Basketball (And Other Things) Read online

  Go back to grade school: Other than playing on the monkey bars, what was everyone doing? You could always find a bunch of kids playing basketball on the blacktop. So whether you played or just watched, we all grew up with it. Somehow it just becomes a part of everything. Of music, of movies, of television. Even when it isn’t the main focal point of what’s happening, it’s there somewhere. Maybe in the background or even behind the background. It’s there. Basketball is always there.

  WHAT YEAR WAS MICHAEL JORDAN THE BEST VERSION OF MICHAEL JORDAN?

  Let’s you and I concede a point. Let’s you and I agree that Michael Jordan, generally regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time, is exactly that: the greatest basketball player of all time.

  Perhaps you don’t believe that, and if you don’t, then that’s fine.1 Perhaps you think it’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was an excellent player for longer than anyone else ever was an excellent player.2 Or perhaps you think it’s Wilt Chamberlain, who once averaged more than 50 points and 25 rebounds for an entire season, which is all the way unbelievable. Or perhaps you think it’s Greg Oden, the first-ever number-one NBA draft pick to have a picture of his penis posted to the Internet. Maybe there’s a chance you think it’s Magic Johnson (the best ever at controlling the flow of a game), LeBron James (the best ever at being great at all the positions), Tim Duncan (the best ever at being the love of my life, and also some basketball things). All of those are fine choices.3 And if one of those (or anyone else) is your pick for greatest ever, let’s pretend, at least for the duration of this chapter, that you, like me, think it’s Jordan.

  That being so, here’s the question: If Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time, then what year was it that Michael Jordan was the best version of Michael Jordan? When was the greatest basketball player of all time at his absolute greatest?

  To figure out what season Michael Jordan was the best version of Michael Jordan, we have to look at four different things.

  • The box score stats—specifically, his points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals averages. Rather than take straight game averages, though, let’s do it based on per 100 possessions, which helps to evaporate away most variations that might otherwise pop up because of changes in playing time or game pace.

  • The advanced stats I explained in the introduction—Player Efficiency Rating, Box Plus/Minus, Value Over Replacement Player, Win Shares.

  • His playoffs performance each season, which, at least in a certain measure, is generally more important than regular season performance.

  • Any additional or extenuating factors that might’ve affected a season’s arc, or even a single game’s arc, like: The time he put up 38-7-5 in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals when he had the flu, which remains iconic.4 Or the time when at the end of a game against the Nuggets in 1991 he shot a free throw with his eyes closed just to needle then-rookie Dikembe Mutombo, which remains cool. Or the time during a game against the Jazz in 1987 when a Jazz fan sitting near courtside shouted at him to pick on someone his own size after he’d dunked on John Stockton (6'1"), to which Jordan responded by dunking over the nearly 7-foot-tall Mel Turpin on the next possession and then shouting “Is that big enough?” at the fan, which remains hilarious.

  Jordan played 13 seasons with the Bulls. That means there are 13 versions of Michael Jordan for us to pick from.5 However, one of those was the season he returned from his first retirement (1995 Jordan), and not including the playoffs, he only played 17 games that year, so we can eliminate that one. That leaves us with 12 different versions of Michael Jordan. Of those, one Jordan was Great, two Jordans were Very Great, six Jordans were Very, Very, Great, two Jordans were Very, Very, Very Great, and one Jordan was The Greatest. They’re arranged here by ascending greatness.

  THE GREAT MICHAEL JORDAN(S)

  SEASON:

  1985–86

  ADVANCED STATS:

  WS: 1.5; BPM: 4.7; VORP: 0.8; PER: 27.5

  PER 100 POSSESSIONS:

  43.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 2.2 blocks, 3.9 steals

  TEAM PLAYOFFS SUCCESS:

  Lost to the Celtics in the first round (3–0)

  Three significant things happen this year. First, Jordan breaks his foot three games into the season. (It’s the only big injury he had during his career.) Second, he returns in the middle of March, helps the Bulls get into the playoffs, then averages 43.7 points per game,6 one of those games being his famed 63 points in Boston Garden. And third, after the 63-point game, Larry Bird sums up Jordan’s performance by saying, “I think he’s God disguised as Michael Jordan.” If Larry Bird calls you God, it ain’t that far away from God calling you God, you know what I’m saying?

