Earlier this week, a bombshell report revealed that Michael Jordan’s defensive statistics were artificially inflated by home scorekeepers during his 1987-88 NBA season in which he won the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year Award. And as it turned out, longtime teammate Scottie Pippen actually called Jordan out for this years ago.
This week, an article from Tom Haberstrah of Yahoo Sports detailed a massive disparity in Michael Jordan’s steals and blocks totals between home and away games with Jordan totaling 82% more steals at home than on the road, indicating that home scorekeepers were inflating his statistics compared to the road.
Haberstrah looked at six games in which he had access to the full tape. In those games, Jordan was awarded 28 steals, while he had only 12 based the game footage. In one of those games, Jordan was even awarded more steals in the game than the opposing team even had total turnovers, which is obviously impossible.
It was a bombshell report, but longtime Chicago Bulls teammate Scottie Pippen actually called in his book “Unguarded” back in 2021.
“Michael was better at getting people to do whatever he wanted,” Pippen wrote in his book according to YardBarker. “I saw it over and over, from the first training camp in 1987 to the last victory rally in 1998. Here’s how it worked: Say I deflected the ball and tapped it over to him. I should get credit with the steal, right? Nope. More often than not, the steal went into his column on the stat sheet, and I could do nothing about it.
“One night, a scorekeeper came into the locker room after the game to hand the stat sheets to Phil Jackson and the coaching staff. The sheet breaks down the points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocked shots, turnovers, and so on for everyone who played the game. I couldn’t believe the look the guy gave Michael: ‘See MJ, we take care of you.’ No wonder in the nine full seasons we played together, he averaged more steals than me in every year except two.”
Needless to say, this led to a lot of reactions on social media.
GOAT debate has been over for years but hopefully the MJ truthers can realize now 🤣 https://t.co/MkGxQ9w3YB
— Carter Rosette (@Cartier_Rose22) June 22, 2024
This is like when we found out Drake had ghost writers https://t.co/9y2mrJ42T0
— Jacob (@JacobBishop__) June 22, 2024
Now mfs gon try to say Scottie lying when he has no reason to lie he’s just not scared or paid off like the other people who refuse to acknowledge the truth the NBA boosted Jordan’s stats And lord only knows what else went on in those finals #Fraud #lebrontheGOAT https://t.co/6O3R9WszPO
— HeavyLive_ (@HeavyLive_) June 22, 2024
Lol we need a petition for the nba to release all footage and full seasons from back then. https://t.co/xaU7xWVD9G
— Mikeyyy_Wyllin (@Mikey_Wyllin) June 22, 2024
Crazyyyy https://t.co/boH03VWLb0
— Bruh man (@SneakcHeat) June 22, 2024
it ain’t looking good for folks https://t.co/N73TyvJzbT
— ion even be on here like that (@nikeslidess) June 22, 2024
Needless to say, this does not look good for Jordan or his legacy.
