His name is ... well, it doesn't matter what his name is. He has more money than God, owns primo Knicks season tickets and not long ago played a little one-on-one with his buddy Michael Jordan. Jordan won (duh), but there was a moment, nothing more, when MJ's motor revved past the red line and it wasn't a friendly game anymore.

Jordan had the ball and the Knicks honk started swiping at it.

"Whattya gonna do?" said the guy.

"You reach," said Jordan, "I teach."

So the guy reached again and Jordan left a contrail on the way to the hoop. It would have been easier to catch a hummingbird with barbecue tongs than steal the ball from MJ. A few days later I ask the Knicks honk -- the same honk who ripped Jordan for years from his second-row seat at the Garden -- about The Comeback. Should he, or shouldn't he?

The guy, a hell of a businessman, competitive out the wazoo, thinks about it for a moment. "You know what's driving him back to return?" says the guy. "The team that he owns sucks. It doesn't have heart. It doesn't have character. It doesn't have the things it takes to win a championship. I just think it's another level of Michael's unselfishness. That's what is driving him back to the court. It isn't the will to play again, it's the will to be successful again."

Jordan is a success junkie. He doesn't need money, fame or adulation. He doesn't need another MVP trophy, another Gatorade commercial, another trip to the Arco Arena. But he craves success. He's a win-aholic. The idea of losing is as distasteful to him as a smelt-on-rye sandwich with a castor-oil chaser.

I've covered Jordan, been part of the usual postgame media scrums, but I don't know him. I played in his fantasy camp two summers ago, played against him, played with him, but that doesn't mean much. Still, there was a revealing moment at that camp that will never fade from my memory. It's why I think Jordan will return to the NBA, why he should return to the NBA.

Our team, sort of the Washington Wizards of Jordan's camp, was on its way to losing yet another game by spectacular proportions when MJ appeared in the huddle. He chirped out a few orders, tugged at his shorts and then single-handedly overcame a 20-point-plus deficit in less than 5 minutes. I spent most of those 5 minutes saying, "Holy s---!" It was real-life Space Jam stuff.

The game goes into overtime and Jordan looks at us. "I didn't come back all this way to lose," he says. Sweat is streaming down his forehead. His chest is doing the accordion thing. The guy is busting it out there. For what? So we can win some meaningless fantasy camp game?

No, baby. Because that's what Jordan does. That's who he is. Success -- just like the Knicks honk says -- is what drives Jordan. Doesn't matter if it's Jordan and four white guys on a makeshift court in Vegas, or if it's Jordan and Wizards in the NBA.

Jordan is 38, but his mind is ageless. He doesn't think like you and me. We see a birth certificate, Father Time and a legacy. He sees today, tomorrow, but not yesterday. After all, what's the point?

"The thing I keep hearing is that he's going to ruin his legacy, stuff like that," says former Chicago Bulls teammate John Paxson. "I've always been of the opinion that you can't make judgments for him. People have tried to do that to him his whole career. If it's in his heart to try it again, I don't see any downside. If it's what he wants to try, then good for him. If not, then good for him too. I get weary of people making those decisions for him."

One of Jordan's favorite people is Chicago Cubs legend Ernie Banks. Banks was the Jordan of the Cubs, or maybe Jordan was the Banks of the Bulls. Whatever the case, there is a mutual respect there. The two men talk on a frequent basis, though Banks never asks about Jordan's future hoops plans.

But Banks is no dummy. He saw the occasional clips of Jordan sitting in an arena suite watching the Wizards take it in the shorts. He saw a friend unfulfilled.

"I see him in the private box in Washington," says Banks, who retired from baseball when he was 41. "He's dressed in a nice suit, looking good. But that's not the place for him. That's for guys who went to Harvard, Yale, guys who are presidents. He belongs on the court, where the action is."

At the very least, he deserves the chance to launch a Jordan comback sequel without all the hand-wringing and worries about his playing reputation. Do you honestly think Jordan would return if he didn't think he'd be among the league's elite? Can you think of many two-guard matchups where he wouldn't have the advantage?

This one is easy. Jordan ought to come back because he can, because he isn't through with the reach-and-teach lessons.

Gene Wojciechowski is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail Geno at gene.wojciechowski@espnmag.com.