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Feat of clay: Will MJ lose all-time record?
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SportsNation
He'll never admit it, but someday he'll regret it.
On April 11, Michael Jordan will hand over the all-time NBA scoring record (points per game) to Wilt Chamberlain, if Jordan maintains his current average this season of 18.8 points per game. And, when the season ends, the record books will say:
Player--------------------PPG
Wilt Chamberlain------30.1
Michael Jordan---------30.0
And this way lies further indignity -- if he's not careful, MJ will watch his career scoring average fall below the magical mark of 30 points per game, all the way down to 29.9.
He can do the math, and his recent performances suggest that he knows his record is on shaky ground -- lately he's turned it up a couple of notches. Saturday, he put 45 on the Hornets in a victory, and he followed that with 27 in a win over his traditional whipping boys, the Cavs. Still, even after such age-defying performances, Jordan's record remains in serious jeopardy.
So what, you say? He doesn't care about that -- he's about winning, right? But Mike has also always been about numbers, about soaring (and scoring) higher than everyone else, about domination, about making history, about putting the ball in the hoop, about finishing, about championships, about winning at everything.
This is Michael Jordan, so competitive he cheats at cards -- against his mom. You think he really wants to come all this way, put it on the line for 15 seasons, suit up for 1,072 games, wag his tongue for more than 40,000 minutes, hold the scoring record for practically his entire career, and then finish second?
And what could be more symbolic of the ways Michael has tarnished his legacy and exposed his very own feet of clay? He routinely gets his ankles broken by today's young stars, and now he's on the verge of getting his record broken by a dead guy. That's gotta hurt.
But it's not too late for MJ. As our Jordan poll suggests, he's got some options -- he can shoot more, or maybe trade Jerry Stackhouse for John Stockton. Or, if he gets really desperate, he can exhume Wilt and sign him to a 10-day contract. Or get David Stern to issue a special decree. Or hire Johnnie Cochran.
And, ironically, if he were to suffer a career-ending injury in the next few games -- which is, let's face it, hardly farfetched -- he could pop the cork on a bottle of Cristal, because the record would be all his.
Here's how things stand:
For Jordan, the air has been slowly leaking out of his shoes, and his game -- he's down to 30.388 PPG for his career, and that numbers slides a little bit almost every game. For instance, if he scores 19 in his next game, his career average will slide to 30.379. The difference is almost imperceptible, but these tiny numbers add up -- or, in this case, they chip away at Jordan's lead over Wilt.
Right now, at 18.8 points per game for the season, Jordan is on pace to finish the year with a career average of 30.035, which is rounded down to 30.0. That's assuming he plays all 33 of the Wizards' remaining regular-season games. If Jordan were to sit out four games, however, he would be able to score at his current pace and hold on to the record. The more he plays, the more he slides.
But we know Jordan won't sit out just to protect the record. So, if he doesn't get hurt, his only real option is to score more. How much more? Well, he needs to average 19.9 PPG for the rest of the season to edge Wilt by the tiniest of margins:
Player-------------------PPG
Michael Jordan---------30.0662
Wilt Chamberlain------30.0660
Easy enough for MJ, right? He can score 19.9 points per game in a snap, right?
Maybe not.
He's made an enormous push over the last two months, putting himself into the starting lineup and increasing his minutes dramatically -- in January he played an eye-popping 40 minutes a game. And yet, since moving into the starting lineup and putting up far more minutes and far more shots than expected, Jordan has averaged only, yes, 19.9 points per game.
So what happens when Jerry Stackhouse returns to the starting lineup? Can Jordan continue shooting 44 percent from the field and 32 percent from the three-point line, much higher than his numbers of last season? He turns 40 on Feb. 17 -- can a 40-year-old continue playing 40 minutes a game?
We should know better than to doubt Jordan -- and there is little doubt he'd love to hold on to the record, even if he never admits it. But this is one Jordan accomplishment that they can take away -- it may turn out to be his feat of clay. And we probably won't know for sure until the very last game.
