The ruler, as in the final authority, has turned into a ruler, as in a wooden measuring device.

Now that debating the wisdom of Michael Jordan un-retiring yet again has gone the way of the Florida hanging chads -- there's no going back, no matter how potentially wrongheaded some of us might consider the final decision -- I suggest we be progressive and positive and do our best not to cringe when he kicks the ball out of bounds or gets stuck in the air on a baseline drive or suffers windburn as his man goes by him.

Did you see him pull up on the break to bury those 3s against the Nets? Okay, it was reminiscent of Tim Hardaway once he discovered his killer crossover required knee cartilage. But what about when he fell back into the Wizards' bench making that fadeaway while being fouled? Well, sure, he never actually left his feet until he got knocked off them, but let's not quibble. The man is 38, for god's sake, and he still wags a tongue with the best of them.

There are plenty of reasons to appreciate that the ol' bald guy is back. One is that no coach has yet demonstrated an interest in shutting him down. I'm not discounting his ability to create a shot, or that, as with most players, his J has improved in inverse proportion to his athletic decline. If anything, he's reminded us that underneath all that Airness were rock-solid fundamentals that are now serving him well. (They even add a certain sub-plot to his opening-night contest against Spree, whose diminishing athleticism is exposing the holes in his game.)

But let's not pretend for a minute that teams have attacked MJ the way they once did. If the preseason is any indication, opposing coaches plan to let Jordan get his, knowing it won't be enough to get the Wizards a win. The only time I saw him double-teamed was on post-ups, and not even always then. The result? When he heated up against the Nets, it gassed him and he had to ask out. Just about every time he went to the bench, it wasn't precautionary, it was because he needed to catch his breath.

This could create the toughest challenge Jordan and Doug Collins face. One NBA coach believes the only way Jordan will be effective the entire season is if he's limited to 32 minutes or fewer each game. But that means the Wizards must play an entire quarter and then some without him. It's hard to imagine them winning a whole lot of games that way, or Jordan being able to sit by as loss after loss piles up.

One former Bull tells me that under Phil Jackson, Jordan could check in and out at his own discretion, simply tapping Phil's knee as he headed to the scorer's table. Collins and Jordan have been, for the most part, on the same page, but that could easily change sometime after today.

Improvement by the rest of the Wizards could ease that problem, and at least one Eastern Conference coach believes Jordan's example will expedite the process enough to have them contending for the last playoff spot. Others around the league disagree, believing the Wizards are simply too young to utilize what they're learning from Jordan soon enough.

The best part of all this -- if there can be a best part to seeing someone who was an icon beyond basketball concede, after three years, that he is unfulfilled unless he's playing -- is that the current players now have a living benchmark with which to gauge themselves. The Wizards will find out in a hurry if Courtney Alexander and Rip Hamilton and Kwame Brown simply want to be good or as good as they can be, because Jordan will show them the latter. Likewise, since coaches aren't double-teaming MJ or forcing the ball out of his hands, every up-and-comer can measure his game against the master's. It will be strange grading the current stars on when they bite on a fake or don't block his shot or don't go by him, but remember, this is in the name of progress and positivity.

Michael Jordan still rules. The meaning of the word has changed, that's all.

Ric Bucher covers the NBA for ESPN The Magazine. His column appears each Tuesday. E-mail ric.bucher@espnmag.com.