I guess I didn't make any friends out there tonight," Jordan said after reaching the 50-point mark for the 36th time in his career. It was the best scoring performance in the NBA this season.

Van Gundy's comments "had some sense of extra motivation but didn't go too deep because I'm a little bigger than that," Jordan said. "If that's his way of motivating players, if he wants to take a page out of (former New York coach) Pat Riley's book, that's fine. I wish him the best."

The best? That's certainly not what Jordan wished Riley's protege after sinking a 20-foot, fadeaway jumper with 26.7 seconds to play for an 88-81 lead. Jordan gestured at Van Gundy and yelled at him.

"Some choice words," said Jordan, the NBA's career leader in scoring average.

Van Gundy said recently that Jordan pretends he likes opposing players to "soften them up, to make them feel he cares about them. Then he goes out there and tries to destroy them."

The comments resurfaced in Tuesday's Chicago Tribune, where Jordan saw them.

"It was probably a tactical mistake by the coach of the Knicks to attack Michael in the press," Bulls coach Phil Jackson said. "I thought he went out and played with a vendetta, a score to settle."

After the game, Van Gundy said he meant to compliment Jordan.

"He uses every weapon to his advantage -- some physical, some mental. I respect that," said Van Gundy, whose team lost to the Bulls in last year's playoffs. "I just say that if you fall into the trap of thinking he's your friend, he'll kill you."

The Knicks used a 17-2 run to cut a 17-point deficit to 80-78 with 6:22 left. Allan Houston, who missed 12 of his first 13 shots, made two 3-pointers and a pull-up jumper to spark the surge.

But Jordan scored Chicago's final eight points for the 88-81 lead, and a 3-pointer by Houston and another at the buzzer by Chris Childs were not enough to pull out the game for New York.

Patrick Ewing scored 19 points for the Knicks, who were without injured top reserve John Starks.

In besting his 50-point performance of Nov. 6, Jordan improved his average to 30.9 points -- 4 1/2 more than anyone else -- as he goes for his ninth NBA scoring title.

Jordan was 18-for-30 from the floor, including 5-for-8 from 3-point range, and 10-for-11 from the line as the Bulls improved to 35-5 overall and 20-1 at home. They rebounded from Sunday's loss at Houston, their only defeat in their last 11 games.

The Bulls were without rebounder deluxe Dennis Rodman, who is serving a minimum 11-game league suspension for kicking a cameraman, and injured guard Ron Harper.