In the NBA’s never-ending “GOAT” debate, Michael Jordan holds one eternal trump card over his fellow offensively-oriented peers — he has a Defensive Player of the Year Award to his name.
But in a new report from Yahoo Sports’ Tom Haberstroh, the validity of Jordan’s 1988 defensive honors is questioned. It’s a bit sticky and is a good reminder that Jordan was so special that people would even talk about a random achievement of his over a quarter-century-old.
Why is one of Jordan’s more impressive honors being debated?
According to Alex Rucker, a one-time NBA scorekeeper, Jordan’s off-the-charts steals and blocks numbers that effectively won him that year’s DPOY had a massive home-to-road disparity. That means scorekeepers when Jordan played at home were seemingly a bit more generous with their definition of highlight statistics, especially during that fateful 1987-1988 NBA season.
This tracks with data analysis that inspired Haberstroh’s report:
As Rucker once learned, this is apparently a common practice when it comes to marketing some of the league’s bigger names. In the end, it was seemingly more about selling mythology and entertainment than the competition on the court.
Well, if true, that’s not really surprising, now is it?
In an era without improved access to technology, of course
Making a younger Jordan seem more dominant was in the best interest of the league’s long-term health during that era. It just was.
It’s also hard to question the validity of Jordan’s DPOY award for something where most modern stars probably still benefit from home cooking, just to a lesser extent. If you don’t think guys like LeBron James and Nikola Jokic occasionally get the benefit of the doubt on 50-50 assists or rebounds, I have a bridge to sell you. They might not be absurdly inflated, but there is almost certainly an interest in making them seem exceptional at all costs whenever possible.
Jordan earned his 1988 Defensive Player of the Year Award. I know that mostly because we had to revisit this discussion 26 years later.