Michael Jordan turned 52 a few months ago, but the NBA legend has as much confidence today as he did when he was 22. Recently, Jordan insisted there are some players on his Charlotte Bobcats squad that he could beat in a game of 1-on-1.
TMZ has made it a point to ask various players from around the league if they think they could take Jordan, and guys like Andre Drummond and Lance Stephenson were content to give the nod to His Airness. Houston Rockets forward Trevor Ariza wasn’t so kind.
“I better be able to beat Jordan 1-on-1 right now,” Ariza told TMZ on Monday. “If I can’t do that, I need to rethink what I’m doing. If he steps on the court and I step on the court, that’s my job to try and beat him.”
Even if Jordan is the greatest player in NBA history, no 29-year-old professional basketball player wants to admit that someone who is nearly twice his age could beat him on the court — even if there is video of Jordan schooling Bobcats players just a few years back.
The “could Jordan beat Player X” debate has gotten so out of hand that a recent poll revealed that plenty of people believe M.J. could beat LeBron James in a game of 1-on-1 right now. That’s just insane.
Jordan could probably beat someone like Drummond with ball skills alone, but he’d have a tough time beating any guard or forward that doesn’t spend all of his time in the low post. As we know, Father Time is undefeated.
