NEWSLETTER
I’ve had the debate countless times with friends: How would Michael Jordan fare in today’s NBA?
Unless the GOAT suits up at a spry 57-years-old (wouldn’t hate it), this question will go forever unanswered. Besides, we’re talking about Jordan at the peak of his powers. The one who collected six championships and stuffed the record book with his accomplishments. Different eras are always hard to compare, but while the style of play might have changed, I don’t think Jordan’s relative success necessarily would have. In fact, I carry little doubt that prime Jordan would have still dominated in 2020. And I know a lot of people share that belief.
With that said, I’m not sure anyone out there is more confident in Jordan’s abilities than David Falk. Jordan’s well-known manager went on 106.7 The Fan in Washington D.C. and told listeners exactly how he feels about the idea of Jordan in today’s league.
“I watch a lot of NBA games, as you know, and the game evolves. And Michael, because he’s such a class act, completely steers away from trying to compare himself to LeBron, or Kobe or anybody else. He says that’s for the fans to do.
But if you asked me, watching all those games, with virtually zero defense, no hand-checking, I think if Jordan played today – if he was in his prime in today’s rules – I think he’d average between 50 and 60 a game. I think he’d shoot 75 percent from the floor. If you couldn’t hand-check him, he’d be completely unstoppable.”
WHOA. Did that man just say Jordan would average 50 to 60 points!? Again, I’m all aboard the Jordan train, but maybe Falk is spending too much time in the bar car.
Jordan could definitely benefit from the more offensive-focused style of play in this era, but he’d also be playing alongside a far more athletic group. The pace of play would be so much different, and he’d certainly be advised to lay-off the mid-range game quite a bit (to be fair, I think he’d just develop a far-more lethal 3-point shot to make up for this). Oh, and don’t even get me started on load management. An organization would load manage the crap out of Jordan in 2020. Back in the day, the guy played nearly 40 minutes per game, which simply isn’t how today’s rotations are run.
Also, can we just take a second to imagine the stress that averaging 60 points over an 82 game season would put on the human body? I mean, I know Jordan is the GOAT and all, but this guy would literally fall apart.
Heck, I don’t even know if he would want to average that many points. Maybe he’d rather bolster his assist and rebounding numbers to help out the bound-to-be incredible team around him (if he played today, you’d know every free agent would want to partner up). The guy could easily become a triple-double machine.
Anyway, I respect Falk going balls to the wall with his prediction. Like we said, this is a question that will never get answered, so you might as well have fun with it!
