The Herald-News from Passaic, New Jersey • 29

"ports I've never seen anything like that. There were thousands and thousands of people everywhere we went. If Jackals catcher Rogefio Nunez, on being a teammate of Michael Jordan Herald News Saturday, June 13, 1998 Section MailiniaE Fimaly Deliver; Michael Not Done Dancing JustYet Malone Scores 39 As Utah Forces Game 6 Vs. Chicago By HAL BOCK The Associated Press CHICAGO Put the party on hold. With Chicago poised to celebrate a repeat three-peat championship by the Bulls, the Utah Jazz spoiled all the fun with an 83-81 victory in Game 5 Friday night and sent the NBA Finals back to Salt Lake City.

Karl Malone overcame a loss of composure that caused a damag By GLENN NELSON Knight Ridder News Service CHICAGO There is so much talk about Last Dance around here, you halfway expect Donna Summer to come out and sing it. It's been Phil Jackson's season-long rallying cry, a reference to the expected breakup of the Chicago Bulls. And with the house lights about to come up in these NBA ing technical 83 81 foul in the im second quarter Bulls and led the Commentary ft 1 1 1 T. tX. tk Jazz recovery with his best game of the finals.

That puts the Jazz at home for Game 6 on Sunday. If Utah wins that one, a decisive seventh game would be played there next Wednesday. Utah's attitude all along was that if it could win a game in Chicago and get the series back west, the homecourt advantage earned with 62 victories and the second-best record in team history could turn the finals its way. Thanks to Malone, the Jazz get a chance to do that. Malone finished with a series-high 39 points, 17 in the third quarter, to breathe new life into Utah.

He got important fourth-quarter help from journeyman Antoine Carr, a non-factor in the series until now. Carr came off the bench for three vital baskets that helped Utah hold off the Bulls. "Everybody has written us off and we needed to win a game here, and we Malone said. "If we continue to play as a team we have a good chance. Most importantly we won the game we need to win, as a team, not Karl Malone by himself, but as a team." Utah's 30 first-half points tied the record for fewest points in any half for the finals set by Houston against Boston in 1981.

It was typical of the futile shooting performance of the Western Conference champions throughout the finals. Malone nailed the first three shots of the third quarter after Utah charged from behind. It touched off a 29-point period for the Jazz, their best quarter of the series and kept alive their chance for a first NBA title. Malone hit six of nine shots in the quarter as Utah overtook Chicago and hung onto the lead, playing for its playoff life. Behind 17 points from Toni Kukoc, the Bulls emerged with a 36-30 halftime lead.

Chicago built its first-half lead with the help of a technical foul on Malone. Malone dunked on a break to tie the game at 27. As he turned to head back upcourt, he bumped and slightly shoved Dennis Rodman under the basket a mild confrontation at best but one that brought the Jazz star the technical, See Finals, Page D2 The Associated Press Michael Jordan holds the ball as Utah's Bryon Russell defends during Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Friday. Nunez Learned Well From Jordan r. Finals, it appears time to cue up Donna.

Or is it? Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen have playfully danced around the Last Dance issue. The other night, when it was pointed out that the Bulls' uniform was beginning to look awfully comfortable on him, Pippen said after the series was over he wanted to "stick (the uniform) in a trunk." When Pippen's comment was relayed, Jordan said he, too, would put his uniform in a trunk. Jordan added, "Next season, they hand out new ones wherever." If Friday night was the Last Dance, it was one for the Bulls' dynasty. Our feeling, however, is that the emperor, His Airness, will live on, perhaps even in new clothes. Jordan said Thursday that he counsels Pippen to keep his options open.

"I closed it once," he said, referring to his aborted retirement, "and, next thing you know, I have to open it back up." Jordan even has started backing off his if-Phil-goes-I-go ultimatum. He has told confidants he'd be willing to play for George KarL If hell play for Karl, he's open to possibilities he has not discussed in public. If wild horses cant drag Jackson back to Chicago, maybe they can drag him to Seattle. And dare we even suggest it maybe Jordan would come with him. We know Jordan likes the area, and he has leased property in Vancouver, B.C., where he and his family plan to spend some of this summer.

The NBA, see, has run out of challenges for Jordan. This season, he relished his one-on-one with age. Next season, maybe the challenge is winning another championship at a new address. If Jordan stays in Chicago, his main test will be winning a title without the other half of what is destined to go down in history as the most dynamic basketball duo of our time. While Jordan clearly has not closed any doors, Pippen has.

