Michael Jordan wasn’t perfect, but he sure knew how to win. In life, he was (and still is) always cool and collected and carried himself in a way that helped jumpstart a global brand that is worth millions today.
On the court, though, he was relentless and often refused to stop or slow down until he bested his opponents.
Delving more into that fact, a recent stat from “Crazy Stats” revealed a shocking number reading Jordan and his opponents.
Out of 983 total players he has faced off against, he has outscored 982 of them. That’s a pretty shocking number, even for a guy like Jordan. How many professional athletes are that dominant in their craft?
So who is the one player that outscored Jordan in their matchups? None other than Allen “The Answer” Iverson. While the two only played in the NBA together for four years, MJ was unable to slow him down.
“During his tenure with the Bulls, Michael Jordan faced 983 opponents. He outscored 982 of them. The only player who outscored him is Allen Iverson (Iverson – 27.1, Jordan – 24.0).”
Considering the list of MJ’s opponents includes some very well-known names, it’s kind of surprising that Iverson is the only one who was able to outscore him. But Jordan shouldn’t feel too bad about it. Iverson is regarded as one of the greatest scorers in basketball history and as a career 26-point-per-game scorer, he knew what he was doing on the offensive end.
Perhaps even crazier, though, is MJ’s performance in the postseason. If there’s one thing Jordan was, it was consistent and he never failed to step up in the heat of a playoff battle.
Out of 269 opponents he has faced off against in the postseason, MJ has outscored (you guessed it) 268 of them.
Jordan faced great players like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Charles Barkley and Karl Malone among others. However, among all those great names, only one player was able to outscore His Airness, and the margin was nearly nonexistent. The only player who outscored Jordan in a postseason series is Terry Cummings, in the first round of the 1985 playoffs, by 0.2 points per game (Cummings – 29.5, Jordan – 29.3).
Cummings is no Iverson, but he’s a 2x All-Star who went up against Jordan in the beginning stages of his career.
All this is to make this fundamental point: Michael Jordan was unstoppable. There was nobody he couldn’t stop, nobody he couldn’t beat, and he overcame (almost) any challenge that went out in front him.
