Comedian Aries Spears is a huge Michael Jordan fan, and he believes “His Airness” is still capable of being an effective NBA player. During an appearance on Vlad TV, Spears backed Jordan to score at least 15 points in a game if he played in the league today.
“I’m such a Jordan fan, he could play with a team right now and I’m supporting him,” Spears said. “He’s good for at least 15 points.”
Jordan turned 62 in February, and it’s safe to say he won’t be scoring 15 points in an NBA game today. He is probably the greatest scorer in league history, but Father Time is undefeated.
Host DJ Vlad stated Jordan probably would get injured after about four minutes. He might not even last that long with the pace of the game today. There isn’t any 50-year-old around who would come close to getting even 10 points in an NBA game, let alone someone who is 62.
Now, if you put Jordan in his prime in today’s NBA, then he could well get to 15 points in the first quarter alone. He was just a scoring machine, unlike any other, at his best.
Jordan won an NBA-record 10 scoring titles in his career. He also holds the all-time records for scoring average in the regular season at 30.1 and the postseason at 33.4. You could pencil him in for 30 points regardless of the magnitude of the occasion.
Former NBA head coach George Karl was one of those who had the fortune/misfortune of trying to game-plan against Jordan. Karl ended up coming out second best, as so many others did, and he believes the Chicago Bulls icon would average a 40-point triple-double in today’s NBA.
Jeff Van Gundy, now the lead assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers, also once stated that Jordan would average 40 points in the NBA today. Metta World Peace went a step beyond Karl and Van Gundy a few years ago by stating Jordan would average over 50 points per game.
“More than James Harden,” World Peace said, when asked how many points MJ would average in the modern-day game. “I was at the Jordan era. I was in the LeBron [James], Kobe [Bryant], [Tim] Duncan, and I was at the tail end. I’ve played with these guys. I’ve seen all the 3-point balls go up. Jordan would average 50.
“If he wanted to,” World Peace continued. “James Harden wants to average 50. He just can’t. He’s got 38. If Jordan wants to average 50, if he was playing in this era, I think he averages 50. And this is no disrespect to any of the guys that’s killing.”
Considering Jordan averaged 37.1 points per game in the 1986-87 season, you can make a case that he could have put up 40 a night in today’s NBA. Averaging 50, though, would have been too much, even for him.
Getting back to Spears, you’d think he would be overjoyed about Jordan joining NBC as a special contributor for the 2025-26 NBA season. Fans are eagerly looking forward to what he’ll have to say, but Spears isn’t interested in that. He wants to watch Jordan play and doesn’t care about whatever he is going to have to say.
