Washington ? Michael Jordan is upset with his teammates. Twice in three days, he has accused them of not making the extra effort to get him to the playoffs one last time.

It’s an amazing accusation. Surely these guys would jump through fire to see one of the all-time greats go out on top.

Not so, says Jordan, who says his self-recruited Washington Wizards twentysomethings don’t match the desire of a 40-year-old man when it comes to “diving for loose balls, busting his chin and doing everything he can to get his team into the playoffs.”

“It’s not reciprocated from the other players on the team,” Jordan said after scoring 39 points in Sunday’s 97-96 loss to the New York Knicks.

The obvious question is why. Other than an occasional moment of inspiration — such as when Larry Hughes worked double-time to recover from an injury because Jordan did the same — why hasn’t the Jordan intensity and work ethic permeated a team starving for success?

The most obvious answer lies in the awkward relationship Jordan has with the players. He’s not only an All-Star with a magnified presence, but he also runs the team and will return to the front office next season.

As a result, he has teammates who admire and respect him, but they’ve never really bonded with him. Without that, there’s less of an instinct to fight for him at crunch time, whether it’s diving for that extra loose ball or hustling down the court to slow down a fast break.

“You can’t help but look at him differently,” center Brendan Haywood said Monday. “You’re not playing with a regular player. This is a guy who’s going to be signing checks and deciding if we’re going to be here next year.”

Washington's Michael Jordan dives for a loose ball in the Wizards' 97-96 loss to the Knicks. Tired of busting

Hughes said he had been surprised by the efforts Jordan had made to be one of the guys. Jordan will sit, talk, play cards and try to make everyone comfortable, but it’s still not a normal locker room.

“It’s definitely different,” Hughes said. “It’s a not situation a lot of guys have been through. There’s not a set way to handle it. He’s the guy on the team, so whatever he says or does basically goes. As professional guys, we roll with it. I personally look at it as a learning experience.”

But “learning experience” are the last words Jordan needs to hear with just 19 regular-season games left in his basketball life. He needs players who, in his words, are “going down with no bullets.”

“I’m trying to do everything I can to verbalize and physically show what it takes to win,” Jordan said after Sunday’s loss. “It’s up to them to see that and do the extra work and do the necessary things.

“We have too many players making the same mistakes in March as they made in October.”

The Wizards are in trouble. They have lost four of five and are two games behind Milwaukee for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. They have five home games remaining and a brutal road trip still to come.