Video

No matter what uniform he was in, Michael Jordan always stuck it to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

bro so clean and smooth with it it kinda looks like 2k

Jonny Arnett did a great job in dissecting MJ's DPOY home blocks but his overall assessment of Jordan's steals was inaccurate due to his omission of several key factors. Jonny analysed 10 of MJ's 41 home games from the 1987/88 season (6 of these were the games referenced in Haberstroh's article) and by far the 2 biggest takeaways from his analysis were... 1. Jordan was 100% deserving of his DPOY award. 2. His block count was UNDER credited and his steals were over credited, by a very similar number. Most of us were already aware of number 1, but number 2 was undeniably the most interesting and revealing discovery in the entire video. The footage from the 10 games revealed that there were 15 occasions where Jordan got his hand on the opponent's ball, disrupting the offense and causing a deflection...Jonny assessed these deflections as 15 'possible blocks', but noted that the Statistician did NOT credit these 15 blocks to MJ's official block count. Ask yourself this question. If that Statistician was purposely inflating Jordan's defensive stats, why would he UNDER credit Jordan's blocks? If his goal truly was to inflate Jordan's defensive stats, he UNDOUBTEDLY would have credited every single one of those 15 'possible blocks' to MJ's block count...but he didn't. It's obvious to any rational person what happened here...there was no 'gifting' of steals, the Statistician clearly assessed those 15 'possible blocks' as steals and placed them accordingly. Yet, despite this obvious surplus/deficit correlation between MJ's blocks and steals, Jonny STILL concludes at the end of the video that his steals were intentionally inflated, which simply doesn't make any sense! The question is, was the Statistician correct in assessing those 15 'possible blocks' as steals? Should they have been labelled as blocks, as Jonny identified them in his video? To answer that question, research would need to be conducted into how blocks and steals were analysed in the 80's, the rules of that Era would have to be factored in and consideration given to exactly how these rules were consistently interpreted and officiated. I was watching a 1992 Bulls game earlier today and on 2 occasions Jordan got his hand on the ball in the passing lane, deflecting the ball to his teammates and the commentator announced 'another steal for MJ ' on both occasions, indicating that steals were credited to the player causing the deflection...that's not consistent with how Jonny analysed MJ's steals during his breakdown. Also, something else that wasn't accounted for in Jonny's video is the fact that the Statisticians in the 80's didn't have the luxury of relying on instant replay or multiple camera angles, they had to make an assessment from the sidelines in real time. It's highly plausible that, from the vantage point of the Statistician, some of those 'possible blocks', may have been mistakenly interpreted as steals, especially when you consider how lightning quick MJ's movements were, his hands in particular. Either way, it's obvious to any logical person there was no 'gifting' of stats, the Statistician clearly interpreted those 15 'possible blocks' as steals and that is evidenced by the fact that Jordan's blocks were under credited. BOTTOM LINE: Jordan's blocks were UNDER credited and his steals were over credited, by a very similar number...that is the crucial point here. A Statistician intent on artificially inflating defensive stats simply would not UNDER credit one of those defensive stats. Logic dictates that those 15 'possible blocks' were considered steals by the Stat-keeper, either correctly or incorrectly. It's important to note that even if Jonny is correct and those 15 deflections are in fact blocks and not steals, Jordan's official steals count for those 10 games would indeed need to be reduced by 15, however, his official block count would then need to be INCREASED by 15. So no matter what way you slice it, whether those 15 deflections are placed in the steals column or in the blocks column, it wouldn't change Jordan's overall defensive stats in those 10 games because you would essentially be subtracting 15 from one defensive column and adding 15 to another defensive column! The fact is, when you combine the total number of blocks and steals that Jonny tracked, into one single figure, that figure almost perfectly matches the box score...ergo, no evidence of stat inflation. Ironically, all this digging into MJ's DPOY season has only further cemented how deserving he was of that award. Watching those 10 games alone, the first thing that jumps off the screen is the fact that he was absolutely everywhere on the court! Closing down passing lanes in the post and the perimeter, forcing turnovers, full court pressure, half court pressure, denying the ball, a 6ft 6 rim protector with a penchant for blocking 7ft centers, suffocating man-to-man defense, exceptional help defense...all whilst carrying the offensive load for the Bulls. The speed at which he moved around the court was simply mind-boggling! His explosiveness, jumping ability, hustle, quick GIANT hands, defensive IQ, fundamentals, timing and instincts, were all truly remarkable. Add to that his laser focus on disrupting the opponent's offense and his determination to never give up on a play and you have a DPOY winner. Jordan's relentless defensive pressure meant that his opponents always had to account for where he was on the court, which led to them frequently turning over the ball and forcing difficult shots. Jonny's video correctly highlights the fact that, as impressive as MJ's steals and blocks were, a lot of what he did defensively cannot be seen on a stat sheet. This is true for any All-Time Defender. In 1987/88, a panel of 124 sportswriters and broadcasters analysed the defensive efforts of each DPOY candidate, in each of their 82 games and concluded that Jordan was the best defender in the league. Reducing his official steal count by 15 and increasing his block count by 15 would not change that, it would have ZERO impact on the validity of his DPOY award. Period. One final thing worth noting...if you read back through Habertroh's article, not once does he mention the fact that Jordan's blocks were UNDER credited in the 6 games he claims to have analysed. NOT ONCE.

this is 2 steals one block and a rebound

Great video in a few of these clips it appears that the opposing player lost the handle on the ball and jordan stole it...Robert parish lost the ball it was not poked away from him by corzine

Johnny Arnett was too negative when examining these imo. I think he tried to be too "fair" here and forgot how tough it must have been to scorekeep in real time. I'm not saying they were not pushing their stars back then but I can see Jordan rewarded with a steal in real time on all of these. 🤷🏻‍♂️

MJ rockin the 17s

The first two “steals” you show are not steals. The first one is a turnover, not a steal. The ball went out of bounds. You can never get a steal if the ball goes out of bound. Second one MJ hit the ball, but it was regained by the opponent. The other dude got the steal, when he took the ball back and threw it to MJ.

