Daryl Morey: ‘It’s Just Factual That James Harden Is a Better Scorer Than Michael Jordan’
Written by SOURCE on August 17, 2019
Rockets general manager Daryl Morey obviously has the utmost faith in Houston’s franchise player James Harden. In fact, Morey decided to step out a very thin limb and proclaim Harden a better scorer than Michael Jordan.
Morey made his opinion public during an appearance on the Selfmade with Nadeshot podcast, where he said Harden was “by far” the best scorer in NBA history.
“It’s just factual that James Harden is a better scorer than Michael Jordan,” Morey said. “Based on literally, like you give James Harden the ball and before you’re giving up the ball how many points do you generate? Which is how you should measure offense. James Harden is by far No. 1 in NBA history.”
Morey didn’t leave his opinion hanging for shock value. Instead, he welcomed the possibility that scoring in today’s NBA is easier than it was during Jordan’s era. Yet, he counters these hypotheticals with facts.
“The counterargument is reasonable,” Morey continued. “They say if you put Michael Jordan on a team now he would do more than James Harden. That’s possible. But if you’re just saying: ‘NBA history, if you give this guy the ball, how much does his team score after you give him the ball before the other team gets the ball?’ It’s James Harden. And I know that makes people mad, but it’s literally a fact.”
The Rockets superstar averaged 36.1 points per game last season, the most since Jordan’s 1986-87 season. When advance stats are applied to their game, Harden leads Jordan in effective field goal percentage and true shooting percentage with 60.9 percent (Jordan had 56.9 percent for his career). As a result, it will be interesting to see who a ball-dominant point guard like Russell Westbrook will impact Harden’s percentages going forward.
