Michael Jordan is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time by most fans, and it’s mostly because of his time with the Chicago Bulls. Following his second retirement with the Bulls, Jordan made a brief comeback to the league when he joined the Washington Wizards ahead of the 2001-02 NBA season.
Most usually try to forget his time with the Wizards, as Jordan was unarguably out of his prime. Despite that, in his last season with the Wizards, Jordan had one of the best seasons for a player who turned 40 years old. So much so that MJ played all 82 games in the final season of his career while averaging 37.0 minutes per game.
During the 2002-03 NBA season, Jordan ranked 38th spot in the league. However, had Jordan played the same number of minutes in the 2022-23 NBA season, he would have led the league in minutes played per game.
Check the list of who will lead the league in minutes if Michael Jordan from 2002-03 is included there:
The numbers are as of March 13, 2023:
1. Michael Jordan – 37.0 MPG
2. Fred VanVleet – 37.0 MP
3. James Harden – 36.8 MPG
4. Anthony Edwards – 36.4 MPG
5. Dejounte Murray – 36.4 MPG
6. Damian Lillard – 36.3 MPG
7, Luka Doncic – 36.3 MPG
8. DeMar DeRozan – 36.2 MPG
9. Jaylen Brown – 36.2 MPG
10. Mikal Bridges – 36.1 MPG
Looking at the list, most of the players on the list are still in their prime. Keeping that in mind, a 40-year-old Jordan leading the league in MPG is shocking, but something that fans can expect from him.
Michael Jordan Thought Of Joining The Washington Wizards As A Mistake
Michael Jordan played for just two seasons with the Washington Wizards, and in both of those seasons, he ended up missing the postseason. In fact, there is a documentary in the works featuring Jordan’s time with the Wizards.
But does that mean Jordan had a great time with the Wizards? Certainly not. So much so that the 6x NBA champion once claimed coming out of retirement and playing for the Wizards was one of the biggest mistakes of his career.
“I think it exposed me to a lot of decision making. One of the bad decisions I made was to go back and play. Even though I was soothing an itch that I had, I also thought I was being innovative in my job by going down and evaluating the talent firsthand. I thought it would be a good idea to play against them, see what their tendencies were and what we were paying for. But at the same time, I became more critical of them because of the way I played the game and the way I’d approached the game, and the players didn’t respond to that. They didn’t respond to the desire that I had when I was playing. I may just have gotten too close to see or maybe too critical of certain actions of the players. That was one of the biggest mistakes that I feel I made in Washington.”
All things considered, fans still loved to see Mike play in the NBA one last time, albeit in the Wizards’ jersey. They would have further loved it had he taken the team at least to a deep playoff run.
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