Jordan: 'I could have scored 100 points' in today's NBA

[Fox1994]

In the buildup to the release of the NBA 2K11 video game, Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan (who is prominently featured in the game, and in the advertising hyping up the game), sat down with USA Today's Game Hunters blog to discuss Michael Jordan.

This snippet stood out:

How has the game changed from your playing days?
It's less physical and the rules have changed, obviously. Based on these rules, if I had to play with my style of play, I'm pretty sure I would have fouled out or I would have been at the free throw line pretty often and I could have scored 100 points.

Yeah.

Michael Jordan's the greatest player ever. His presence on my hometown team is the reason I do what I do for a living, and I'd be one of the dozens to go broke in betting against him. But I'm betting against him. He wouldn't have gotten 100. He needed overtime to make it to 69 points, once, and that was his career high.

And, yes, in a league with a few more possessions per game, and in a world without overt hand-checking, yes, Michael Jordan would have scored more in this era than he actually did in the 1980s and 1990s.

But he wouldn't have scored 100. Why? Because Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game was an absolute farce.

[Related Video: Kobe drafts MJ to the Lakers]

Wilt was a 7-2 dominant force going up against a 6-10 backup center on the New York Knicks back in 1962. He was able to put up 63 shots and attempt 32 free throws mainly because the pace was so, so much faster back in that era, and because his Philadelphia Warriors team was intentionally fouling the Knicks down the stretch in order to get Wilt the ball every time down court in a contest that was a 16-point game at the end of the first quarter.

It was an absolute joke of a "contest," and though Wilt is to be commended for his brilliance, there's a reason why nobody has come very close in the 48 years since Wilt's 100-point game.

The closest? Kobe Bryant(notes), in a performance that I think was more impressive than Wilt's, mainly
because he wasn't a man amongst boys (just an MVP-level performer, playing against a pretty crummy team in the Toronto Raptors), and because 90 percent of his points came in competitive action. His Lakers (beyond Kobe, they were very, very bad back then) were losing through 2 1/2 quarters, and until the final couple of minutes, the Lakers needed every one of Kobe's 81 points.

On top of that, Bryant made 7-13 3-pointers on his way to 81. That's the quickest way toward 100, these days, and Jordan was never much of a 3-point shooter -- 29 percent career, when you take away the nearly 2 1/2 seasons Jordan played with the shorter 22-foot 3-point line. Sure, hand-checks would send you to the line more often, but that many times? Enough to get to 100?

It's OK to "just" be the best ever, MJ. It's OK to be the all-around player you were. And it's OK to wonder if you could top Kobe's 81. But 100 points? Who cares? Wilt's night was impressive, but it was an aberration. A freak show. A gimmick, and not entirely the proudest moment in this league's history (again, the Warriors fouled the Knicks to get the ball back!).

It's OK, MJ. They're still making video games about you. Nobody's forgotten anything.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ba...have-scored-100-points-in-toda?urn=nba-277020

 

[Nukleopatra]

If he's saying the NBA is a complete fucking joke today, I agree with him. I haven't watched an entire game since Drexler retired. The only person that keeps the NBA respectable and worth paying any attention to, is Phil Jackson. Once he retires....... lol.

 

[IamMedellin]

absolutely, the New York Knick/Detroit Piston beat him down defensive style isnt allowed any more in today's NBA.

Kobe almost hit 80 in 42 minutes in 2006, its perfectly concievable that Jordan could score 100 in today's NBA

 

[FedEx227]

If he's saying the NBA is a complete fucking joke today, I agree with him. I haven't watched an entire game since Drexler retired. The only person that keeps the NBA respectable and worth paying any attention to, is Phil Jackson. Once he retires....... lol.

So just checking... the league is a joke, but you don't watch the games.

Okay, just making sure. Sounds logical.

 

[JeremyHight]

So just checking... the league is a joke, but you don't watch the games.

Okay, just making sure. Sounds logical.

The physicality of the late 80's and early 90's will never, ever be allowed again. Jordan put up ridiculous numbers when it was actually tough to do so. Now a days, Jordan would be able to put up 40 just from the FT line if he got the same treatment Lebron or Kobe get on a nightly basis.

 

[f16harm]

If he's saying the NBA is a complete fucking joke today, I agree with him. I haven't watched an entire game since Drexler retired. The only person that keeps the NBA respectable and worth paying any attention to, is Phil Jackson. Once he retires....... lol.

Agree.

I was an INSANE NBA fan in the 80's and 90's (my childhood thru college years). I was an enormous MJ/Bulls fan from 1985 on, before the nut swingers. However, I loved watching all NBA games. Magic, Bird, Dominique, Barkley, etc. etc. Today, I can't sit through a fucking game to save my life. In 1999 when the strike hit, the Bulls broke up, and San Antonio won that short season championship I left and never returned. The game has gotten downright tuuuurrrrrrible (that's for you Barkley) to watch. The players suck in comparison to the 80s-90s.

Of course, the young bucks nowadays who watch it, and have no clue of what it was even 15 years ago because they were drinking formula (if that), think us older folks are crazy The NBA use to be iconic...look at the original Dream Team for God's sake. Arguably 10 of the 12 ballers classify as Legends.

/rant

 

[FedEx227]

The physicality of the late 80's and early 90's will never, ever be allowed again. Jordan put up ridiculous numbers when it was actually tough to do so. Now a days, Jordan would be able to put up 40 just from the FT line if he got the same treatment Lebron or Kobe get on a nightly basis.

But the league is far more athletic. Yeah, he'd be able to get a lot at the line but I doubt he'd put up more than Kobe's 82. I know people love to ramble about defense being non existent nowadays, which is a complete lie if you watch enough games. I agree the physicality isn't what it used to be, but the size, length and athleticism is far larger than it was then. There's frankly less space on the court for someone to operate.

