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Wright:”In the 6 games the box scores indicated. Jordan had 28 steals. After comparing our notes from the film study, we each counted 12 steals, an astounding difference of 16 excess steals… a game against the Hawks where MJ was credited with 4 steals..Hawks were credited with 3 turnovers “



Wright:”In the 6 games the box scores indicated. Jordan had 28 steals. After comparing our notes from the film study, we each counted 12 steals, an astounding difference of 16 excess steals… a game against the Hawks where MJ was credited with 4 steals..Hawks were credited with 3 turnovers ”

by bambam-in-vietnam

40 Comments

  1. Oh shit, recount his championships too, maybe he only actually won three and the Jazz actually got one.

  2. Is Jaren Jackson Jr the next Michael Jordan????

  3. FuckingJello

    People gonna hate but the story is actually insane. 4 steals per game and 2 blocks per game at home. 2 steals per game and 1 block per game away.

    At home they have evidence of a game where the Hawks had 10 TOs total and 10 steals credited to the Bulls, which meant the Hawks never committed an offensive foul, traveled, or threw the ball out of bounds. Instantly they saw many times the ball did go out, they counted 2 steals and MJ ended with 5 on the stat sheet. Many times they believe balls tipped by Jordan that went back to the Hawks, were credited to MJ with no change of possession.

    The NBA never confirmed his stats (nor did they care). These stat inflations go further than MJ, Wilt and Bill Russell were credited with 26 40+ rebound games, all 26 were credited at Home.

    Full story link: https://sports.yahoo.com/a-closer-look-at-michael-jordans-1988-dpoy-award-raises-questions-about-its-validity-has-lebron-james-been-chasing-a-ghost-140452567.html

  4. Medical_Track_790

    /r/nba when JJJ gets his stats padded for a DPOY: DRAG THIS MAN THROUGH THE MUD WE HAVE TO SEE EVERY BLOCK

    /r/nba when MJ gets his stats padded for a DPOY: well ackshually who cares

    edit: this section from the article is funny as fuck the league had to step in to stop Jordan getting signals from the Bulls stats guy because Jordan wanted to stat pad so badly

    >The Rosenberg and Jordan dynamic was written about in the press, and reportedly at one point drew scrutiny from the league office. According to a 1989 report from the San Francisco Examiner, **Rosenberg would flash hand signals to inform Jordan how close he was to a triple-double. The league reportedly stepped in and told Rosenberg to cut it out.**

    >Rosenberg admitted to signaling to help Jordan chase stats during Chicago’s 1988 All-Star Game, a game in which Jordan scored a game-high 40 points, just shy of matching Chamberlain’s then-record of 42. As the site’s official scorekeeper, Rosenberg worked the game and remembered a postgame exchange he had with Jordan. In 2013, Rosenberg shared the following anecdote with the Chicago Tribune:

    >“Why didn’t you tell me I was two points short of Chamberlain?” Rosenberg recalled Jordan asking him.

    >“I said, ‘Look, every time you went by, I kept putting up two fingers. You didn’t understand that?’”

    edit: I said this in reaction to how hard this got downvoted and buried when it was posted yesterday, it isn’t entirely accurate now that this has hit the top of /r/nba and it seems like the majority on here are taking it seriously.

  5. MaleficentHawk590

    So, proof that they gave Jordan random stats to make his line look better? That’s pretty embarrasing for the guy who is commonly referred to as the “GOAT” wonder how much other stuff he got away with

  6. discipleofbill

    This feels like it could be one of the biggest scandals in sports history but more likely will be swept under the rug and forgotten.

    This certainly draws into question a lot of stats from that era. Curious who else had crazy home and away splits.

  7. Would be pretty wild if we had to put asterisks on the 80s and 90s like people do for the Wilt and Russel era.

  8. WildcaRD7

    If fantasy and gambling have done anything positive for sports, it’s that stat verification has become much more important. 

  9. Jack_M_Steel

    MJ and JJJ have a lot more in common that I thought

  10. Consistent_Letter647

    4 steals and 2 blocks only at home is insane. I’m honestly surprised this is only getting real attention now.

  11. KhamPheuy

    This is actually pretty good TV, walking through the good journalism from Haberstroh.

  12. OKSteve63

    Wouldnt be shocked. Isnt it a common theory that the same happened for Stocktons assists and steals?

  13. robograndpa

    This is super fucking interesting and those of you thinking this is dumb to talk about don’t care about basketball

  14. Cockhero43

    This is LeBron stan’s Christmas and Jordan stan’s tiananeman square.

  15. WearyRound9084

    Watch how ppl ignore this, like this ain’t a big deal. This singular fact delegitimises all box score STOCKS from the 80s and 90s

  16. Great_Researcher5795

    The only thing I’m hoping this story achieves is to finally bury the narrative that Jordan was only interested in winning – and that personal accolades or stats weren’t important to him.*

    *I’m well aware that this story is primarily about scorekeepers inflating his stats. But the original article also makes it clear that Jordan was chasing the steal record and the DPOY award (also see The Jordan Rules and how Jordan would also check that scorekeepers would credit him with assists during his run as PG in 1989).

  17. domingodlf

    This is actually fucking insane, how was this not a bigger story before. Like, actually a huge, huge difference for that DPOY. Back then stocks were a lot more valued, and there’s no way he got that DPOY with his away numbers, and even assuming the home numbers are better, they definitely are way overblown.

  18. canucklehead200

    Under scrutiny? That is not the proper use of duress

  19. Statalyzer

    https://deadspin.com/an-assist-for-nick-van-exel-how-an-nba-scorekeeper-coo-30967240/ . . . . the time a stat keeper deliberately inflated assist numbers just to prove a point.

    It’s always weird to me how little pro sports has revewed and double-checked stats, even in playoffs/finals. E.g. Tim Duncan got robbed of at least one block in the 2003 Finals in a game he was 2 blocks short of a quadruple-double, and in the famous 2005 Texas/USC game, Vince Young’s winning TD is in the box as an 8-yard run, even though the ball was exactly on the 9-yard hash to start the play, and on the previous drive on 3rd down, LenDale White lost the ball and had a teammate recover it, but this fumble and recovery aren’t in the official stats at all.

    They may review things better now, but it’s still not consistent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vzw3n27K1o This was considered an assist by Marcus Smart, for example.

  20. redditmodsdownvote

    Bodied. Tom Haberstroh newest member of the badboy pistons babyy

  21. SammyChaos

    This will probably be swept under the rug. Can’t taint MJ

  22. So do they fix the stats or they just keep it as is knowing its wrong?

  23. EightBlocked

    if this happened to lebron 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

  24. cantreadthegreen

    The Jordan propaganda machine is being dismantled by the thing MJ loves the most… Gambling.

  25. IAmReborn11111

    Funny how the other cohosts were being dismissive and laughing it off until it kept getting worse and more damning

  26. belizeanheat

    This shit happens constantly with assists, steals, rebounds, and blocks, and inexplicably, no one seems to care. 

    Hopefully now they finally will

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