Chicago's most famous Olympian - and its most recognized international sports figure - apparently wants nothing to do with the city's 2016 Olympic bid.
Michael Jordan has been conspicuously absent from the PR push.
Barring a surprise bigger than the President Obama showing up, Jordan will not be in Copenhagen to help make the final sales pitch.
Hell, he hasn't been in Chicago.
"Pathetic is the only word to describe Mr. Jordan's role in the intensive effort to land The Games in Chicago," Chuck Goudie writes in the Daily Herald.
"Jordan has been borderline unresponsive to Chicago Olympic officials, according to one keen observer who has been tracking the mission since it began a few years ago.
"Even as the Chicago 2016 committee has cleared hurdle after hurdle without Jordan's active participation, officials have been dumbfounded as to why Chicago's sports ambassador par excellence is stiffing them."
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Given Jordan's transformation into a bitter and classless public speaker, Chicago 2016 is probably better off without him.
Especially if there are casinos in Copenhagen; Goudie writes that Jordan didn't need a hotel room when he attended his NBA Hall of Fame induction because he just pulled an all-nighter at the poker tables.
That's Michael.
Now, if he was genuinely opposed to the bid, that would be honest and refreshing.
But nobody believes he's given it that much thought. That wouldn't be Michael.
He was the greatest baskeball player who ever lived, and one of the greatest athletes. But he's never been someone to think about the world outside of his own - the world of, say, Harvey Gantt and sweatshop shoe makers.
That's his prerogative, but no one should want their kids to be like Mike.
For complete coverage of Chicago's Olympic Bid click here.
Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.