I don't doubt that Jordan could probably grab 80ish but I don't think he gets near 100.

 

[FedEx227]

Of course, the young bucks nowadays who watch it, and have no clue of what it was even 15 years ago because they were drinking formula (if that), think us older folks are crazy The NBA use to be iconic...look at the original Dream Team for God's sake. Arguably 10 of the 12 ballers classify as Legends.

/rant

I watched and lived through both.

Both have their positives. There's really no point in crying about how the current NBA isn't 80s-90s NBA. It's never going to be, so there's really no reason to dwell on it if you're a fan of the sport.

I find things I like in today's game just as much as I found things I loved in that era.

It's whatever. The league is really the deepest its been since the 80s-90s pinnacle after a bit of a lull period. Not saying there's as many "legends" playing today, but it's the closest it's been.

 

[Hasselbeck]

No question he could have scored 100. But I think Kobe could do that too if he really wanted to.

 

[FedEx227]

No, he probably can't.

Nor would his coach or his team really enjoy him shooting 60+ shots to achieve that.

Wilt was 36-63 from the field and 28-32 from the line.

Even in Kobe's 81 point game (which for those scoring at home is 19 points less than 100) he shot 46 times. Of course he had the benefit of three pointers, but to even sniff 100 he'd have to have just an unbelievable amount of three pointers and shoot them at an ungodly rate (he was 58% in his 81 game).

Wilt was a man among boys in that era of the NBA.

 

[jeffx]

Of course. Because of the rules changes, today's NBA favors wing players. Not just Jordan - can you imagine what Dr. J, George Gervin, Bernard King and David Thompson would do if they were in their prime now?

 

[FedEx227]

Yeah except Kobe Bryant is playing in this era and is a top 10 player of all time and the best he's ever been able to do is 81.

 

[Irish]

If Kobe wanted to he could score 100.

 

[FedEx227]

Okay fine.

It's only happened once and the closest anyone has ever gotten is within 19 WITH a three point line, but yeah whenever he or MJ wanted to do it they could've.

Makes sense.

 

[Senser81]

Its funny how Jordan is "too old" to be able to do anything in today's NBA, yet the Boston Celtics can routinely win the Eastern Conference with a collection of players from Jordan's second 3-peat era. I don't want to get into semantics, but today's NBA sucks and Jordan ruled. I don't think Jordan would have difficulty scoring 100 points against a watered-down East Carolina Thundercats team or whoever they have as teams in the NBA now.

 

[DJ Rhude]

Yeah I'm pretty sure he could do it......the NBA so watered down these days with players who don't even deserve to be in the L

Can you imagine if somebody like Wilson Chandler had to guard MJ? forget about it, 100 points by halftime....he'd probably foul out all of our guards and small forwards...Amar'e would only be left to guard him by the time the fourth quarter rolled around

 

[FedEx227]

Yeah, I definitely miss the days when the NBA was so deep that Chris Gatling was the leading scorer on a team.

 

[ralaw]

IMO some of you are letting nostalgia get in the way of reality. In the grand scheme of things offensively Kobe is closer to Jordan than some would like to believe and he's only been able to get to 81. Obviously, if the stars aligned a player such as Jordan or Kobe could score 100 points, but that has more to do with their talent coupled with simply "feeling it" that night and less to do with who they're playing against.

I don't believe either Kobe or Jordan could just decided to to score 100 points, because in saying that you're also saying Kobe and Jordan could score whenever they want, which isn't true. IMO the both of them can get their shot off at any time, but that doesn't mean they're making the shot. Kobe's 81 point display had more to do with him simply "feeling it" and him being one of the great scorers this league has ever seen and less to do with it being against the Raptors.

The NBA during Jordan era was very top heavy. Past the elite 8-12 HOFers the NBA was weak, but Jordan's shadow covered all of that up. Even at MJ's position of SG who was the top #2 guy? Drexler? Starks? Mitch Richmond?

What is strange about people is that they speak nostalgic about the NBA from Jordan's era, which due to Jordan playing it was great, but the elite teams rarely played real defense and instead replaced it for applying pure force, which lowered scoring. When Jordan retired people complained and said the NBA was boring, because teams couldn't score over 90 points. The league adjusted some things and now people complain that the NBA is too easy and teams don't play any defense. IF the NBA allowed teams to play the 90's style defense that Jordan played against people would still complain and say the NBA is boring. The reason for this is because Jordan wouldn't be playing. During the Jordan era most people were either rooting for Jordan or against him.....and all respected him and this affection was greater than they're love for the NBA.

 

[DJ Rhude]

Joe Dumars, who used to check Jordan on the regular, was a good defender and he didn't use force......MJ always said he was one of the toughest guys to guard him.....not everybody used force back then, in fact that stigma was mostly attached to two teams:

The Bad Boy Pistons and later the Knicks

And you don't think Jordan could get 100 against these current Knicks? Led by a coach who's allergic to teaching defense and an offense that wants to get a shot off in eight seconds? Sure things would have to go his way and he's have to be in the mother of all zones, but I don't think it's a reach at all to say he could get 100 in this current climate

 

[ralaw]

Jordan getting 100 would be as likely as Kobe getting 100. If everything aligned right Jordan could get 100, but I don't believe its something he could set out to do and accomplish. If it were to happen it would happen in the flow of a once in a lifetime night. Scoring 81 let alone 100 is no easy task, as it takes so much out of a player and even scoring over 50 isn't something players plan to do. It just happens. Jordan, Kobe, LeBron, set out to score 30, because that isn't that difficult for them, but 100 is an entirely different animal.