A Necessary Breakdown of Michael Jordan’s Questionable DPOY Award
I was on a train to the lovely town of Madona, Latvia when my phone blew up with notifications. And I instantly knew why. Tom must have released the Michael Jordan piece…
For better of for worse, my natural reaction to such events is letting it all pass by (though, I was curious enough to at least read some of the comments, mostly full of LeBron James vs. MJ debates and/or haterade). Thus I didn’t exactly rush to swear by the importance of publishing any footage, let alone writing anything on this comatose blog.
If you have no earthly clue what I’m talking about, I suggest reading Tom’s full piece over at Yahoo. Not only does it cover our (mostly his!) findings regarding home-cooked Michael Jordan defensive stats in the 1987-88 season, but it also provides context as to why it matters. Sentences like the following one are staggering, and still take me aback months later.
Breaking out his numbers into game location, we find that Jordan averaged a mind-boggling 4 steals and 2.1 blocks at home. But on the road, those numbers shrunk to a more normal rate of 2.1 steals and 1.2 blocks.
Yet said context is probably the best answer to the often-asked question of “Why are you guys doing this nearly 40 years after the fact?”. I don’t expect any medals or pats on the back for the amateur-like work on projects like The Handle Podcast or the LamarMatic YouTube channel, however, at the very least I feel like I am not vain when saying that I’ve showed how much I care for basketball history. So, no, this isn’t me not appreciating MJ’s era, having too much time on my hands or, even worse, fulfilling some twisted agenda.
Just like it has been previously, it’s been an attempt to further explore basketball history and, perhaps, even produce some worthwhile content, which – to some extent – shapes the way we look at the league’s history. Only this time around the subject matter was such that certain people took it as if these were negative efforts on purpose.
What’s notable is that I feel like a lot of us knew something was fishy. If we’re talking about me personally, it took somebody as creative and talented as Tom to lead the way and put together a story far above it being a one-off anecdote. After all, one such anecdote regarding Nick Van Exel is exactly how we connected and how this brilliant piece of podcasting was made.
What happened next was us piecing together the MJ story. Tape by tape, stat by stat. The shaky career-high of Shaquille O’Neal or absurd, supposed NBA record by the Toronto Raptors (shout out to Keon Clark!) suddenly started to make more sense. On the hand, I had detected such instances and knew very well about the shaky score-keeping standards of yesteryear. On the other hand, I hadn’t opened my third eye and understood that these instances signify something much more than random, home-cooked games.
To borrow a word from the article, it’s quite disillusioning.
Plenty of readers were quick to request the tapes. Tapes acquired from unofficial collectors, which, obviously, one couldn’t just publish on a legitimate media outlet.
I can be honest about one particular thought I had in my mind. I have had the luck of my YouTube channel staying up through the years. “Would it get shut down, if I put them up there” said the paranoiac voice in my head. I have always appreciated the NBA looking the other way, if they even care about this. If it even matters, my approach has been posting highlight reels on a lot of underappreciated players and never firing up any full game recordings, since that supposedly triggers blocked videos on YouTube.
We discussed it and didn’t reach a particularly good solution.
At least until the Basketball Illuminati crew got back together. Ah, what does it matter… We fired up a video to accompany that podcast.
Opponent turnover compilations #1 and #2 are up on my Twitter page. Scroll down some and the brilliant Justin Jacobs did his own independent work, which supports our numbers. Does anyone even care anymore? Not sure. Let those videos stay there for the history of it. Perhaps, I’ll share all of them.
Same applies for this blog post, which could have been much more thoughtful. Honestly, I have already forgotten half the things that have already been said on record. Tom was kind enough to have me on his Tom the Finder podcast, which must have been a nice break from him having guests that actually matter and are known to the listeners. Same applies to him having me tell some of my life story.
I’ll close out by thanking all those who still visit this place (we’re at 129,042 views!), either by happenstance, accidentally or actual appreciation. Some day – when my daily life again allows it – I expect to fire up The Handle again and/or post some more videos.
Until then, I’ll leave you with a thematically relevant fact on the late Dikembe Mutombo. Remember how Jordan’s 1987-88 season is the biggest home/road outlier among all DPOY’s? Well, how about Dikembe’s numbers in his Defensive Player of the Year campaigns.
1994-95 DPOY season: 163 home blocks (41 games), 158 road blocks (41 games);
1996-97 DPOY season: 130 home blocks (39 games), 134 road blocks (41 games);
1997-98 DPOY season: 140 home blocks (41 games), 137 road blocks (41 games);
2000-01 DPOY season: 101 home blocks (37 games), 102 road blocks (38 games)
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