Chicago is in crisis, and it's got nothing to do with the impeachment crisis.

The Windy City is in withdrawal, having to deal with another brutal Midwestern winter without the winning warmth of the champions of the National Basketball Association, the Chicago Bulls, and the team's leader, the incomparable Michael Jordan.

With players and owners locked in a bitter labour dispute and players locked out since June, the league is on the verge of cancelling the season.

For the best part of this decade, Chicago's beloved team has been invincible, winning six championships in the last eight years, but this season, the team has yet to bounce a ball.

'I miss my Bulls!'

There are telltale signs all over town, not least at Michael Jordan's restaurant downtown.

Normally, it would be jam packed with hungry fans feasting on Michael's "Nothing but the Net" burgers as they watch their beloved Bulls, but since the strike began, the giant TV screens have been showing American football, women's and college basketball but not the Bulls.

"Oh God, I miss my Bulls. I truly miss them. I can't wait 'til they get started," said one fan.

At Radio WGN, Illinois' most famous radio sports network, they say Chicago without basketball is like Britain without fish and chips.

Phone-in host David Kaplan says callers are desperate. "They call every day. 'When's the lockout going to be over? I gotta get my Bulls back," he said.

"I was talking to one guy on the air. He hates his job. He just went through a divorce. The only thing that was good in his life was knowing that he was going to go home 82 times a year and watch Michael Jordan and the Bulls, and he doesn't have that. He wasn't a basketball fan. He was a Bulls fan."

Lockout will cost league

The league may lose more than a season to the lockout. Angry fans may turn their back on the NBA. Dan Falato, who produces Mr Kaplan's radio show, thinks the lockout could relegate professional basketball to the also-ran sport it was in the 1970s.

"We haven't gotten a call in three weeks on the Bulls, and we're Chicago. And we've got Michael Jordan," Mr Falato said.

It might suffer as baseball did when their players went on strike in 1994. Fans didn't return to the national pastime until last summer when the heroic homerun battle between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa reignited interest.

The consequences for basketball could be even more catastrophic. Michael Jordan's stellar talent hasn't merely benefited the Bulls. The league has watched its fortunes rise as Michael's star power increased, and now, he is on the brink of retirement.

Ever since he sunk the title-winning shot last year, Bulls' fans have been agonising over whether Michael will return or retire.