Chicago

Basketball fans wondering if MICHAEL JORDAN will retire this year should note that SCOTTIE PIPPEN certainly seems ready to move on. Pippen and a longtime friend from Arkansas, RON WATSON, are throwing a party–dubbed “The Last Dance”–at the Crystal Garden on Chicago’s Navy Pier on June 17, the night of what would be the seventh game of the NBA finals. “It’s a celebration party for Scottie and his friends,” says restaurateur PHIL STEFANI, who is catering the event. Shirts and hats have already been printed, and 500 tickets for the event went on sale at $150 apiece in Stefani’s restaurants this past weekend. “He’s said over and over again, ‘This is it. I’m leaving,'” says Stefani. If it is Pippen’s last dance, chances are it’s also Jordan’s. “The team is like his family away from family,” Bulls coach Phil Jackson told TIME. “And if [the team] changes, it brings an element in that changes dramatically for Michael.”

–By Julie Grace/Chicago