DON'T BE LIKE MIKE

It looks like there's going to be a professional basketball season after all. This afternoon, NBA players rejected a long-simmering proposal by Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and other all-stars to scrap their players union. (Their agents think they can get better contracts by pursuing an antitrust lawsuit against the league.) "This is a clear repudiation of an agent-orchestrated revolt," says TIME sportswriter Steve Wulf. The losers may challenge the election results with legal roadblocks that could delay the opening of the season. But Wulf doubts the players will risk the enmity of NBA fans: "Basketball players are very intelligent people. They did not want to risk losing their season like the baseball players."