One of the ways to measure if someone is the GOAT is to project how they’d perform in different eras of their respective sport. In the case of NBA legend Michael Jordan, ESPN NBA analyst Tim Legler believes his scoring dominance with the Chicago Bulls would absolutely carry over.
Appearing on Thursday’s edition of Get Up, Legler was asked how many points Jordan would score if he played today while he was in his prime. Legler confidently replied that not only would Jordan lead the league in scoring every year, he’d probably average “somewhere around 40 (points) a night.”
“There’s absolutely no question in my mind that Michael Jordan would lead the league in scoring every single year,” Legler said. “And he probably would be somewhere around 40 a night.”
Legler found little disagreement from the Get Up panel. NBA legend Vince Carter flat-out agreed with him.
In 13 seasons with the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan led the NBA in scoring 10 times. He had eight seasons averaging over 30 points a game and two seasons averaging over 35 points a game.
Those numbers would dominate almost every NBA era. But given some of the rule changes that have altered the way teams can defend, it’s very probably that Jordan would be able to average at least a few more points per game. Maybe more.
Of course, there’s also the possibility that some of the things that made Jordan great in the 80s and 90s simply couldn’t have carried over into today’s game. We’ll never know.
How many points per game do you think in-his-prime Michael Jordan would average in today’s NBA?
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