Sadness greets Michael Jordan's retirement

CHICAGO, Jan 12 (Reuters) -- Americans expressed dismay and a measure of gratitude on Tuesday at the news that Michael Jordan, mainstay of the Chicago Bulls and perhaps the best basketball player ever, will likely retire.

"When I saw the headline, I thought, 'It's terrible,"' said Pedro Vazquez, waiting for a bus amid yet another snowfall in a punishing Chicago winter. "He's given Chicago everything you could ask for. I don't know how the Bulls are going to play without him."

"Jordan made basketball a household word. He will be missed and the sport will be hard-pressed to find another superstar like him," said Bonnie Schultz, a secretary in Pittsburgh.

The Bulls said Jordan will hold a news conference on Wednesday at 12 noon EST (1700 GMT) amid reports that the 35-year-old superstar, still at the pinnacle of his sport, would announce his retirement after 12-plus professional seasons.

Jordan's imminent retirement, if true, would not come as a complete surprise.

He has made several declarations that he would play only for coach Phil Jackson, who resigned last summer after the Bulls captured their sixth championship in eight seasons.

He also demanded that the team re-sign disgruntled All-Star forward Scottie Pippen. Fellow players said he had not stuck to his strict off-season workouts, having been spotted most recently smoking cigars at the casino gaming tables while vacationing in the Bahamas.

Jordan has also shown a willingness to walk away from the sport. He shocked the basketball world when he retired in 1993, saying his father James' murder had led him to reevaluate his life and that he had accomplished all he wanted on the court.

But Jordan's second, and presumably final, retirement comes at an awkward time for the league he helped push into the global marketing stratosphere.

The millionaire players and billionaire owners just ended a six-month lockout that silenced arenas and may have alienated fans, and the league will likely be missing its biggest draw card in Jordan.

"They'll just have to start over. There's another (Jordan) out there somewhere, in the making," said restaurant cashier Audrey Alexander.

"I can't be too depressed. Six championships. How much can you ask for? All I can say is thank you. But in my heart I want him to come back," said Linda Singer, a Chicago graphic artist.

The planned shortened season that was scheduled to begin next month might have been expected to lure Jordan back, because he would have had to play fewer games.

"If I was him, I would play a short season to have one more championship, then retire," said Leon Allen, a doorman at a Chicago apartment building.

Others predicted Jordan's competitive fire would bring him back. Jordan stood to earn around $21 million, which would be his pro-rated salary based on a 5 percent raise on last season's $33 million paycheck. He makes millions more on endorsements.

Several fans called it the end of an era for the Bulls and for the league.

"We've lost a true professional. This is just more bad news for a sport that has had nothing but bad news in the past couple of months," said Douglas Dunn, a fan as well as dean of the business school at Carnegie Mellon University.

"It's going to be a huge detriment to the sport ... Being that he's such a talented player, and wherever he plays -- whether it's here in Miami, or Chicago or Detroit -- the game sells out," said Kurt March, a manager at a sports store in the Miami suburb of Kendall.

"That'll do it for the NBA. I may not watch another game all year," one commuter riding a subway train joked.