Hang on -- Michael's giving us another photo finish.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SportsNation
He'll never admit it, but someday he'll regret it.
On April 11, Michael Jordan will hand over the all-time NBA scoring record (points per game) to Wilt Chamberlain, if Jordan maintains his current average this season of 18.8 points per game. And, when the season ends, the record books will say:
Player--------------------PPG
Wilt Chamberlain------30.1
Michael Jordan---------30.0
And this way lies further indignity -- if he's not careful, MJ will watch his career scoring average fall below the magical mark of 30 points per game, all the way down to 29.9.
He can do the math, and his recent performances suggest that he knows his record is on shaky ground -- lately he's turned it up a couple of notches. Saturday, he put 45 on the Hornets in a victory, and he followed that with 27 in a win over his traditional whipping boys, the Cavs. Still, even after such age-defying performances, Jordan's record remains in serious jeopardy.
So what, you say? He doesn't care about that -- he's about winning, right? But Mike has also always been about numbers, about soaring (and scoring) higher than everyone else, about domination, about making history, about putting the ball in the hoop, about finishing, about championships, about winning at everything.
This is Michael Jordan, so competitive he cheats at cards -- against his mom. You think he really wants to come all this way, put it on the line for 15 seasons, suit up for 1,072 games, wag his tongue for more than 40,000 minutes, hold the scoring record for practically his entire career, and then finish second?
And what could be more symbolic of the ways Michael has tarnished his legacy and exposed his very own feet of clay? He routinely gets his ankles broken by today's young stars, and now he's on the verge of getting his record broken by a dead guy. That's gotta hurt.
But it's not too late for MJ. As our Jordan poll suggests, he's got some options -- he can shoot more, or maybe trade Jerry Stackhouse for John Stockton. Or, if he gets really desperate, he can exhume Wilt and sign him to a 10-day contract. Or get David Stern to issue a special decree. Or hire Johnnie Cochran.
And, ironically, if he were to suffer a career-ending injury in the next few games -- which is, let's face it, hardly farfetched -- he could pop the cork on a bottle of Cristal, because the record would be all his.
Here's how things stand:
For Jordan, the air has been slowly leaking out of his shoes, and his game -- he's down to 30.388 PPG for his career, and that numbers slides a little bit almost every game. For instance, if he scores 19 in his next game, his career average will slide to 30.379. The difference is almost imperceptible, but these tiny numbers add up -- or, in this case, they chip away at Jordan's lead over Wilt.
Right now, at 18.8 points per game for the season, Jordan is on pace to finish the year with a career average of 30.035, which is rounded down to 30.0. That's assuming he plays all 33 of the Wizards' remaining regular-season games. If Jordan were to sit out four games, however, he would be able to score at his current pace and hold on to the record. The more he plays, the more he slides.
But we know Jordan won't sit out just to protect the record. So, if he doesn't get hurt, his only real option is to score more. How much more? Well, he needs to average 19.9 PPG for the rest of the season to edge Wilt by the tiniest of margins:
Player-------------------PPG
Michael Jordan---------30.0662
Wilt Chamberlain------30.0660
Easy enough for MJ, right? He can score 19.9 points per game in a snap, right?
Maybe not.
He's made an enormous push over the last two months, putting himself into the starting lineup and increasing his minutes dramatically -- in January he played an eye-popping 40 minutes a game. And yet, since moving into the starting lineup and putting up far more minutes and far more shots than expected, Jordan has averaged only, yes, 19.9 points per game.
So what happens when Jerry Stackhouse returns to the starting lineup? Can Jordan continue shooting 44 percent from the field and 32 percent from the three-point line, much higher than his numbers of last season? He turns 40 on Feb. 17 -- can a 40-year-old continue playing 40 minutes a game?
We should know better than to doubt Jordan -- and there is little doubt he'd love to hold on to the record, even if he never admits it. But this is one Jordan accomplishment that they can take away -- it may turn out to be his feat of clay. And we probably won't know for sure until the very last game.
Hang on -- Michael's giving us another photo finish.
