Michael Jordan may officially be taking all this NBA 2K11 nonsense to the head. There’s no arguing the concept is a fun one for gamers. Heck, back in the day I remember being frustrated as s*** that I had to play basketball video games as a player who was clearly supposed to be Michael Jordan but was given a name like Joe Schmo. Jordan never gave video game companies permission to use his name because he wanted to get paid if they did. Surprise, surprise.
So gamers finally get the chance to play as MJ in a mainstream video game. I guess it’s cool, but what isn’t cool is what Jordan said about the way the rules in the NBA have changed when he was giving an interview about the game:
It’s less physical and the rules have changed, obviously. Based on these rules, if I had to play with my style of play, I’m pretty sure I would have fouled out or I would have been at the free throw line pretty often and I could have scored 100 points.”
MJ should probably realize that he has an inordinate amount of biggest fans, so there’s no need for him to be his own. 100 points? Wilt Chamberlain only did it because he was a physical freak of nature at the time and shot the ball 63 times. Humans hadn’t even started getting that large yet. It would be like if one of us went to the North Pole to take on Santa’ smallest little helper in a game of 1-on-1.
When Kobe scored 81, it felt like he never missed a shot. He attempted 20 free throws and made 18 of them. MJ’s career high was 69 points. He attempted 23 free throws and made 21 of them when he accomplished that feat. Oh yeah, and he needed overtime to even get that high. So if Air Jordan scored 69 points as a career high and attempted more free throws than Kobe did when he trumped that total by 12, where exactly is the argument?
The rules have certainly changed, but MJ’s mind must have been buried in a Las Vegas slot machine when he made that claim. Relax Michael, it’s just a video game.
