Gilbert Arenas was interviewed by TMZ two weeks ago and said he thought he could beat Michael Jordan in a game of one-on-one when asked. The subject came up because MJ dunked at his basketball camp this month despite being 50 years old. Arenas took that as a sign that MJ can still play, so he said he would probably beat the former Chicago Bulls legend 5-2 in a game of one-on-one. However, Arenas did note that MJ probably would have beaten him 20-0 if they played in their primes.
Anyway, you know how playful Gil is, so he wasn’t about to back off his claim that he could beat Jordan one-on-one. In fact, he provided statistical proof that he once was better than Jordan:
That’s a screenshot of a boxscore from March 23, 2003, when Arenas’ Golden State Warriors beat Jordan’s Washington Wizards 113-107. Gil was in his second season at the time and went for a career-high 41 points on 15-of-23 shooting, including four 3-pointers. His team also beat Jordan’s earlier in the season, and Arenas outscored MJ in that game, too.
Of course, Jordan was 39 at the time and in his final season, while Arenas was 21 and just starting his career. But, hey, gotta give credit where it’s due: for those nights, Arenas was a better player than MJ. And Arenas would have done much better than 20-0 in a game against MJ in his prime.
