No worries: Tiger will only use any skepticism as motivation

Before the news was an hour old Wednesday morning, there were dire predictions and dreadful forecasts.

Tiger Woods, we were told, is finished.

Of course, we heard this after he went through a swing change a couple of years back, after he narrowly missed winning the Masters a couple of months ago, and after he looked mortal a couple of days into the recent U.S. Open.

And every time his game has been pronounced dead, Tiger Woods has stuck it to those who dared doubt him.

So now that he's done for the year, the best Woods can hope for is the same skepticism from all the same places that he can use during rehab, the motivation he needs to keep from going stir crazy -- or insane.

There will be criticism of his desire to play on a broken leg and torn ACL last weekend, suggestions that he came back too soon, and questions about whether he'll ever be the same after he heals.

Those who understand the game know what Tiger knows, that he can reinvent himself any time he wants.

We're not talking over the course of a season or a month or even a tournament. Last weekend he was changing his swing and his strategy from shot to shot, depending on the pain in his leg.

Yes, with a broken leg that felt like knives cutting through his flesh on certain drives or hilly wedges, Woods was able to adjust and shape shots, moving to the high cut when the pain was the worst.

With Wednesday's news merely confirming that he is undisputedly the greatest athlete who ever lived, Woods can take heart from the constant alterations made by the man he surpassed, Michael Jordan.

Perhaps more impressive than Jordan's physical and mental strengths was his ability to create a new Jordan every few years, depending on the Bulls' needs or his diminishing skills. The transitions were seamless, and the evolution sometimes invisible.

Do you even remember the Jordan of the early years, the one who played above the rim but couldn't hit an open jumper?

How about the Jordan who became a deadly shooter by his third season, but his game still hard off the dribble?

By the last non-title season, Jordan was as pure a catch-and-shoot, clutch player as there was in the NBA, but a year later, when the Lakers were doubling and tripling him, leaving John Paxson wide open in Games 4 and 5 of the Finals, Jordan became a complete player, drawing defenders and hitting Paxson for easy buckets.

By '93, Jordan was perfect at both ends of the floor, able to get points any way he needed them, depending on who was on the floor with him, and what the situation dictated, finding buckets off the dribble, above the rim or in transition.

When he returned for the second three-peat, Jordan was told he was over the hill, especially after the Bulls lost to Orlando in 1995.

But what Jordan decided was that the team couldn't win without a low-post presence, so he came back the next season and took care of it himself. He created his own looks by elevating in the post, no defender in the league able to stop his fadeaway jumper.

He offered teammates open shots off double teams and found them for uncontested layups.

And in the final months of the last title run in '98, Jordan turned himself into a much shorter Kevin McHale, developing overnight a low-post floor move, faking defenders into the air and beating them underneath.

This is what Tiger Woods was doing all throughout the U.S. Open, on one leg, in a major, with the kind of pain most people wouldn't walk with, let alone walk 18 holes on a hilly terrain.

From one hole to another, from one swing to the next, Woods was finding a way to alter his game -- and win.

And it's what he will do next year if his knee doesn't allow him the same torque he once found readily available.

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about Tiger Woods or whether he will catch Jack Nicklaus, because that's inevitable.

Worry about the PGA Tour and whether anyone will watch a single tournament before next April.

As for Tiger, provided he doesn't lose his mind minus the competition he thirsts, he'll enjoy his time at home with daughter Sam.

The best moment of the Open was the ceremony on the green Monday after it was over, when his 1-year-old girl wouldn't let her daddy go. Every time he tried to hand the child back to her mom, she reached out for daddy, as only a baby daughter can, and leapt back into his arms.

It happened over and over, and Tiger didn't mind a bit.

Worried about Tiger Woods?

That, my friends, is a waste of time.