Ja Morant caused a huge stir after an interview with Taylor Rooks recently, in which he said he would have ‘cooked’ Michael Jordan. Many fans made fun of Ja’s statement, while even media personalities like Skip Bayless roasted Morant for saying this. And while confidence is a good thing, and Morant has it in spades, it’s hard to take seriously when the conversation is about the GOAT.
Morant had a breakout 3rd season in the NBA last year, leading the Memphis Grizzlies to the 2nd seed in the Western Conference and making it to the Conference Semifinals. He averaged over 27 points along the way and had some insane highlight plays while doing it too. However, as impressive as Morant was during the season, his stats pale in comparison to MJ’s 3rd season in the NBA.
Michael Jordan and Ja Morant’s stats in their 3rd year in the NBA 🤯
Morant (2021-22)
27.4 PPG
5.7 RPG
6.7 APG
1.2 SPG
0.4 BPG
49.3 FG%
34.4 3P%
33.1 MPG
57 GP
Jordan (1986-87)
37.1 PPG
5.2 RPG
4.6 APG
2.9 SPG
1.5 BPG
48.2 FG%
18.2 3P%
40.0 MPG
82 GP#NBA #Bulls #Grizzlies pic.twitter.com/OqFUivmvsH
— Fadeaway World (@FadeawayWorld) July 12, 2022
The comparison between Morant and Jordan starts and ends at the number of points they had in their 3rd season. MJ averaged a whopping 37.1 points per game in the 1986-87 season, averaging 40 minutes and playing all 82 games. Ja had an excellent season but still had nearly 10 points per game less than MJ. This is not even considering that he played 25 fewer games and averaged 7 minutes per game less during those games.
Morant has the edge in rebounds and assists, the latter of which is understandable as he is the main distributor, but even in those stats, MJ is quite close to Ja. MJ’s 48% field goal percentage is also almost similar to Ja’s 49%. The only area that Ja outperformed the GOAT in during their respective 3rd season is in three-point shooting, and that is more reflective of the era he plays in than anything.
On defense, Morant doesn’t even come close to MJ, who had over 1 block and 1 steal a game more than Ja. There is a lot more to come from the young Morant, and he is on track to be a superstar, but considering what MJ was doing after the same number of seasons in the league, it’s safe to say that Ja wouldn’t ‘cook’ him.