  THE VERY GREAT MICHAEL JORDAN(S)

  SEASON:

  1984–85

  ADVANCED STATS:

  WS: 14.0; BPM: 8.2; VORP: 8.1; PER: 25.8

  PER 100 POSSESSIONS:

  35.5 points, 8.2 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.1 blocks, 3.0 steals

  TEAM PLAYOFFS SUCCESS:

  Lost to the Bucks in the first round (3–1)

  AWARDS:

  Rookie of the Year

  Jordan’s first season in the league was wildly successful. Regarding rookies, his 14.0 Win Shares are still the eighth-most ever (by comparison, Kobe Bryant’s WS his rookie year was 1.8; LeBron tallied 5.1), his per game scoring average is the seventh highest (28.2), and his VORP is the highest ever. So it was for sure obvious that Jordan was going to be special, because by most accounts he already was when he arrived. But he wasn’t anywhere near what he eventually became.

  SEASON:

  1996–97

  ADVANCED STATS:

  WS: 18.3; BPM: 6.7; VORP: 6.8; PER: 27.8

  PER 100 POSSESSIONS:

  41.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 0.8 blocks, 2.4 steals

  TEAM PLAYOFFS SUCCESS:

  Beat the Bullets (3–0), then the Hawks (4–1), then the Heat (4–1), then the Jazz to win the title (4–2)

  AWARDS:

  Finals MVP

  A very great year and season that gets pulled into a singular version of itself by the gravity of The Flu Game.

  THE VERY, VERY GREAT MICHAEL JORDAN(S)

  SEASON:

  1986–87

  ADVANCED STATS:

  WS: 16.9; BPM: 8.6; VORP: 8.8; PER: 29.8

  PER 100 POSSESSIONS:

  46.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 1.9 blocks, 3.6 steals

  TEAM PLAYOFFS SUCCESS:

  Lost to the Celtics in the first round (3–0)

  Jordan begins to truly start flexing. He wins his first of ten career scoring titles, doing so by averaging 37.1 points per game.7 He also leads the entire league in PER, WS, and VORP. (This is also the year that RoboCop, Predator, Lethal Weapon, and The Running Man came out.) (It doesn’t have anything to do with Jordan, but it just seems like a thing I should mention.)

  SEASON:

  1989–90

  ADVANCED STATS:

  WS: 19.0; BPM: 10.6; VORP: 10.1; PER: 31.2

  PER 100 POSSESSIONS:

  42.7 points, 8.8 rebounds, 8.1 assists, 0.8 blocks, 3.5 steals

  TEAM PLAYOFFS SUCCESS:

  Beat the Bucks (3–1), then the 76ers (4–1), then lost to the Pistons in the Conference Finals (4–3)

  Big playoff success here,8 both for his Bulls (one game within making the Finals) and for himself (his 36.7 points per game in the 1990 playoffs is still the most in NBA history by a player in a playoff run of 15+ games). The Bulls end up getting obliterated in Game 7 in the Conference Finals against the Pistons, but it’s hardly Jordan’s fault (he puts up 31 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists; Pippen, who suffered a migraine before the game, puts up 2 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2-4-2 sounds less like a basketball stat and more like a middle-school soccer team’s record).

  SEASON:

  1991–92

  ADVANCED STATS:

  WS: 17.7; BPM: 8.6; VORP: 8.3; PER: 27.7

  PER 100 POSSESSI
ONS:

  39.4 points, 8.4 rebounds, 8.0 assists, 1.2 blocks, 3.0 steals

  TEAM PLAYOFFS SUCCESS:

  Beat the Heat (3–0), then the Knicks (4–3), then the Cavs (4–2), then the Trail Blazers to win the title (4–2)

  AWARDS:

  League MVP, Finals MVP

  Another MVP. Another title. The Bulls win 67 games during this season, fourth-most in league history as of 2016. Add in bonus credits here because (a) at this point in his career, it’s only the second time he plays in a Game 7 (the Knicks clobbered their way there), and he ends up fucking bodying everyone in it (46 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks); (b) this is the year he undresses poor Clyde Drexler in the Finals; and (c) it’s also the year he gives us the iconic Jordan Shrug. All important and essential moments for Jordan.

