Responding to comments made by fellow Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin, the most authoritative source to date to give credence to the Jordan comeback rumors, the five-time NBA MVP told The Washington Post that his return is still very unlikely.

"I haven't wavered one bit from what I've been saying," Jordan said in Wednesday's edition of the paper. "If I had to answer today, I'm 99.9 percent sure I won't play again.

"I'm not going to come back as a showpiece. I wouldn't even think about it unless I thought I could maintain the level of play I had when I left. I'd only come back doing everything I always did. And I'm nowhere near that, nowhere close to that. I haven't played in three years."

Jordan has already denied the comeback rumors several times over the past two months, but his latest statement will do little to stop the speculation. Even some of his friends, such as golfing buddy and Pittsburgh Penguins star Mario Lemieux, have not believed him.

Lemieux, speaking Tuesday after a Penguins practice, said he had talked to Jordan in the last 10 days and made it sound like His Airness was all but ready to don the uniform.

"He's going to give it a shot and he's working very hard," Lemieux said. "He's taking his time, he's taking a few months to get ready, but I'm sure when he gets back, he'll be the best player again."

Jordan's denials have not been universally accepted in part because of the rather secretive manner he chooses to issue them, using one-on-one interviews rather than a public forum.

But a denial to a larger audience would close the door entirely, and perhaps that's something Jordan doesn't want to do. His former Bulls coach, Phil Jackson, said recently he thinks Jordan is contemplating a comeback but hasn't made up his mind.

"If he's putting himself up against professional players, I think he's waiting to see what he feels like when he's out there," Jackson said. "I think he will have a parachute in case he doesn't want to do it, in case he feels like it's not worth it, in case he doesn't feel he can play up to the level he wants to."

Jordan was the talk of the nation's capital on Tuesday, the day after Pollin went on television to reveal his "gut feeling" that "the odds are that he's going to come back" and play for Washington next season.

"I didn't think he'd come back when I first heard the talk," Pollin said. "But when Mario Lemieux came back to the Penguins, it stirred something in Michael."

A Jordan comeback would be bigger than that of Lemieux, one of the owners of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, who ended a 3½-year retirement in December.

Pollin's words were stunning, given the business relationship between him and Jordan. As the team's president of basketball operations, Jordan is answerable only to Pollin.

Jordan also owns a small piece of the Wizards, and he would have to divest his ownership under NBA rules before returning to the court.

The man who recruited Jordan to Washington 15 months ago, however, doesn't see a comeback taking place. Ted Leonsis welcomed Jordan to town on Jan. 19, 2000, making him a partner in a group that owns all of the NHL's Washington Capitals and a portion of the Wizards.

"He owns a part of the Wizards, he owns a part of the Capitals," Leonsis told WTOP radio. "There would have to be lots of discussions between Michael and me, Michael and Abe, Michael and the league, and none of that is happening. If this was real, I think we would be further down that road."

Pollin and others who give credence to the possibility of a Jordan comeback usually cite three pieces of evidence: Jordan's workouts with the Wizards and his admission that he is playing basketball recreationally at a health club; Charles Barkley's statement that he would like to play with Jordan in Washington next season; and Jordan's sheer competitiveness that is fueled by the knowledge he still had plenty left when he retired from the Chicago Bulls after the 1997-98 season.

"Sure, it's fun to think about it," Jordan told the Post, "seeing where I am in terms of fitness and psyche. But look at the reality of it. Where's the test? Playing against guys recreationally at the health club? I'm not even in position to think about it. Right now, it's recreational to me if I'm not capable of playing at that level, I wouldn't do it. I'm nowhere near what would have to be to even consider playing."

The factors working against a Jordan comeback are his age -- it's doubtful he can still dominate the game at 38 -- and his preference to live in Chicago. He would actually have to start showing up for the games if he were playing, abandoning his current routine of staying with his family and running the Wizards by telephone.

Jordan practiced with the Wizards last week, wearing his old No. 23. He rolled his eyes in disbelief when the subject of a comeback was broached by reporters afterward.

"The only thing this signals is that I'm getting some exercise," Jordan said at the time.

Jordan has a five-year contract with the Wizards. He initially retired as a player in 1993 after winning three NBA titles with Chicago and tried to make a career in professional baseball. But he returned to the Bulls for the NBA playoffs in 1995 and played through 1998, winning three more titles.

