Scottie Pippen said Jordan can score 100 points in a game in today's NBA

How many times has someone scored 100 points in the history of the league? And how many times has someone averaged 40 ppg?

Scottie Pippen is full of shit. And even if MJ were to score 100, Pippen would note it as the night he and Mike combined for 108.

 

My initial thought would be no freaking way, but so many of you think he could pull it off, so what the heck.

For a guy to score 100, he would need a shot that was unstoppable to a defender. Jordan's jumper was so good, all that you could hope for was him missing.

Now who else in NBA history had a shot so good that no player today could defend it? Mind you, this is a guy yelling out "I'm shooting" and the entire other team could not stop it outside of running three guys at him every possession.

So my list of guys who could score 100 if they gave up every concept of team basketball and chose to jack up 70 shots in a game.

1. Jordan
2. Kobe - his jumper is that good
3. Bird - he could shoot his shot at anytime he wanted
4. Kareem - the Sky Hook was the deadliest weapon ever unleashed on the NBA, but I think a double team could stop him from 100.
5. Bernard King - His turnaround jumper was unstoppable
6. Maravich - just so many shots
7. Isaiah Thomas - maybe
8. LeBron

I'm sure I am forgetting a few, but that is my list of the most unstoppable scorers in NBA history.

 

Back in their day, you had to walk to the arena. Uphill, both ways. And Pat Riley would hire goons who would hit you on the knees with tire irons as you crossed midcourt. Nobody saw it because TNT was only 5 million TVs, not 7 million like now.

And they had to play in snow and sleet with a deflated ball.

And like it.

Please, every time an old-timer starts talking this stuff, I just roll my eyes. They did what they did when they did it. Period.

The hand-checks are gone, but you can play man-and-half where back then it was illegal defense. So it's harder in some ways for individual players to just gun over inferior guys checking them with no help coming until you reach the rim (if that). All-in-all, it's a more offensive game, but to me it has more to do with needing more skill on the floor to offset defensive changes and fewer "goon" players whose roles were to simply be physical. I think Pippin would score significantly more, as would Paxon, Hodges and Kerr (depending on which Bulls team).

 

LeBron is in your list of best shooters? Huh? His jumper is ugly, and he has no "clutch gene." But he can get inside better than almost anyone in history.

 

What is a clutch gene?

 

Add Reggie to that list.

 

Has something to do with RBIs....

 

Even if Jordan at his peak played today, the guy who'd have the best shot at scoring 100 in a game would still be Kobe. His offensive explosions are greater even than Jordan's (not saying he's better overall, just that when it comes to putting up ridiculous number of points, he's more explosive.) Not only the 81, but the 62 in three quarters against Dallas when he outscored them, the 56 in three quarters against Memphis (trailed the Grizz by 2, didn't play the fourth) and on and on. Mainly because he was much more capable of lighting it up on 3s.

The hand-checking's different but overall the defense is also better than it was in the 1980s and early 1990s. You can zone up guys as well. Jordan's athleticism was out of this world when he came into the league, but look how many great perimeter guys there are today compared to Jordan's heyday. The team defense is better but so is the individual defense. I think he'd be just as good, though maybe not win as many titles because the league's deeper today. So he could score 50 and 60, but I don't see why it'd somehow be more likely he'd score 100 today.

As for averaging 40, here's an old Ralph Wiley column. It was about Kobe but I think the points apply to Jordan.

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/wiley/030218.html

 

One person has done it, one time, against people that were physically no match for him. And he had to shoot almost 40 percentage points over his career FT percentage (28 of 32) to pull it off.

Only one other person has even come within 19 points of it.

Everyone else's peak performance places them some 30 points short.

Teams today routinely hold the ball much longer than than teams in the 60s did, resulting in many fewer shots per game.

Yet it's "a given" that MJ could do it?

Whatever.

 

Pippen's whole career was based on riding Jordan's ass; why should he stop now?

BTW, defense in the NBA now is tougher/rougher/more physical than it has ever been.

The Showtime Lakers wouldn't have lost more than 2-3 games (all season) against the watered-down expansion-weakened competition which allowed the Bulls to win 72.

 

I think he could do each once if you put Jordan in his prime in today's NBA.

40 ppg is more realistic since he did average over 37 once in a tougher defensive era. 100 points would be fairly ridiculous and certainly not a given, but I think it would be possible.

 

If the 80s-90s were such a great defensive era, how come scoring is down 10 ppg and FG percentages are down about 10 percent since those years?