  SEASON:

  1995–96

  ADVANCED STATS:

  WS: 20.4; BPM: 8.6; VORP: 8.3; PER 29.4

  PER 100 POSSESSIONS:

  42.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 0.7 blocks, 3.1 steals

  TEAM PLAYOFFS SUCCESS:

  Beat the Heat (3–0), then the Knicks (4–1), then the Magic (4–0), then the Seattle Supersonics to win the title (4–2)

  AWARDS:

  League MVP, Finals MVP, All-Star Game MVP

  This was the first full season Jordan played since his rookie year where he didn’t lead the league in VORP, but it’s also the 72-win year, so those two things cancel each other out if you want to pick nits about his stats.

  SEASON:

  1990–91

  ADVANCED STATS:

  WS: 20.3; BPM: 10.8; VORP: 9.8; PER: 31.6

  PER 100 POSSESSIONS:

  42.7 points, 8.1 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 1.4 blocks, 3.7 steals

  TEAM PLAYOFFS SUCCESS:

  Beat the Knicks (3–0), then the 76ers (4–1), then the Pistons (4–0), then the Lakers to win the title (4–1)

  AWARDS:

  League MVP, Finals MVP

  Wins his second MVP trophy. Beats Patrick Ewing and the Knicks, Charles Barkley and the 76ers, Isiah Thomas and the Pistons, and Magic Johnson and the Lakers to win his first-ever NBA championship,9 averaging a just plain goofy 31 points and 11 assists in the Finals, a thing that’s even more impressive when you realize that he’d never averaged more than 10 assists in a postseason. I think it was right around this time when most everyone else in the league was like, “Well, fuck.”

  SEASON:

  1997–98

  ADVANCED STATS:

  WS: 15.8; BPM: 4.6; VORP: 5.3; PER: 25.2

  PER 100 POSSESSIONS:

  40.0 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 0.8 blocks, 2.4 steals

  TEAM PLAYOFFS SUCCESS:

  Beat the Nets (3–0), then the Hornets (4–1), then the Pacers (4–3), then the Jazz to win the title (4–2)

  AWARDS:

  League MVP, Finals MVP, All-Star Game MVP

  Here’s the last minute of Michael Jordan’s career as a Chicago Bull, played at the end of Game 6 of the NBA Finals, a series the Bulls were leading 3–2 against the Jazz (and playing in Utah):

  • 0:59: Swishes two free throws to tie the game 83–83. Jordan has 41.

  • 0:42: John Stockton hits a three to put the Jazz up 86–83.

  • [Chicago Timeout]

  • 0:41: Jordan receives the inbounds pass from Scottie Pippen at almost the midcourt logo.

  • 0:37: Jordan stutter-steps, then drives by Bryon Russell, who is attempting to guard him. Jordan lays it up over Antoine Carr to make it 86–85, Jazz. Jordan has 43.

  • 0:36: Stockton brings the ball up court.

  • 0:22: Stockton passes the ball to Karl Malone in the post.

  • 0:21: Jordan, who’d been guarding Jeff Hornacek, sneaks around the back and slaps the ball away from Malone, then steals it.

  • 0:17: Jordan dribbles up the court, and he does not call timeout, nor does Phil Jackson, because both of them know what’s about to happen next, as does everybody in the arena, because by 1998 they’d been watching Jordan slit the throats of his opponents for nearly a decade and a half.

  • 0:12: Jordan, at the left corner of the three-point line, waits. Dribbles.

  • 0:11: Jordan waits. Dribbles.

  • 0:10: Jordan waits. Dribbles.

  • 0:09: Jordan waits. Dribbles.

  • 0:08: Jordan attacks, dribbling toward the top of the key.

  • 0:07: Jordan stops, crossover dribbles, discards Bryon Russell, shoots.

  • 0:06: Cash. Bulls lead 87–86. Jordan has 45 points.10

  • 0:05: Bob Costas: “That may have been—who knows what will unfold in the next several months—but that may have been the last shot Michael Jordan will ever take in the NBA.”

  • 0:02: Stockton misses a three.

  • 0:00: Jordan wins his sixth NBA championship.

