KeepHoopsReal

0% BS • 100% straight facts • 100% context • 200% bring respect back to the game #NBA

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

@ChrisDyceII @WhozMEECH 0-1 vs Jason Terry

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

A-freaking-mazing. #NBA

[Blitz Sports Network @BruceBlitz]

Rare stats, did some digging through box scores... your turn to dive in & dig through the data. So many wild straw man claims about "no competition" during the Michael Jordan era, which is absurd. That baseless claim is essentially predicated on the notion that professional NBA basketball players weren't good at.... basketball. It's actually perhaps more likely a statement of unfamiliarity (understandable, that was a long time ago). "Plumber" claims are not a declaration of historical fact, because it's absurd. So let's specify the competition with a cheat sheet, because the Jordan era was loaded with amazing talent.

Remember, this is to combat the narratives that "Jordan faced plumbers" and the notion that Jordan didn't face amazing competition. So, the fact that this exists alone debunks that narrative, instantly.

We Will Be Specifying The Competition List With:
- Players Who Outscored Michael Jordan During Games Where Jordan Scored At Least 20 Points
- List of 20+ point games against Jordan's Teams (From the games he played in only)
- Non-Jordan 40+ Point Games in the NBA during his career

First, some fun factoids...

Jordan faced more individual opponents who scored at least 35 points during his foot injury season (1986 - 3) and return from baseball (1995 - 2) than he saw during his first season with the Wizards (2002 - 1).

- Players who outscored Michael Jordan, the most times, during games where Jordan scored at least 30 points:
Dominique Wilkins: 12x
Allen Iverson: 4x
Charles Barkley: 3x
Glenn Robinson: 3x
Larry Bird: 3x
Jeff Malone: 2x
Karl Malone: 2x

- Most 50 point games against Michael Jordan:
Dominique Wilkins: 1x
Kobe Bryant: 1x

- Most Multiple 40 point games against Michael Jordan:
Dominique Willkins: 4x
Allen Iverson: 2x
Reggie Miller: 2x
Charles Barkley: 2x
Larry Bird: 2x
Bernard King: 2x

- Most Multiple 35 point games against Michael Jordan:
Dominique Wilkins: 14x
Larry Bird: 7x
Charles Barkley: 6x
Allen Iverson: 5x
Glenn Robinson: 4x
Karl Malone: 3x
Isiah Thomas: 3x
Ron Harper: 2x

- Most 30 point games against Michael Jordan:
Dominique Wilkins 22x
Charles Barkley 12x
Larry Bird 12x
Karl Malone 8x
Allen Iverson 8x
Isiah Thomas 7x
Patrick Ewing 7x
Jeff Malone 6x
World B. Free 5x
Glenn Robinson 5x
Reggie Miller 5x
Bernard King 5x
Hakeem Olajuwon 4x
Chuck Person 4x
Dale Ellis 4x
Mitch Richmond 4x
Terry Cummings 4x
Ricky Pierce 4x
David Robinson 4x
Mark Aguirre 3x
Glen Rice 3x
Kevin McHale 3x
Clyde Drexler 3x
Ron Harper 3x
Chris Mullin 3x
Adrian Dantley 3x
Moses Malone 3x
Rony Seikaly 3x
Tracy McGrady 3x
Tom Chambers 2x
Alex English 2x
Grant Hill 2x
Kobe Bryant 2x
Shaquille O'Neal 2x
Magic Johnson 2x
Paul Pierce 2x
Reggie Lewis 2x
Antoine Walker 2x
Kevin Willis 2x
Mark Price 2x
Hersey Hawkins 2x
Larry Johnson 2x
Damon Stoudamire 2x
Alvin Robertson 2x
Darrell Griffith 2x
Mike Mitchell 2x
Ledell Eackles 2x
Ron Anderson 2x
Clark Kellogg 2x
Michael Finley 2x

For comparison sake, how many times have these modern rivals scored 30 points against each other?

Rival 30pt games (You can compare the data above, to this modern competition data):
Kobe scored 30 vs LeBron: 7x
Curry scored 30 vs LeBron: 4x
Durant scored 30 vs LeBron: 9x

Now scroll back up & look at those #'s again.

