Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic hasn’t quite been at his best in the first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Max Kellerman wants all the talk about him being the greatest offensive player to end. On the latest episode of his Game Over podcast, Kellerman pointed to Michael Jordan being the one deserving of that title.
“Jokic is having a bad series,” Kellerman said. “When people say, ‘Oh, he’s the greatest offensive player,’ I’m so sick of comparisons to MJ, Rich [Paul]. In his career, MJ never had a bad playoff series. What about Detroit? You mean when all five guys punched him in the face every time he came into the lane, he didn’t even complain, just got up, dusted himself off, and gave ’em work?
“You mean when he took the defending champion Pistons seven games, and [Scottie] Pippen had a migraine?” Kellerman added.
Kellerman was referring to Jordan’s battles with the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons. The Pistons had used the infamous “Jordan Rules” to knock him and the Chicago Bulls out of the playoffs in 1988, 1989, and 1990. They beat him up when he got to the paint, and that rough, physical brand of defense helped them get the better of the great man.
Jordan and the Bulls did manage to take the Pistons to Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals in 1990, but Scottie Pippen was unfortunately dealing with a migraine that night. Pippen scored just two points, and his being a complete non-factor contributed to the Bulls losing 93-74.
While Jordan came out second best to the Pistons on those three occasions, you can’t really say he played poorly. Over the course of the three series, he averaged 30.0 points, 7.1 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 2.1 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game while shooting 47.1% from the field. That sure isn’t struggling.
There are some other series that people might point to. In the 1997 Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, Jordan shot 38.7% from the field. He averaged 30.2 points per game, though, and the Bulls won comfortably in five games.
Prior to the Heat clash, the Bulls had faced the Atlanta Hawks in the Conference Semifinals. Jordan averaged only 26.6 points per game in the series, but again, the Bulls won in five games.
A year before that, Jordan had a rough end to the 1996 NBA Finals against the Seattle SuperSonics. Gary Payton gave him some trouble, and he ended up averaging 27.3 points on 41.5% shooting from the field for the series. Jordan still won Finals MVP, so it’s hard to say that was a bad series.
Jordan definitely played poorly in some playoff games over the course of his career, but there is no series that you can look at and definitively say he was bad in it. That is one of the many reasons why he is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time.
Jordan stepped up time and time again in the biggest moments and walked away from the game with six titles, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs, one DPOY, and 10 scoring titles. Kellerman thinks he’d be even better if he played now. The analyst boldly claimed Jordan would average a 40-point triple-double in today’s NBA. That is a bit much, but he would have been able to dominate.