  1998 Jordan is not the most statistically dominant Jordan, but he is the one who is the most theatrical. In a large-scale one-on-one Jordans-Only tournament, I fully expect him to figure out a way to beat the eight Jordans he beat here.11

  THE VERY, VERY, VERY GREAT MICHAEL JORDAN(S)

  SEASON:

  1987–88

  ADVANCED STATS:

  WS: 21.2; BPM: 12.2; VORP: 11.8; PER 31.7

  PER 100 POSSESSION:

  43.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 2.0 blocks, 3.9 steals

  TEAM PLAYOFFS SUCCESS:

  Beat the Cavs (3–2), then lost to the Pistons (4–1)

  AWARDS:

  League MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, All-Star Game MVP

  Terror. His VORP and BPM were the highest ever measured up to that point. His PER was the best ever of everyone in the NBA’s history who wasn’t Wilt Chamberlain. He won his first League MVP. He also won Defensive Player of the Year. He also won All-Star Game MVP, too, just because he felt like it. Through 2016, it’s still the only season a player had 100+ blocks and 250+ steals.

  SEASON:

  1988–89

  ADVANCED STATS:

  WS: 19.8; BPM: 12.6; VORP: 12.0; PER: 31.1

  PER 100 POSSESSIONS:

  40.0 points, 9.9 rebounds, 9.9 assists, 1.0 block, 3.6 steals

  TEAM PLAYOFFS SUCCESS:

  Beat the Cavs (3–2), then beat the Knicks (4–2), then lost to the Pistons (4–2)

  Somehow even better than 1988 Jordan, mostly due to the fact that he has the most efficient shooting season of his career.12 He becomes the first player since Oscar Robertson to average 30-8-8. And maybe most importantly, this is the year he hits a massively important shot in the playoffs (“The Shot” to beat Cleveland in an elimination Game 5). 1989 was the birth of Bloodthirsty Jordan.13

  THE GREATEST VERSION OF MICHAEL JORDAN OF ALL

  SEASON:

  1992–93

  ADVANCED STATS:

  WS: 17.2; BPM: 9.5; VORP: 8.9; PER: 29.7

  PER 100 POSSESSION:

  43.0 points, 8.8 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 1.0 blocks, 3.7 steals

  TEAM PLAYOFFS SUCCESS:

  Beat the Hawks (3–0), then the Cavs (4–0), then the Knicks (4–2), then the Suns to win the title (4–2)

  AWARDS:

  Finals MVP

  The Alpha Jordan. The greatest version of the greatest player. Just think on these three things, which really encapsulate all that Michael Jordan is, was, and would become.

  1. The Bulls are down 0–2 to the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, a thing that is doubly troubling because the Knicks have homecourt advantage and then triply troubling because the Knicks had managed to take the Bulls to seven games the year before, so it was clear they weren’t super afraid of them. The Bulls should’ve lost that series. They really should’ve. But they didn’t. It didn’t even go to a Game 7. They won the next four games, the last three of which showed us a Jordan that was fully formed and unstoppable (54 points in Game 4, 29 points and 14 assists in Game 5, then 25 points and 9 assists to close it out).

  2. In the Finals, Jordan averaged 41 points p
er game against the Suns, and 46.1 points per 100 possessions in the whole playoffs, the highest he ever had during a championship run and second in his career only to his 1986 God Disguised as Michael Jordan series, but it’s even more impressive than that performance because that was 3 games long and this was 19 games long.

  3. Jordan’s total points for the 1993 playoffs: 666.

  God Jordan was a great version of him. Devil Jordan was the greatest, though.

  1. It’s actually not fine.

  2. Hall of Fame inductee; six-time NBA champion; six-time League MVP; ten-time All-NBA First Team; five-time All-NBA Second Team; five-time All-Defensive First Team; six-time All-Defensive Second Team; nineteen-time All-Star.

  3. They’re not.

  4. It also remains maybe a lie. In 2013, Tim Grover, Jordan’s longtime trainer, told Henry Abbott of ESPN’s TrueHoop that Jordan was intentionally food poisoned by the pizza place they’d ordered pizza from the night before Game 5.

  5. None of his Wizards seasons are even close to anything he did with the Bulls, so they’re out.

  6. Still an NBA record as I write this.

  7. The highest season scoring average he’d ever notch. It’s also the only time someone who wasn’t Wilt Chamberlain broke 37. Wilt averaged 50.3 in 1962, 44.8 in 1963, 38.3 in 1961, and 37.6 in 1960. Wilt was not fucking around.

  8. Not coincidentally, also his first year with Phil Jackson as head coach, and also-also the first time Scottie Pippen is an All-Star.