-- Associated Press

Personnel File

CHARGES DROPPED: Wizards forward Tyrone Nesby spent the night in jail after being arrested in his locker room on a battery charge that was later dropped. Nesby, released from jail Tuesday morning, was accused in 1995 of hitting a fellow student at Vincennes University in an argument over the O.J. Simpson verdict. Nesby played at the junior college before transferring to UNLV in 1996.

The other student, David Collins, sued Nesby and was satisfied with the outcome, so he wanted to drop the charge, Knox County prosecutor John Sievers said Tuesday.

A second warrant had charged Nesby with failure to appear in court, said Sgt. Greg Bourlard of the Knox County Sheriff's Department. The Wizards said in a statement later in the day that all charges had been dropped.

Nesby was arrested in the locker room at Conseco Fieldhouse after the Pacers' 100-78 victory Monday night. He played 15 minutes, scoring two points with one rebound. The Wizards activated him from the injured list last week.

FUTURE UNKNOWN: Of the five players acquired by the Wizards in the Juwan Howard trade in February, Loy Vaught's role in the team's future is the one that is most perplexing. Vaught hasn't been the same player he once was since he undergoing major back surgery on Dec. 15, 1997.

That was the day Vaught, an 11-year veteran forward, finally, stubbornly submitted to the spinal fusion surgery that he knew had to be done if he were going to continue in the league.

Vaught is one of the few players in any major sport to have returned from spinal fusion surgery. However, because he put that surgery off until he could no longer live with the excruciating pain it caused, Vaught says he is as responsible as anyone for the fall-off of his game since that time. Vaught has gone from a player who once averaged 16.2 points and 10.rebounds from 1994-1997 to a player who, at 34, doesn't know what the future has in store for him.

"I see it from the coaches' and front office's viewpoints," Vaught, who has two seasons remaining on a five-year, $22.80 million contract, said. "I'm an older player. Why waste time playing a guy who's injured, a guy who's 34 years old, who's on the downside of his career when you have young players who are promising that you can develop?

"Especially when you're in the position we're in, where we've won just 18 games. It's a great time to use game-time situations to develop these young guys and get them experiences. I think that's the way the coaches see it and that's probably the wise way to go about it."

Of the four players acquired from Dallas that are not on the injured list -- rookie center Etan Thomas is out for the rest of the season with a sprained big left toe -- Vaught has received the least amount of playing time. Courtney Alexander and Christian Laettner are both in the starting lineup, while Hubert Davis, presently out with a strained right hamstring, started 11 games before suffering his injury.

Vaught, on the other hand, has appeared in 10 games as a reserve. Wizards coach Leonard Hamilton has not used him in seven games.

Vaught said that he would be in a position to contribute had he gone under the knife when his back first began giving him problems. But instead of having the surgery, when it was clear this was the only way to relive the pain, Vaught went a different route. Instead, he opted to take almost every type of painkiller and anti-inflammatory that his doctors would prescribe for him.

"I was doing some foolish things," Vaught said. "Acupuncture, yoga, chiropractic, but nothing seemed to help. But I was able to play. I was able to dope myself up long enough and kill the pain long enough to get me through a game."

Since his surgery, Vaught has averaged just 4.2 points and 4.1 rebounds. With the Wizards he is averaging 2.8 points and 2.6 rebounds.

THE END FOR MITCH: Guard Mitch Richmond was placed on the injured list last week and replaced on the active roster by Tyrone Nesby. Considering that the Wizards have totally committed to playing their younger players for the rest of the season, Richmond has almost certainly played his last game in a Washington uniform.

"Looking at the way things have gone around here this year, with Juwan (traded) and Rod (Strickland, released), I think it's safe to say that."

Richmond has two years and $20 million left on his remaining contract with the Wizards. If they buy him out this year his $10 million salary will still count against the salary cap next season.

STILL LEARNING HOW TO CLOSE: The fourth quarter has been hard on the Wizards lately. In a 93-80 loss at New York the Wizards scored just 10 points in the fourth. In a 102-100 loss to Boston on Saturday, Washington scored just 18 points in the fourth quarter.

ROAD TO NOWHERE: The Wizards finished the season 0-12 in road games against Atlantic Division foes.

MAKING AN ASSIST: Wizards forward Christian Laettner took time out from his busy schedule last week to stop by the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue and make a $1 million donation to his high school alma mater in Buffalo, the Nichols School.

Laettner will direct $250,000 of his donation to create a scholarship fund for students in financial need. The remaining $750,000 will go to the school's gymnasium fund to aid in the completion of a new facility that will be named in Laettner's honor next summer.