- Who are the players, from the Jordan era, that had the most games outscoring Jordan, by sheer number?

Most games outscoring Michael Jordan:
*** = Outscoring Games During Wizards years only
Dominique Wilkins - 22 games
Allen Iverson - 10 games
Larry Bird - 9 games
Jeff Malone - 8 games
Patrick Ewing - 8 games
Charles Barkley - 8 games
Isiah Thomas - 7 games
Reggie Miller - 7 games
Mitch Richmond - 6 games
Dale Ellis - 6 games
Hakeem Olajuwon - 6 games
Mark Aguirre - 6 games
Karl Malone - 6 games
Moses Malone - 5 games
Kendall Gill - 5 games
Bernard King - 5 games
Grant Hill - 5 games
Michael Finley - 5 games
Antoine Walker - 5 games
Joe Dumars - 4 games
Glenn Robinson - 4 games
Dr J - 4 games
Shaq - 4 games
Penny Hardaway - 4 games
Kobe Bryant - 4 games ***
Vince Carter - 4 games ***
Tracy McGrady - 4 games ***
World B. Free - 4 games
Damon Stoudamire - 4 games
Rony Seikaly - 4 games
Jalen Rose - 4 games
Chuck Person - 3 games
Shawn Kemp - 3 games
Clyde Drexler - 3 games
Ricky Pierce - 3 games
Kevin McHale - 3 games
Chris Mullin - 3 games
Allan Houston - 3 games
Tim Duncan - 3 games ***
Stephon Marbury - 3 games ***
Paul Pierce - 3 games ***
Jermaine O'Neal - 3 games ***
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - 2 games
John Starks - 2 games
Ron Harper - 2 games
Jim Jackson - 2 games
Vin Baker - 2 games
Jerry Stackhouse - 2 games
Glen Rice - 2 games
Larry Nance - 2 games
Detlef Schrempf - 2 games
Brad Daugherty - 2 games
Rik Smits - 2 games
Gerald Wilkins - 2 games
Johnny Newman - 2 games
Nick Anderson - 2 games
Gary Payton - 2 games
David Robinson - 2 games
Doug Christie - 2 games
Latrell Sprewell - 2 games
Alex English - 2 games
Jason Kidd - 2 games ***
Fat Lever - 2 games
Chris Webber - 2 games
Cedric Ceballos - 2 games
James Edwards - 2 games
Sleepy Floyd - 2 games
Steve Smith - 2 games
Larry Johnson - 2 games
Clifford Robinson - 2 games
Sidney Moncrief - 2 games
Jamal Mashburn - 2 games
Rex Chapman - 2 games
Dirk Nowitzki - 2 games ***
Richard Hamilton - 2 games ***
Peja Stojakovic - 2 games ***
Gilbert Arenas - 2 games ***
Chauncey Billups - 2 games ***
Jamal Crawford - 2 games ***
Nick Van Exel - 2 games

Please take the time to examine these links, as well.

Click here to see a breakdown of players who outscored Jordan:
https://t.co/HZXidG3qJU

Click here for the highest scoring games against Jordan's teams:
https://t.co/ka0XIFmYJ6

Click here for Non-Jordan high scoring games from the Jordan era:
https://t.co/MmHwb7jFOz

Numeric Breakdown Of Michael Jordan Opponents' Yearly High Scoring Games Totals:

40 point opponents:
85 - 2
86 - 0
87 - 3
88 - 5
89 - 1
90 - 2
91 - 2
92 - 1
93 - 2
95 - 0
96 - 0
97 - 1
98 - 1
01 - 1
02 - 3

35 point opponents:
85 - 7
86 - 3
87 - 8
88 - 8
89 - 4
90 - 9
91 - 4
92 - 4
93 - 4
95 - 2
96 - 5
97 - 8
98 - 5
01 - 1
02 - 10

30 point opponents:
85 - 31
86 - 8
87 - 32
88 - 23
89 - 23
90 - 29
91 - 15
92 - 19
93 - 16
95 - 3
96 - 13
97 - 18
98 - 17
01 - 11
02 - 18

So, at the end of all this, even if you didn't watch Jordan play... it's easy to conclude that Jordan had more than adequate competition. For those of us who watched the Jordan era, it was the most thrilling era of NBA basketball many of us have ever seen. Not just because of Jordan, but because of all the amazing competitors around the league.