"I dont have any intention of coming back here next season," said Pippen, who tried to force Chicago to trade him earlier this seasoa "Even though I stated a couple of days ago that I would look to come back, I think this is the last run for this ballclub. And I want to look to go out and explore all my opportunities." It would be interesting to see Jordan without Pippen because the two have complemented each other almost perfectly. Though they have presented a two-pronged attack at both ends of the court, Pippen obviously has been deferential, allowing Jordan to flourish as the game's supreme scorer. "I'm going to think of it, in a way, that we're finishing off the season, and from the beginning we want to play and win our last game," Jordan said of Friday night. "What evolves over the summer will make me think about what this game actually meant, (if) the team's going to be broken up and Phil Is going to go his way and Scottie and I are going to go our way.

Then you reminisce about the game." Jordan sounds like he's mourning not the end of a career but the end of a relationship. By ART STAPLETON Herald News LITTLE FALLS New Jersey Jackals catcher Rogelio Nunez will never forget the unique introduction to the English language he received four years ago. More memorable, though, was his teacher. In the summer of 1994, as the sports world followed the five-month baseball career of some outfielder named Jordan with the Birmingham (Ala.) Barons, Nunez enjoyed his best minor league season while in the same clubhouse. Two thousand dollars later, Jordan had made another fan for life.

And Nunez, well, he had added 20 words to his vocabulary and a season's worth of stories to tell the grandkids. "It was unbelievable," said Nunez, who is in his ninth year of pro baseball. "I've never seen anything like that. There were thousands and thousands of people everywhere we went. The stadiums, hotels, everything.

There were so many memories." Like the time Jordan played a joke on Nunez in an Orlando, See Nunez, Page D2 Then the starting backstop for the double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, Nunez was hitting well, fielding even better and making $100 a day because of a deal he made with arguably the most popular athlete ever, Michael Jordan. "One name, $100," the Dominican-born Nunez said with a laugh. "(Jordan) said, 'Every time you spell something in English, IH give you $100. You just have to tell me something about baseball each time." "He said, 'I help you with your English, and you make Rogelio Nunez Dazzling Duque Pushes Mendoza Out of Yanks' Starting Rotation World Cup '98 French Breeze in Front of Home Fkns By WILLIAM GILDEA The Washington Post MARSEILLE, France More stunning sports-stadium settings must exist on the face of the earth, but Friday evening in the din of roaring songs and chants for both France and South Africa from 60,000 fans in this Mediter- hitter to beat Montreal. At 2-0, Hernandez was too much to leave out of the rotatioa And the Yankees saw no sense in sending him back to Triple-A Columbus, where he was 6-0.

Hernandez, whose next start will come at Baltimore, joins David Cone, Andy Pettitte, David Wells and Hideki Irabu in a rotation that has helped the Yankees post the best record in the majors. Pettitte left Thursday night's game at Montreal with a slight twinge, but was OK on Friday. Wells has been bothered by a stiff left shoulder, but he is all right, too. Mendoza has been more than fine, especially lately in going 4-1 with a 4.00 ERA in 11 starts. But the right-hander pitched well in relief last season and made two appearances out of the bullpen this year and his ability to pitch effectively in that role him back there.

"When you look at the six people, he's really the only one who jumps out with the legitimate experience in the bullpen," Torre said. The Associated Press NEW YORK El Duque earned it. Orlando Hernandez, the Cuban defector who sparkled in his first two starts in the majors, was promoted to the No. 5 spot in the Yankees' rotation and Ramiro Mendoza was sent to the bullpen Friday. Yankees manager Joe Torre announced the move after Friday night's game against the Cleveland Indians was rained out.

Mendoza had been scheduled to start. "It's tough to fight what you saw the other day, even though Mendoza hasn't done anything wrong," Torre said. Hernandez, who escaped from Cuba on a flimsy boat the day after Christmas, has been everything the Yankees hoped for when they signed "El Duque" to a $6.6 million, four-year contract. The older half-brother of World Series MVP Livan Hernandez won his big league debut last week, holding Tampa Bay to one run and five hits in seven innings. On Tuesday night, he pitched a four- TtllNwiMim.

I Goalies battle in scoreless tie between Bulgaria and Paraguay; second-half goal lifts Denmark past Saudi Arabia. Page D3. ranean port city, none came immediately to mind. The sleekly remodeled Stade de Velodrome sits surrounded by ancient hills. Nestled in this beauty, the host team of the 16th World Cup and a country making its first appearance in the tournament began play under a golden sun that had plenty of light still to give even though it was 9 o'clock.

The scene alone would have been thoroughly chilling, but in addition a frigid wind the mistral blew from the north toward The Associated Press Thierry Henry, right, embraces teammates Youri Djordaeff, center, and Didler Deschamps after Djordaeff scored to give France a 2-0 lead Friday. the sea in a fury that reached an official recording of 70 mph shortly before the game. When the sun went down, it felt like the winter Olympics. But neither team would be deterred despite wearing short pants, and for a while there was suspense, which helped keep everyone warm and See France, Page D4.