Was Michael Jordan Overrated?

[Mark Jackson]

There is little argument from anyone who actually witnessed Jordan during his 15 year career that he got a favorable whistle throughout. A defender couldn't touch him, breathe on him, or even pass wind in his general direction without getting a foul called. These stats(courtesy of NBA.com) tend to back this statement up. Jordan averaged 8.7 free throws per game during the regular season. That number jumped to 9.9 ft's/game in the playoffs. Out of the 29,277 pts he scored with the Bulls, 6,798 of them came way of the free throw line. That's over 23% of all his points, from the line. In comparison, the all-time scoring leader in NBA history, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, only got 17% of his points from the line.



The Pistons were well aware of this foul discrepancy. Chuck Daly implemented The Jordan Rules in light of this situation. The philosophy behind the Jordan Rules were simple: If the officials were gonna call every little touch foul against MJ, why not touch his face with an elbow? Sounds rough, but the Bad Boys of the late eighties earned their title for good reason. They were physical, some might say dirty. But could they have won any other way? They were facing such legends as MJ, Bird, and Magic. They had no true superstars. They had to fight for everything they got. And this is the style Chuck Daly implemented, and it worked. The Pistons knocked Jordan and the Bulls out of the playoffs THREE straight years from '88-90' on their way to back-to-back championships in '89 and '90.

http://basketball.lifetips.com/tip/1...d-part-ii.html

Old, but, was he overrated?

"Momma, there goes that man again"

[gpfanz]

http://basketball.lifetips.com/tip/1...d-part-ii.html

Old, but, was he overrated?

"Momma, there goes that man again"

Your thread is

[dreaming121]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JswfzDKYr04

[dr8ked]

'YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT "

[bleedinpurpleTwo]

*shakes head in disgust*

[Harison]

to OP

[iDunk]

He was a scrub at best.

His stats were inflated. /endtroll

[guy]

Stupid theories. So Jordan's total points were 23% from free throws, while Kareem's was 17%. So what? Whoever wrote this article clearly didn't look more into it. If he did, he would've realized that Jordan only led the league FTAs once, and that was when he averaged a ridiculous 28 FGAs per game. He would've also realized that the 2nd all-time leading scorer, Karl Malone, was the one that led the league in the FTAs for much of Jordan's career, and his total amount of points were 27% from free throws. Charles Barkley's was also 27% from free throws. Even Clyde Drexler, the most comparable SG to Jordan at the time, was 21% from free throws, which is only 2% below Jordan's, and he wasn't nearly as aggressive of a scorer as Jordan especially in his later years. Maybe more FTs were being taken then in Kareem's era, but it clearly was not an isolated incident like the author of this article is trying to suggest.

[chitownsfinest]

The free throw argument fails horribly. If you look at the ft's made out of total points percentage of top perimeter players since 1980 with the exception of Larry Bird, you will see most have a percentage over 20:
Magic Johnson- 28%
Isiah Thomas- 21%
Clyde Drexler- 21%
Dominque Wilkins- 23%
Grant Hill- 25%
McGrady- 21%
AI- 26%
Kobe- 26%
Bron- 24%
D-Wade- 28%

[HighFlyer23]

The free throw argument fails horribly. If you look at the ft's made out of total points percentage of top perimeter players since 1980 with the exception of Larry Bird, you will see most have a percentage over 20:
Magic Johnson- 28%Isiah Thomas- 21%
Clyde Drexler- 21%
Dominque Wilkins- 23%
Grant Hill- 25%
McGrady- 21%
AI- 26%
Kobe- 26%
Bron- 24%
D-Wade- 28%

[chitownsfinest]

I was surprised when I found this out as well. Magic scored 17707 points in his career and made 4960 free throws in his career. Divide that and you will see that Magic had a 28% rate. One thing you must note though is all the fast breaks Magic ran which resulted in many free throws. Also if you look at his stats, you will notice a fta per game spike in the late 80s when he developed a consistent back to the basket game which also resulted in more free throws. Have to look at his stats from a different perspective.

[DuMa]

I was surprised when I found this out as well. Magic scored 17707 points in his career and made 4960 free throws in his career. Divide that and you will see that Magic had a 28% rate. One thing you must note though is all the fast breaks Magic ran which resulted in many free throws. Also if you look at his stats, you will notice a fta per game spike in the late 80s when he developed a consistent back to the basket game which also resulted in more free throws. Have to look at his stats from a different perspective.

Magic always had a kink for using his size to get his shot up. He thrived on initiating body contact to shield his defender from stealing, blocking or deflecting the ball.

[chitownsfinest]

Magic always had a kink for using his size to get his shot up. He thrived on initiating body contact to shield his defender from stealing, blocking or deflecting the ball.

Which is why he developed the jump hook and a post game. He did get a lot of bs calls while in the post later in his career though.

[andgar923]

I was surprised when I found this out as well. Magic scored 17707 points in his career and made 4960 free throws in his career. Divide that and you will see that Magic had a 28% rate. One thing you must note though is all the fast breaks Magic ran which resulted in many free throws. Also if you look at his stats, you will notice a fta per game spike in the late 80s when he developed a consistent back to the basket game which also resulted in more free throws. Have to look at his stats from a different perspective.

Alot of it has to do with his size advantage.

He was usually guarded by 6'4 point guards or smaller, so obviously he was gonna pick up fouls. And when he was matched up against taller players, he just blew by them which also created ft opportunities.

Also, MJ played inside the 3pt area more, so I'm surprised he didn't get fouls more often.

[gotbacon23]

% of points coming off free-throws for leading PPG scorers in NBA history:

1. michael jordan 30.1 ppg, 22.7% from free throws
2. wilt chamberlian 30.1 ppg, 19.3%
3. lebron james 27.5 ppg, 23.5%
4. elgin baylor 27.4 ppg, 24.9%
5. allen iverson 27.1 ppg, 26.1%
6. jerry west 27.0 ppg, 28.4%
7. bob pettit 26.4 ppg, 29.6%
8. george gerivin 26.2 ppg, 21.9%
9. oscar robertson, 25.7 ppg, 28.8%
10. kobe bryant, 25.1 ppg, 25.6%

so out of the top 10 scorers in nba history (in terms of ppg) only two scored a lower % of their points off of free throws and one of them, wilt, was a HORRIBLE free throw shooter who shot 11.4 free throw attempts per game compared to jordan's 8.2. his % would have been higher had he been a good free throw shooter. whoever wrote that article probably loves crack cocaine.