Michael Jordan is still widely recognized today as the greatest player of all time, so when Danny Green and Paul Pierce claimed he had a “limited” bag, they caused a bit of a stir. The comments eventually came to Gilbert Arenas‘ attention, and he explained on his show why Jordan still dominated despite not having the same kind of moves as today’s players.
“The n***a bag was from 1980,” Arenas said. “How elaborate did you think that bag was going to be? He didn’t have no crossover, barely went behind the back. One two dribble, fade. The bag is new, y’all. Having a bag is something new. He had a bag in the 80s. It was better than everybody else’s bag.”
I’ma keep it real… Michael Jordan was so dominant he could walk into the arena with two moves and still give everybody 40. Y’all keep talking about ‘bag work’—bro, in the 80s and 90s the stuff MJ was doing WAS the bag! He hit you with a pump fake, one dribble, fadeaway… and… pic.twitter.com/d1qtJetlZN
— Gilbert Arenas (@NoChillGilZero) December 4, 2025
Jordan’s game might have been “basic” compared to what we see today, but it was effective. The Chicago Bulls icon’s scoring average of 30.1 points per game in the regular season and 33.4 points per game in the playoffs are NBA records even today.
Jordan also won a record 10 scoring titles to go with six NBA titles, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs, and a DPOY. He was just a force of nature on the court. There simply wasn’t anything anyone could do to slow Jordan down apart from literally beating him up, which is what the Bad Boys Detroit Pistons infamously did.
Paul Pierce Clarified His Comments About Michael Jordan’s Bag
Pierce was asked to clarify his comments on the Ticket & The Truth podcast, and he explained that they had been taken out of context. He made it clear he was analyzing Jordan’s game in the context of today’s NBA.
“When you say, ‘Alright, who got a bag in our league?’ You instantly go to, like, Kyrie [Irving] and James Harden,” Pierce said. “These are guys who need multiple moves to get cracking. Jordan didn’t need multiple moves. He just right by you. One dribble pull-up, fade away. For that era, that was great.
“Now, it’s a one-on-one league,” Pierce added. “… Jordan had a bag for his era. I was taking it into context for this era. ‘Cause people say the number one scorer in league history don’t have a bag when they say LeBron [James]. But he’s the number one scorer. That’s what they saying. They like ‘LeBron has no bag,’ but he has 50,000 points. What they consider a bag, I feel like is yo, a counter to a counter to a counter. If you got that, you got a bag.”
All this talk about a bag is pointless at the end of the day. What matters ultimately is being able to put the ball in the basket in a five-on-five setting. Jordan and LeBron James managed to do that better than most and have the numbers to show for it.
