Paul Pierce and Danny Green have gone viral on social media after their recent claims on the ‘No Fouls Given’ podcast revealed their true feelings on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Michael Jordan. They seem to believe that Jordan had a very limited ‘offensive bag’ in comparison to Gilgeous-Alexander.
“What do we define as a bag first of all? Is it just the dribble handles to a shot?” questioned Pierce before he gave his opinion.
“It’s not just the handles, but you have a plethora of moves in your bag,” explained Green as he equated being unguardable and unpredictable to having an ‘offensive bag’ in the modern sense.
“Mike had a limited bag,” claims Pierce after Green explains what he meant. “He didn’t need to do all that fancy sh**, he was right to the business,” Pierce further added.
“Shai has more of a bag, though, but he usually uses it so he can get to his spot. Mike had a bag but did not need to use it,” explained Green.
NBA fans saw these comments from Pierce and Green and took to social media to dive deeper into this debate.
“They think over dribbling and constantly baiting for fouls with a push off step back is a bag.”
“Jordan’s fadeaway is bigger than everything Shai provides on the offensive end.”
“Mike’s bag wasn’t deep, but it was effective. Same with Kobe & Bron. Kyrie has the deepest bag of all time, but it’s not as effective as theirs cuz it’s too versatile to be specialized.”
“It’s always the mfs who won a single ring or were role players that talk the biggest talk after retirement 😭”
“NBA players deada** retire and make a podcast to rage bait 😭.”
Several such reactions flooded the internet, criticizing Pierce and Green for their takes. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has found himself in comparisons with Michael Jordan ever since his historic 2024-25 run, where he became the only guard other than Michael Jordan to ever have a scoring title, a regular season MVP, and a Finals MVP in the same season.
Earlier in the interview, Pierce also compared the Thunder’s superstar to the Bulls legend. In terms of consistency of scoring, Pierce believes Gilgeous-Alexander is the only name close to Michael Jordan in the modern era.
“You just can’t stop him. You know, he’s starting to give me that Jordan presence. Like seriously. Like he’s going to get 30. Yeah, you can clock it, bro,” said Pierce. “Like you said that he’s a well machine. I know we had Kobe, LeBron, KD, and they’ll have big nights, but this dude is consistent 30s.”
Talking about an offensive bag, of course, modern players have had a better chance of showcasing their skills with the ball. Isolation plays were a rare sight in the 80s and 90s, while in the modern game, the offensive system is usually built around one player, who is the primary option for scoring, running multiple isolation plays in each game.
The game was more about team basketball back then, and Jordan thus did not have as many isolation plays run for him. Green rightly described the situation that Jordan had a bag but did not need to use it as much during his time.
Therefore, looking at the style of offense played in the different teams, Gilgeous-Alexander has had more opportunities to display his ‘offensive bag,’ but no one has been more effective than Jordan’s fadeaway shots.
