‘Fraudulent!’ Fox Sports Analyst Pokes Holes in Michael Jordan’s Legacy After Bombshell Report of Stat Inflation During His Greatest Season

Fox Sports analyst Nick Wright called into question Michael Jordan’s legacy after a new report revealed stats during his greatest season were inflated.

On Thursday, Yahoo Sports published an investigative report examining Jordan’s 1987-88 season. It’s widely regarded as his greatest because he was the league’s leading scorer and named Defensive Player of the Year — the only time a player has ever done both in one season. The report shed light on a glaring discrepancy between his home and away averages when it came to blocks and steals.

During a home game against the New Jersey Nets, for example, Jordan was credited with a franchise-record 10 steals. In the NBA’s own YouTube video highlighting the achievement, only six steals were shown.

On Wright’s podcast, What’s Wright?, he called Jordan’s historic season “fraudulent.”

“Michael Jordan’s 1988 Defensive Player of the Year award? Fugazi! Fraudulent! Inflated stats!” Wright said. “How about this from [Tom Haberstroh] on Yahoo Sports… Michael Jordan recorded the largest home-road splits in Defensive Player of the Year history.

“So what does that mean? So, Michael Jordan that year that he was chasing the Defensive Player of the Year award, on the road, when there was seemingly a neutral scorekeeper, he averaged three steals and blockers per 36 minutes — ‘stocks.’ But at home, those numbers jumped to five-and-a-half! Now, was he just better at home than on the road? Is that common? I don’t know, it’s a difference of 182%.”

Also included in the report were multiple games in which Jordan was somehow credited with more steals than the opposing team had turnovers.

“Might put a little different hue on the old ‘GOAT’ conversation,” Wright said. “Everyone should read it. It just dropped… You know what I call this? Real journalism. What a legend Haberstroh is.”

Watch above via What’s Wright? with Nick Wright.