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Their season opened in Boston, against a young Celtics team that had listened to 80-year-old Red Auerbach. "David Stern's name is on the basketball," Auerbach had said. "Not Michael Jordan's."

That evening, Celtics TV analyst Tom Heinsohn made sure his audience knew who Jordan is not. "He's not God," Heinsohn said. "Everybody treats him like a messiah or something. He isn't."

If it seems odd, at this point, for so many to be confused about Michael Jordan's identity, it's only because Jordan makes it confusing. He does not own the Bulls, and he isn't general manager, but as sure as they lost their opener to the Celtics and as sure as they drifted through the first two months of the season, he is the guy who built this team, for better or worse.

Shortly after the Bulls defeated the Jazz in the NBA Finals last spring, Jordan said, "We deserve a chance (to win a sixth title)." Much of what has followed is a consequence of Jordan's desire, ambition and power. Phil Jackson is coach, Scottie Pippen is still a part of the team, albeit disgruntled, and Dennis Rodman is back in Chicago, thanks to Jordan.

The power to shape a basketball team, not just any team, but the defending NBA champions, winners of five titles in seven years, is impressive power, indeed. This is one reason Jordan, 34, is The Sporting News' Most Powerful Person in Sports for 1997.

Here's another: Jim Jannard, chairman and president of Oakley, Inc., welcomed a new director, Bill Schmidt, onto his board this week. California-based Oakley manufactures high-tech sunglasses at a state-of-the-art Orange County factory. Schmidt is executive vice president of Quaker Oats-Gatorade, creator of the successful "Be Like Mike'' ad campaign in which Gatorade and the basketball superstar beckon thirsty consumers. Jannard and Schmidt were introduced by Jordan, an Oakley director who is developing an inside game-soaring high above boardrooms-to complement his outside shot as a marketing superstar.

The cross-pollination of Oakley and Gatorade, Jannard and Schmidt, is a reflection of Jordan's power outside the game, just as his shaping of the Bulls reflects it within.

He becomes the first No. 1 who started as an athlete before veering into business and media. Previous No. 1s-Laurence Tisch (1990), David Stern (1991), Phil Knight (1992), Ted ...

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...se Jordan and Jackson valued his toughness. A key big man from the '97 playoffs, Brian Williams, was lost because of the cap.

As the Bulls limp toward January, Pippen still is sidelined because of foot surgery, and he demands to be traded. Rodman plays lethargically. Jackson's zen is on the blink. Only Jordan, averaging a league-leading 26.8 points, stands between the club and humiliation.

In business, as with the Bulls, he has the power to be who he is, to call his shots, to control his image. A bold display of Jordan's power occurred this year when two companies he represents, Nike and Oakley, collided over use of his image. Jordan has been with Nike since 1984; he earns $15 million to $20 million a year from the $9 billion behemoth. He has been with Oakley since 1995; he earns about $500,000 a year plus stock equity from the $220 million upstart.

An Oakley print ad featured Jordan wearing Oakley sunglasses as well as an Oakley beret. Nike sued Oakley, claiming its contract with Jordan requires he wear Nike apparel in all of his ads. Jordan says he wore the Oakley beret because he believed at the time his deal with Nike encompassed only athletic equipment.