CHICAGO IS OFF TO GREAT START ACCORDING TO EVERYONE BUT THE BULLS

Listening to the Chicago Bulls, you'd never know the defending NBA champions are off to their best start.

Michael Jordan talks about not having fun on the court anymore. His teammates worry they may be peaking too early. Coach Phil Jackson insists his team hasn't been tested.Jackson says the Bulls' 20-4 record has more to do with last season than this one. And he says there has been a lot of luck.

"We are still a team with all the momentum left over from last year," Jackson said. "We've had a couple of overtime wins and we escaped a couple of bullets that would have sunk us. From that standpoint, you can thank your lucky stars. These first games of the season are kind of a `feel me out thing.' Now, we've got to go face teams a second, third, fourth, fifth time. We played them once, and they are still adjusting to us. Let's go play those teams another time and see what happens."

John Paxson thinks the Bulls are playing their best. And that worries the guard.

"You don't want to be playing your best basketball at this time of the year," Paxson said. "Everyone wants to peak in April, May and June. That's the idea, but it doesn't always work that way."

The team may be peaking, but Jordan isn't. He has worked his way through a nagging back injury, a bruised right hand and the flu in recent weeks and his 29.2-point scoring average is a five-year low. Still, he leads the league.

"I told him he's bored with the game," Jackson said. "I don't know if that's true or not."

Jordan admits there's some truth to that. For him, it used to be so much simpler.

"When I'm playing a basketball game, that should be my escape from all that outside trash," he said. "That hasn't been the situation. Maybe I was trying to think too much and not really doing the things that I enjoy. You have to enjoy life - and that's what I'm going to try to do."

That "trash" included several controversies. He was criticized for snubbing President Bush when he failed to attend a White House ceremony honoring the Bulls. "The Jordan Rules," a book about the team's championship season, portrayed him as an impatient star who received special treatment. He suffered when close friend Magic Johnson retired from the Los Angeles Lakers after contracting the virus that causes AIDS.

Then Jordan's name came up in a federal investigation of a golfing buddy, James "Slim" Bouler. The government contends Bouler won $57,000 in a golf match and failed to pay taxes on it. Bouler says Jordan lent him the money.