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Michael Jordan is the fourth-leading scorer in the history of the NBA, and he twice averaged more than 35 points per game over the course of an entire season. During an appearance on Katie Nolan’s Garbage Time, Heat legend Alonzo Mourning said that he believes if Jordan, in his prime, played today under the current NBA rules, he’d average 50 points per game.
“He’d probably average almost 50 a game. I mean, he really would because you wouldn’t be able to touch him on the perimeter, so he’d be shooting a ton of free throws.”
There’s no question that Jordan would be one of the best players in the league if he played today, but Mourning may be exaggerating a little. Jordan actually did shoot a ton of free throws during his career in the ’80s and ’90s, so the boost from the line in today’s game probably wouldn’t bring his scoring average near 50.
In 1987 and 1988 Jordan had more than 10 attempts from the line per game, and averaged 8.2 free throw attempts per game for his career. Only three players in the NBA — James Harden, Russell Westbrook and DeMarcus Cousins — take more than eight free throws per game this season.
If Jordan was in a Russell Westbrook-type situation where he would be the only offensive threat on the team and could take an unlimited amount of shots, he would no doubt put up gaudy offensive numbers — but that isn’t an effective way to win basketball games in the long run.
Mourning also said that it’s impossible to compare Jordan and LeBron James, simply because the game has changed so much.
“It’s not the same game. I would have loved to see LeBron play in the ’90s, in the early ’90s late ’80s.”