NBA Analyst Challenges Idea That Michael Jordan Could Have Excelled at 3-Point Shooting “If He Wanted To”

When analysts and players look back at the game of Michael Jordan, what they see is bona fide greatness. His Airness proved he was a mastermind in almost every facet of the game. An elite scorer, an aggressive defender, an assassin from the mid-range, and a monster in the post. Yet there is one aspect of his game that does not get talked about often: his range from beyond the arc.

Basketball in the 1990s was less about the three point shot and more about physicality and winning in the paint. Jordan did take a fair number of threes during his career, but no one would call it the highlight of his skill set, including Jordan himself.

Still, a narrative has persisted that Jordan could have become a deadly three point shooter if he had wanted to, and simply chose not to. That idea was addressed by analyst Nick Wright on the latest edition of his What’s Wright show, where he pulled back the curtain on just how inconsistent Jordan was as a three point shooter.

“People pretend that the one weakness in Michael’s game, 3-point shooting, was a weakness by choice. Like well if he wanted to be good he’d be good as if he was Shaq and never shot,” began Wright, who brought up the stats to accurately drive his point home.

“There was a brief stretch of time where Jordan was a good 3-point shooter because of that he shot a lot of them in that era. That period was when they moved the line in. As soon as they moved the line back out, he went from 37% shooting 4 a game which was a lot for the mid-90s, to 23% shooting 1.5 a game.”

To be honest, even if Wright’s point is accurate, this feels like one of those conversations that exists mostly for the sake of debate. Does anyone really care that Jordan was not a great three point shooter? It hardly changes how anyone views his legacy.

Flip the conversation and ask whether Stephen Curry can put someone on a poster with a tomahawk dunk. Would that make anyone think differently about the Chef? Not even slightly.

Unfortunately, Wright wasn’t done their either. “After 3 years of retirement, seeing that guys are shooting more and more 3s and my athleticism isn’t what it once was, he (MJ) came back and was a nice crisp 19% 3PT shooter. He might be the greatest player of all time. There is a strong argument for that. But the idea he just ‘chose’ too be bad at something, rather than it was the one thing he wasn’t great at.”

What this really comes down to is two things. First, the difference in eras. Today’s players need to be able to shoot the three because they will get torched by teams like the Celtics, where seemingly everyone can knock it down from beyond the arc. Acknowledging how much the game has changed is just as important as remembering its roots.

Second, there is the sheer volume of coverage and content. Wright is hardly the only sports analyst with a weekly show who needs something to talk about. Today it is why Michael Jordan, the GOAT, was a poor three point shooter. Tomorrow it might be how Tom Brady was terrible at running the ball. Jordan is not losing any sleep over it, and neither is TB12.