Michael Jordan is rightfully regarded as one of the greatest players to ever step onto an NBA court, with most people having him as the single-greatest player to ever play. Jordan’s proficiency on both sides of the floor hasn’t been seen in the NBA since his retirement, and nobody has been able to match the winning records he left.
Soon after Jordan’s retirement, the NBA decided to slowly start changing rules to make the game more exciting and offense-focused. These changes led to the elimination of hand-checking, something that led to smaller guards like Steve Nash excelling on the court. However, that has made people argue that scoring is easier in the modern era, even with all the development in team defense over the years.
An early-2000s icon in the NBA was guard Jason Williams, also known as ‘White Chocolate’ for his incredible passes, compilations of which would be readily available on the infant internet at the time. Williams believes MJ would struggle to score in the modern era, especially against teams like the Milwaukee Bucks that have the exact personnel to stop him.
Jason Williams says it’d be harder for MJ to score in this era
“It was easy for him to get to the bucket against GP as it would be against Jrue Holiday today with Giannis and Brook Lopez sitting back there…He's not scoring as easy today as he did back then”
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— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) August 31, 2022
“It was easy for him to get to the bucket against GP as it would be against Jrue Holiday today with Giannis and Brook Lopez sitting back there…He’s not scoring as easy today as he did back then.”
Since Jordan, only 2 players have come close to winning Defensive Player of The Year and also being the scoring leader. The first player is LeBron James, who has won a scoring title but has never recovered from losing DPOY out to Marc Gasol in 2013. The second player is Giannis, who has won DPOY but finished second in the scoring title race last season.
Considering how players nowadays attack the ball instead of the player to defend, MJ may have an adjustment period. Defense is a lot more nuanced in the modern NBA. MJ may struggle to go up against one of the best defensive teams in the league but would probably fare pretty well regardless of the era he played in.
There were many formidable guard-big combos that MJ took down during his prime. While the modern-day Bucks are a very tough team to beat, if there’s anybody who would take that personally and do everything possible to beat them, it is Michael Jordan.
