“No other instance in the award’s history has a player shown a disparity that touched 160 percent”- wrote Tom Haberstroh. Michael Jordan is arguably the GOAT but the legend’s legacy has been under the radar lately. The controversy arose with the release of Tom Haberstroh’s article questioning the integrity of MJ’s 1988 award. This raised many eyebrows questioning Jordan’s DPOY award’s validity. In the sea of opinions that flowed, Andre Iguodala has something to add too.
In a recent episode of the Point Forward podcast, Iguodala said, “I saw somebody went back and was saying he went back and looked back at all the games and Michael Jordan stats were inflated…And I am like ‘what, man?’ They’ll figure out a way to go back in our history and try to course correct it…Man, leave me alone with this nonsense,” while discussing Haberstroh’s research on MJ which revealed that during the 1998 season, MJ’s total steals and blocks were nearly twice as many as his home record.
For instance, Jordan had 165 steals at home (the highest in the NBA) versus 94 steals on the road (stands in fourth place), which was a significant high as compared to his peers. Similarly, his blocks were 84 at home versus 47 on the road. Overall, this difference in the home and on-road games displayed a shocking increase of 82% at home for both steals and blocks.
“Scottie said that they inflated MJ’s stats, they said it was because he was the one that would deflect the ball, and MJ would pick it up, and they would give MJ the credit for the steal,” Iguodala added. However, as Haberstroh’s research came to light, the netizens were quick to draw parallels with the MJ’s 1988 DPOY. And one such parallel was sourced from Scottie Pippen’s book.
Pippen’s take on Michael Jordan
According to Scottie Pippen’s book Unguarded, a scorekeeper once passed on the game’s stats sheet to the then-assistant coach Phil Jackson while simultaneously informing Jordan that the stats were padded for him. “One night, a scorekeeper came into the locker room to hand the stat sheets to Phil Jackson. I couldn’t believe the look the guy gave Michael: ‘See MJ, we take care of you,’” Scottie unveiled on page 89 of his book.
Jordan and Pippen witnessed six championships as teammates with the Chicago Bulls. The dynamic duo consistently made waves on the DPOY ballot, tying twice in placement. However, Jordan edged Pippen out in five of the remaining eight years. But that’s not what Scottie agrees with.
“Say I deflected the ball and tapped it over to him. I should get credit for 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,” he wrote in his book. Moving on, Jordan now stands as the first player to win the scoring title and DPOY in the same season in NBA history. Now that he has been under attack, what do you think about the cheating accusations for the DPOY award that ‘His Airness’ faces?
Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.