This entire game is available on CZcams. czcams.com/video/RAmDezAwitQ/video.html It’s clear Jordan only earns 1 steal, yet is given 4. It’s so obvious to people who watch while bulls home games from that year that Jordan and the Bulls steals are wildly inflated

Glad you’re back!!!

MJ was at his peak athletically in "88." However, i still edge "89" MJ over this year's MJ. I would go into detail about it, but go see for yourselves

This is awesome. How many Bulls games of the 87-88 season do you have recorded? If the nba would only put these games out for a monthly subscription they’d make so much because these are rare pre-wgn days.

Great to see you back bro! Another game to dispel this crap that MJ didn’t earn his numbers.

Great upload

Need the Bulls game verses Denver the following year when Jordan scored 30 points in the 4th quarter.

Thank you brother for debunking the propaganda, the lies, & the MJ haters! Salute 🫡 ! You got a subscriber!! 💪

Gotta love how not only are the stats not inflated, the individual plays are incredibly athletic

Great work, subscribed! Do you have your own game footage? I heard that this clown used 6 games not readily found online for his sample. Apparently get got them from a random guy in Latvia who had them on vhs, 😂

Thanks for the vid...I was hoping someone would make some videos about this. What's interesting is the next year, MJ's highest steals game was on the road with 9 against the Celtics and his 2nd highest was at home against the Celtics. I guess the Celtics were cheating for him too then lol. The funny thing is Alvin Robertson, who was 2nd in steals in 1988, had more steals at home than away but I wonder if Haberstroh researched him too.

Thanks for all your hard work, we definitely know that this game wasn’t looked at and if it was they won’t acknowledge it smh.

Announcer: What a Shot by The Greatest Player of All Time probably THE ONLY PLAYER, BCOZ OF HIS GREATNESS IN BOTH OFFENSIVE and DEFENSIVE STANDPOINT WHO IS LOVED BY EVERYBODY TO THE POINT THAT THEY FORGOT THAT THEY SHOULD BE ROOTING AND CHEERING FOR THEIR OWN TEAM Ohio Fans even Love Jordan More than their own LeFlop Boastful James THE REAL and ONLY G.O.A.T ♥️🏀🐐🇵🇭

LeBUM shot a wide open 3 and missed haha 4-1 Nuggets

A classic playoff battle between the goat and penny? Penny never faced lebron. Lebron is the only goat. You praise a myth. You praise a player who was made by the nba. A player who played in a crackheaded era. Jordan isn’t no goat. Keep pathologically lying to yourself.

I hated when Jordan wore number 45 that was a full back number in football in college 😂😂

The way he holds that ball is amazing 1:42 We don't see that anymore where plenty of players hold the ball with ease in one hand-palming.

The goat Michael Jeffrey Jordan

You know, the Cavs knew even if the team was ahead and winning. The fans knew there is still time and MJ is there. They were standing already so they knew. ❤😂🎉

Michael Jordan, legend, facts ❤.

You can definitely tell the difference in his jump shot from this season to the next season…he doesn’t jump off of one leg as much during the following seasons

Fun Fact: During the two seasons MJ played for the Wizards he shot 82% on his patterned fadeaway Jumpshot. Best to ever do it Michael Jeffrey Jordan.

Nice play..perfectly executed

🐐

WHERE DO YOU GET THESE GAMES?

I miss the bulls and NBA on NBC and Marv Albert

This guy was unbelievable!!

You can tell he found his smarts, he just wasn't in physical shape...

He made Nick Anderson fall with the crossover and then dunked with the left hand, MJ was a different kinda animal 🐐

reading a bunch of comments in here. Jordans numbers was very good but the reason Jordan is the goat is how he closes games. Greatest closwr of all time. he was awful end of game 1 , and very bad end of of game 6 thats the series. that is the “ rust”. we never seen him blow a game like game 1 ever before or after.

🐐

🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐

I was at this game. It was awesome!!! GO MJ

The crazy thing is I was at this game as a kid

Dirk is 3-0 all time against MJ. 😎

Obviously that Phil's opinion, but Kobe to me, is the GOAT over Mike, I have over 200 plus reasons why I got Kobe over Jordan.

Buzzer beaters mj has made in Cleveland vs the cavs. 1989 the shot 1 game 5 eastern conference 1st round, 1993 the shot 2 game 4 eastern conference semifinals, and 2002 the shot 3 during the regular season. I agree with the wizards play by play broadcaster Jordan is a cavs killer.

goat

Its crazy to think how that replay guy always explained what really happened , he really draw line the screen jusf like he is using smart phone MacBook🤔

This game is one of the biggest reasons the Bulls wouldn't have won the 1995 NBA title even with MJ the whole year. They didn't have an inside presence, nor the right players to stop Zo and LJ.

40 year old MJ against 2 MVPs in their primes.

3:26 as a trading card collector, that dunk that is about to happen was the 1995-96 Upper Deck Collector's Edition #45.