Anything Bam Adebayo and every other current NBA player can do, Stephen A. Smith believes Michael Jordan could do better.
Adebayo scoring 83 points has elicited more criticism than celebration, with many fans and commentators having an urge to [dismiss the feat](https://awfulannouncing.com/nba/max-kellerman-bam-adebayo-kobe-bryant.html) rather than enjoy it. The achievement caught everyone off guard, and the response has since been met with debates comparing NBA eras.
Thursday afternoon, a listener called into _The Stephen A. Smith Show_ on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio to question whether Michael Jordan ever played against a superstar in the NBA Finals better than a superstar playing today.
“As soft as the league is today? In terms of the physicality, he would’ve had a field day. Michael Jordan would have averaged 50,” Smith declared. “Gary Payton would have put cats on lock and key. How bout that? Shawn Kemp would’ve been dunking all over the place…You can look at skills all you want to, it ain’t just about skill, it’s also about will. And what has happened is that some would argue the NBA has softened the sport, bringing European-style basketball to the NBA, and it’s a lot more taxing on their body because they run up and down the court and all of that other stuff.”
Jordan played against great talent in Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, Shawn Kemp, Karl Malone, and others during his championship years. But Smith argued Jordan’s era was better by claiming two false narratives about today’s NBA.
40 points per game? Maybe. But the idea that Jordan would average 50 points per game is unrealistic. And the claim that he would have averaged 50 per game because the NBA is softer now, thanks to an influx of Europeans, is a fallacy.
NBA fans and media attempted to claim Europeans were soft when they had Toni Kukoč and Darko Miličić as their prime examples. But this narrative should have died years ago, as Dirk Nowitzki, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić, and many others have proved their critics wrong.
It wasn’t European players who caused the NBA to eliminate hand-checking and start calling more flagrant fouls. In fact, international basketball is widely believed to be more physical than today’s NBA. European basketball has redefined the NBA by emphasizing offensive systems over individual athleticism.
Similarly, because defenders can’t pummel the opponent like they could in the ‘80s and ‘90s, they need to play smarter and with more skill. Defense hasn’t gone soft; it’s become harder to play than it was in previous eras of the NBA. And because defense has improved and team-oriented offensive systems are prioritized, there’s no way Jordan would have been able to average 50 points per game today.