I promised Michael I wouldn't mention this until the season was over.Now l think it's time. Early last season, I wrote a column about an art of kindness I had seen Jordan do to a disabled child outside the stadium.After it ran,I got a call from a man in the western suburbs.He said,"I read what you wrote about Jordan.but I thought I should tell you another thing I saw." Here it comes, I thought. It always does. Write something nice about a person, and people call you up to say that the person is not so nice. A few weeks later Jordan and I were talking about something else before a game, and I brought up what the man had said. Was the man right? Had Jordan really been talking to those two boys in that poor and dirty neighborhood? "Not two boys," Jordan said. "But four." And he named them. He said four names. And what did they talk about? "Everything," Jordan said. " Anything. I've asked to see their grades so that I can check to see if they're paying attention to their study. If it turns out that one or two of them may need teaching, I make sure they get it." It's just one more part of Michael Jordan's life,one more thing that no one knows about, and one more thing Jordan does fight for. The NBA season is over now, and those boys have their memories. So do J! When the expert reviewers begin to turn against Jordan as they surely will, I'll think about those boys under the streetlight, waiting for the man they know to come. For someone they can depend on. Jordan talked with the boys because he    _   .
needed their support had promised to do so liked to teach them to play basketball wanted to make sure they all studied well