Retired NBA player Kendrick Perkins went off on Michael Jordan's former agent, David Falk, following his recent comments about how dominant His Airness would be if he played in the league today.
Falk claimed that Jordan would easily average 60 points on 75 percent shooting in today's free-flowing (not to mention hand-checking) era. Perk, who was obviously not buying it, appeared on the latest episode of ESPN's The Jump and went on a lengthy tirade.
“That’s BS. You know, the bad part about it was that he was dead serious,” the one-time NBA champion said. “Look, David Falk might be sitting back sipping too much of that moonshine because to say that Michael Jordan would average 60 points on 75 percent shooting, that is absurd! I wouldn’t even do that when I be going to the LA fitness. I’ll be going getting buckets.
“But to say so–to disrespect this generation like that–it’s just disturbing to me. And he’s out of like [saying] Jordan with an average 60 points and 75 percent shooting, that’s just crazy!”
Kendrick Perkins, of course, was nowhere near the player Michael Jordan was, so that “LA Fitness” remark was pretty hilarious. It is also worth noting that MJ favored working around the perimeter for most of his NBA career–unlike nowadays where most offenses just chuck away threes.
Jordan did extend his range, especially in the latter part of his career, and was actually a 32.7 percent career shooter from downtown.
However, David Falk's claim that Jordan would average 75 percent shooting from the field seems a bit over the top even for the GOAT. The six-time NBA champion did make over 50 percent of shots in 13 seasons with the Chicago Bulls, even with the rules allowing heightened physicality at that time.
There's really no way of finding out if Jordan would have even been better had he played in this generation. But as far as Perkins is concerned, Falk is reaching quite a bit on this one.