“Who’s Young Jordan Now??”: Rachel Nichols Raises Eyebrows with Insane Jalen Brunson Statistic

Despite the New York Knicks missing their four crucial players in Julius Randle, OG Anunoby, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Mitchell Robinson, Jalen Brunson has managed to almost singlehandedly keep his side’s hopes alive of clinching a Conference Finals berth. His performance has impressed a lot of NBA analysts and media personnel. Fox contributor Rachel Nichols recently highlighted an incredible stat to laud Brunson’s meteoric rise, even calling him a “young Jordan”.

For an eight-game span (from Game 4 of the first-round series vs the Sixers to Game 5 of the second-round series vs the Pacers), Jalen Brunson went on a scoring outburst and averaged a staggering 36 points per game. Additionally, the 27-year-old also recorded five 40-point outings in this window, making him the first player to accomplish such a feat since Michael Jordan.

Nichols underlined this incredible stat to portray Brunson’s dominance in the postseason. She shared a ClutchPoints post about the stat and wrote in the caption:

Who’s Young Jordan now??

(KIDDING)

Clearly, her comments half-jokingly took a dig at all those claiming that Anthony Edwards is the second coming of Michael Jordan. However, to avoid controversy, the UNDISPUTED contributor was smart enough to mention that she was “kidding”.

Despite clearing the air, Nichols simply doubled down on her initial take about Edwards not being the next MJ.

Rachel Nichols doesn’t believe the Anthony Edwards-Michael Jordan comparisons are accurate

The entire basketball world has been going gaga over Anthony Edwards’ showing in the postseason. A majority of his supporters, including the likes of Shaquille O’Neal and Kevin Garnett, are of the opinion that Ant-Man is this era’s Michael Jordan.

While the entire community is busy drawing comparisons and highlighting the uncanny resemblance between Edwards and Jordan, Nichols decided to go against this narrative. Merely a week ago, the 50-year-old explained how Anthony Edwards wouldn’t be able to assert his command over the league like MJ did in the 1980s and 1990s.

After lauding Edwards’ efforts in rallying the Minnesota side, she concluded that Ant would never be as successful as His Airness was.

“[The NBA] is a different, deeper league. When you look at the number of guys coming from other countries, winning MVPs… You are getting just a deeper pool of talent to compete with. It’s not the league where MJ won six, not the league where even Kobe won five. I don’t think anyone can have that career again,” Nichols said on Colin Cowherd’s show.

Being compared to the GOAT adds a large amount of pressure on a young player. The best that Anthony Edwards can do at this juncture is silence all the noise and continue to shine the way he’s done all season long.