Jordan's opponents were fierce competitors. Taking that away from Jordan's era, and dismissing all these fierce legends as "plumbers" is about as fucking unserious an argument that's ever been laid out in the history of the sports. Again, the basis of the argument was "pro basketball players weren't that good at basketball." Couldn't be too many serious fans who bought in to that, you'd hope. Thanks for reading.

[Hoop Muse @HoopMuse]

Highest Win % in NBA History Last 50 Years:

74.0 — Magic Johnson
73.6 — Larry Bird
73.6 — Kawhi Leonard
72.9 — Michael Cooper
72.1 — Manu Ginobili
71.9 — Tim Duncan
71.1 — Tony Parker
70.7 — Danny Green

*min 200 games*

What stands out?

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

@HereTheCope @njokicfanclub Doesn't deserve to be on it because he stacks his teams and chases stats to look better when he loses. It's not hard to see...

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

@ApexJones22 @avg_nincompoop It's actually so sad in a pitiful way and even worse sports networks run with it to get more eyeballs and ears listening to their BS...

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

@DaddyRich98 @sheepsemen @LoveTheOrange1 🤣🤣🤣

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

@2_WaN_5 @jayfrombklny @6Hogg6 You're comparing apple and oranges because Bron won Finals MVP on more than one team. Again, this photo has everyone playing as the top option on their only team. But if you want to fit Bron in the photo, how many Finals MVPs has he won as the top option of his drafted team? 0

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

@jayfrombklny @6Hogg6 You're right...titles isn't the only way to measure players and yet, Bron doesn't even have the most MVPs, defensive awards, scoring titles, or leading stats of everyone in that photo either. Again, it's your fandom and nothing else.

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

@jayfrombklny @6Hogg6 He doesn't even have more titles than several players on this photo and he switched teams many times only to accomplish less. If you have him as 2, that's cool but it's not based on facts and only on your fandom. That's it.

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

@Johnny_Kilroy1 @talk_debates you have to count all titles won. But HOW the titles are earned are just as important. To paraphrase Meek Mill, there are levels to this...

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

@BallUpTopPod @Byanymean35 @Benzene21 Hilarious pathetic of these stans. MJ swept prime Shaq during his first full year back.

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

MJ was more clutch, hands down. #NBA

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

@TheRealJHair @Johnny_Kilroy1 @CanHePlayShort Yet Bron stans and idiots would say AD should be traded for his inconsistent box scores. #smh

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

@BennieStarks9 @BronsBooty @CantStopDaRayne Exactly. Wade also won before Bron. When they all teamed up in Miami, Bron wasn't even the best player on his own team and got outplayed by Jason Terry in the Finals. End of conversation.

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

Yup.

[THE KOBJECTIVE VIEW @WhozMEECH]

Anytime anyone ask me why I talk about Lebron James Stans so much, I’ll send them this video. They don’t have to listen to it but here it is.

Lebron James Stans ruined the conversations surrounding the NBA. Its no longer about appreciating ballers, it’s all about disparaging players to boost another. It’s a cancer and it’s destroying the love of the game. We’ve never seen anything like this as wide spread as this disease is nowadays. I’m tired of it.

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

@KickstandJoey @WhozMEECH @knee4marvelvsdc Exactly. That sad dude just made his point about disparaging and shaming people for the sake of winning a debate. Social media with uneducated ppl really ruined intelligent sports talk.

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

@dc72dc @clarke3110 @RjeyTech @Aaron_Torres All true. The league isn't better when there are more players who don't play defense or learn footwork to do anything but shoot 3s.

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

Truth hurts.

[Aaron Torres @Aaron_Torres]

I'm a LeBron guy. Always liked watching him play.

But rewatching "The Last Dance" (which, ironically is being played because the Lakers got swept) - LeBron isn't even in the same stratosphere as MJ in terms of being a competitor.

No one is. No one probably ever will be.

[KeepHoopsReal @KeepHoopsReal]

@jay_buc_ You doing the Lord's work...