Charles Barkley, Jeff Van Gundy say Jordan would average 40 per game in today's NBA
Michael Jordan was the best player of his generation, a transcendent NBA star who many consider to be the greatest of all time.
Becuase of that, however, people tend to get a little carried away when suggesting what he might be capable of if he had played in the league today.
On separate sports talk radio shows Monday, both Charles Barkley and Jeff Van Gundy went on record as saying that they believe Jordan would average 40, even 45 points per game if he played in today's NBA with the current set of rules -- an idea which, for several reasons, is simply preposterous.
"Close to 40 a game"
— Mike & Mike (@MikeAndMike) April 4, 2016
- Charles Barkley when asked how many points Michael Jordan would average in today's game. pic.twitter.com/7qSUr30IzW
This isn't a question of could; Jordan could score in a variety of ways, and was as competitive as they come. But so are guys like Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, and not one of them has come close to averaging 40 points over the course of a single regular season.
Jordan recorded his highest scoring average in just his third year in the league, and he did it the hard way, too. He averaged 37.1 points in 1987 by hitting 13.4 shots and 10.2 free throws per game, but made only 12 three-pointers that entire season.
It was essentially the highest single-season scoring average of the modern era, because no one has surpassed it since. And, only Wilt Chamberlain (twice, in 1962 and '63) has ever finished with a higher scoring average in an NBA season.
Setting aside the fact that a 40 points-per-game average has only been achieved by one player ever more than 50 years ago, there are already players in the league who could reach that mark if that was truly the goal.
Curry, for example, could definitely do it. But it would require him playing in all of those fourth quarters he routinely sits out, it would require him playing far more minutes than necessary, and it would mean taking an even larger percentage of his team's shots, while alienating his teammates and (on many nights) throwing victories into the trash.
Durant is another guy who could average 40 per game, and Bryant in his prime certainly could have, too. But there's a reason it hasn't happened in so long, and there are multiple reasons it's never going to happen again.
It's something not even the great Michael Jordan -- even with defenses no longer being able to hand-check -- would be able to accomplish.
