WILMINGTON, N.C. -- He has faded into the oblivion of a career as an NBA journeyman, nearly a decade removed from leading Duke to its second straight national championship and being the only college player on the original U.S. Olympic Dream Team.
Christian Laettner has played for five teams and nine coaches in nine seasons as a pro, briefly finding success during a three-year run with the Atlanta Hawks before moving on again. At 32, Laettner is hoping that Michael Jordan's return to the NBA will also help resuscitate his own sagging career.
"Every year is a great opportunity," Laettner said earlier this week before heading with Jordan and the rest of the Washington Wizards to the team's training camp at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. "This is no different ... but I'm a little more excited this year."
Certainly more than he was toward the end of last season, when Laettner was traded from an up-and-coming team in Dallas to the downtrodden Wizards in the seven-player deal that sent Juwan Howard to the Mavericks. With a chance to start at power forward this year, Laettner's productivity could increase from the 7.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per game he averaged in 28 starts with the Wizards last season.
It is not just the chance to play with Jordan for the first time since Laettner was a "wide-eyed kid" on the star-studded, gold-medal winning team at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. It is also a chance to play for new Wizards coach Doug Collins.
"I think it helps me in my situation here," said Laettner. "I wanted to be here regardless of whether he [Jordan] was going to be here. Once I found out he was playing, I was excited. ... I expect his presence and Doug Collins' presence to [get us) over a .500 record."
Laettner believes the coaching style Collins brings to the Wizards -- that of a detail-oriented disciplinarian -- is reminiscent of his college coach, Mike Krzyzewski. It is something Laettner said he has been looking for since being drafted third overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1992.
While Laettner has played for a wide range of coaches -- four in a little less than four years in Minnesota alone -- he described most as being laid back, a personality trait that never has been used in talking about Collins in his stops in Chicago and Detroit.
"If Doug Collins lays some rules out ... I've heard if you don't do what he says, he'll say something to you," said Laettner. "That's great. It'll just be easier for us all to stay on the same page, to look at the way we have to play."
