Somehow, we all suspected it would end like this. The one memorable, on-the-mark comment about Michael Jordan's second comeback came from the Big Aristotle himself.

"Thirty nine ain't 29," surmised Shaquille O'Neal.

	Michael Jordan's return had its uplifting moments this season, but for now, it's on the shelf.

How true.

Jordan is at an age where, in most any other endeavor, he would be moving into his prime. In basketball, he's on the downside and, as we now see, it's a slippery slope. Of course, we'll soon be in full Jordan Alert, breathlessly waiting for the Official Announcement as to whether he'll play next year and, well, if he does go for it, all we can say is, good luck and "40 ain't 30."

We could also say, the knees go first. Or, guards go first. In other words, why should anyone be surprised?

That is not to say that Jordan's comeback was ill-advised or ill-conceived. Sure, he sounded ridiculous talking about that famous itch to be scratched, but he clearly missed the competition and the locker room life. Sure, there was an "I'll Show 'Em" element to it as well. He wasn't the same, above-the-rim dynamo he had been, but he still had a fallaway jumper, even if he sometimes took it to Van Exel-ian extremes. The fact that he was still a force on the floor at the age of 39 was remarkable.

The fans of Washington actually saw some relevant NBA basketball for a change. The merchants around the MCI Center hired extra help for the home game crowds. NBC adopted the Wizards as their favorite team, and then, of course, dropped them like a stone when Jordan got hurt. His first return to Chicago produced a hideous basketball game, but also featured a pre-game introduction that brought on tears before the lights went off.

And every single NBA owner should send Jordan a box of his favorite cigars (preferably pre-cut) for what he has done to attendance around the league this year.

At the All-Star break, the Wizards were 26-21, already having won seven more games than the year before. They were a playoff team if the season ended then and there.

Alas, it did not.

And as Jordan's knee worsened, so did the team's play and results. There was surgery for the first time and a stint on the Injured List which coincided with a killer road trip. There was a brutal closing schedule.

In short, a healthy Michael Jordan might not have been enough to salvage a playoff berth, even in a conference where less is more.

That's why Jordan is doing the right thing at the right time. He wasn't contributing much on the floor and his team wasn't going to make the playoffs. So why put himself and his body through unnecessary pain? And you know it had to be killing him to shut it down.

He has said he intends to play next year unless he's hurt. Well, it's hard to have it both ways. We can say now that he should have listened to his body last summer, when the knees acted up and the ribs cracked. He didn't. He listened to his heart. Who among us hasn't had a similar conflict between reason and emotion and sided with the latter?

Is he chastened by the experience? Wiser for it? More eager than ever to come back? We'll have to wait and see. It's a long time between now and October. He won't have to kill himself in the gym all summer. He now knows. He still has game, even if it's a different game.

But beyond the playing, his day-to-day presence in Washington had to have a huge impact on this young and still growing team. You think for a moment that Kwame Brown isn't better off having had Michael as a teammate for a year? (Whether Kwame would have been better off having had Udonis Haslem as a teammate for the year is another matter.)

You think Rip Hamilton and Courtney Alexander aren't further along now than they were a year ago, to paraphrase Ronald Reagan? The Jedi Jordan factor had to be significant -- and can continue to be significant, even though he's not going to play. The one constant you always heard among his former Chicago teammates was that he was an even better teammate than he was a player. That's a stunning tribute. He can still cut down a player with that steely eye from the exercise bicycle.

Washington also will still get a decent pick in the draft, maybe a few notches ahead of where it would have picked had Jordan somehow steered the Wizards into the playoffs. Sure, maybe they'd be in the Yao Ming/Jason Williams hunt if Jordan had remained on the sidelines, but that's something we'll never know. You have to think that the known benefits of the comeback outweighed the unknown drawbacks.

But now the comeback has an injury component to it. There's an age issue as well; no, 40 ain't 30. There will be all kinds of reasons why Jordan probably should listen to his body this time around and call it a career.

But if we've learned anything about the guy, it's that, as Paul Simon once wrote, he hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. And you have to think the siren song of basketball is still ringing in his ears.

Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.