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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
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Sports

Tuesday, January 12, 1999

Eagle squads seeking first 2-4A victory


PECOS, Jan. 12 -- After dropping their District 2-4A
basketball opener in El Paso Friday night, the Pecos Eagle
girls will hope for better luck on their home court this
evening, when they host the Canutillo Eagles, starting at
7:30 p.m.

The Eagles saw their record fall to 3-15 with a 57-36 loss
at El Paso Mountain View, a game in which the Eagles fell
behind by an 11-0 score at the start, then trailed by 13 at
the half after cutting the lead to as little as five points.

"We did all right rebounding. We had 18 defensive rebounds
for the game, so we didn't give them that many second
chances," said Eagles' coach Brian Williams. "Where their
girls got their points is when we missed the shot and they
were already going downcourt."

Canutillo also lost their district opener, to 2-4A favorite
Clint, and are 7-9 on the season. The Eagles have been led
in scoring this season, but Ale Pineda and Alex Vasquez, who
have been averaging just over 13 and 12 points per game
respectively. The two are also Canutillo's top rebounders so
far, while Celeste Bowden has been the team's main
ballhandler.

Tonight's game will the only varsity contest, although there
will be four sub-varsity games at the two Pecos High School
gyms. The Eagles' freshmen and junior varsity squads are
scheduled to face Canutillo in the new gym at 4:30 and 6
p.m., prior to the varsity's 7:30 p.m. start, while Pecos'
JV and freshmen boys teams will face Fort Stockton in the
old gym tonight, four days after the two teams' varisty
squads played.

The Eagle boys are idle tonight, and open District 2-4A play
on Friday in Fabens. It will be the first of eight
doubleheaders with the girls over the next four weeks, with
all Tuesday games in Pecos and all Friday contests in the El
Paso area.

Jordan to opt for retirement Wednesday


By JIM LITKE
AP Sports Writer
CHICAGO, Jan. 12 -- For six months, Michael Jordan teased,
taunted and tantalized a nation awaiting his answer.

At last, he appears to have one.

The greatest player in NBA history and the most popular
athlete since Muhammad Ali is expected to announce his
retirement Wednesday at a news conference in Chicago, a
source with close ties to the NBA told The Associated Press
on Monday night.

If so, it would be the second time in five years that
Jordan has walked away from the game.

``This is a man who truly, as far as I'm concerned, is the
modern day Babe Ruth,'' former NBA great and current Lakers
vice president Jerry West said recently.

Just as with Jordan's first retirement, a number of factors
-- his age, a picture-perfect ending to last season, a
fractured beginning for this one -- appear to have
influenced his decision. And just like last time, Jordan
could change his mind and return at some point.

But for now, he is expected to once again leave the game
that bears his indelible mark, leave it when he's at the
top, the way he said he would.

Jordan did not return a message left on his phone, and
Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, reached at his Arizona home,
said: ``I don't have any reaction. I don't have any
comments.''

Asked about Jordan's retirement, Bulls spokesman Tim Hallam
said, ``At this particular time, I can't comment.''

Jordan's retirement also was reported by The New York
Times, USA Today and The Denver Post.

His agent, David Falk, said that until Jordan ``announces
whether he is retiring or returning, anything else is
speculation.''

And there's been a considerable amount of that ever since
Jordan hit the final, thrilling shot in Game 6 of the NBA
Finals in Utah to lock up the Bulls' sixth championship of
the decade. That speculation intensified last week, when the
NBA players and owners reached a settlement to end the
six-month lockout.

Jordan turns 36 next month. The five-time league MVP led
the NBA in scoring 10 times and averaged 31.5 points per
game, best in league history.

With NBA players preparing for an abbreviated season to
begin Feb. 5, Jordan was expected to announce his plans
before training camps opened Monday. He had been in the
Bahamas on vacation, but returned to Chicago earlier this
week. Another source, who also requested anonymity, told the
AP that Jordan summoned teammates Scottie Pippen and Ron
Harper to his home to discuss the team's future.

Jordan retired from the Bulls the first time in October
1993, saying he accomplished everything he wanted to in
basketball and planned to devote more time to his family.
Instead, he spent 1994 playing minor league baseball for the
Double-A Birmingham Barons, a farm team of the Chicago White
Sox. The budding outfield prospect left baseball in the
spring of 1995, rather than get caught up in another labor
squabble between owners and players, and returned to the
game he loved.

While his skills were still considerable, Jordan quickly
learned he could no longer dominate the game the way he once
did. The Bulls were knocked out of the postseason in the
Eastern Conference semifinals by Orlando.

But then, just as he had in every previous offseason,
Jordan went back to work. He added a nearly unstoppable
fadeaway jump shot to his arsenal, and after a rigorous
weight-training and conditioning program, he came back the
next season better than ever. The Bulls then set off on
another three-peat that ended last June in Utah with Jordan
stealing the ball and making the game-clinching shot in the
final seconds -- one of the most memorable sequences of his
memorable career.

It was precisely the lack of offseason work this past
summer that made many of Jordan's teammates doubt he would
return.

``He prepares as well as anybody but from all I hear, he's
been playing golf and going to the Bahamas,'' teammate Steve
Kerr said recently. ``Unless he's working out in a hidden
gym somewhere down in the Bahamas, I don't think he's really
preparing to play.''



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Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.

324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net

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Copyright 1999 by Pecos Enterprise