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Why Michael Jordan’s controversial 1988 Defensive Player of the Year Award is suddenly being questioned

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For The Win (usatoday.com) 

In the NBA’s never-ending “GOAT” debate, Michael Jordan holds one eternal trump card over his fellow offensively-oriented peers — he has a Defensive Player of the Year Award to his name.

But in a new report from Yahoo Sports’ Tom Haberstroh, the validity of Jordan’s 1988 defensive honors is questioned. It’s a bit sticky and is a good reminder that Jordan was so special that people would even talk about a random achievement of his over a quarter-century-old.

Why is one of Jordan’s more impressive honors being debated?

According to Alex Rucker, a one-time NBA scorekeeper, Jordan’s off-the-charts steals and blocks numbers that effectively won him that year’s DPOY had a massive home-to-road disparity. That means scorekeepers when Jordan played at home were seemingly a bit more generous with their definition of highlight statistics, especially during that fateful 1987-1988 NBA season.

This tracks with data analysis that inspired Haberstroh’s report:

As Rucker once learned, this is apparently a common practice when it comes to marketing some of the league’s bigger names. In the end, it was seemingly more about selling mythology and entertainment than the competition on the court.

More from Haberstroh and Yahoo Sports:

“I [Rucker] left there [an NBA scorekeeper training session] clearly understanding that, yes, we are supposed to present the most accurate representation that we can, but the NBA is also an entertainment business,” Rucker told me. “And it’s up to us, in a very small part as statisticians, to support or reinforce stars and excitement and fun. And that message was definitely reinforced internally within the Grizzlies …”

“… Rucker explained that, from his experience, subjective stats — primarily blocks, steals and assists, and sometimes rebounds — were a way to give star treatment. If a player tried to block a shot and the ball fell short, maybe give him the benefit of the doubt on a 50-50 play — block. If a pass was deflected by one defender and recovered by another, choose wisely as to which defender to award the steal. Assists were a thing of beauty, left to the eye of the beholder. To Rucker, it was an unspoken part of the NBA’s marketing machine, a way to get on “SportsCenter” in front of a national audience and grab attention.”

Well, if true, that’s not really surprising, now is it?

In an era without improved access to technology, of course scorekeepers would skew more toward helping sell the legend of the NBA. It’s not ethical and probably shouldn’t be repeated these days, but it’s not this major transgression. Let’s be serious, everyone. When we remember that this also happened in the late 1980s NBA, it’s likely better that folks were more preoccupied with selling the clear face of the league during a much-needed time of growth.

Making a younger Jordan seem more dominant was in the best interest of the league’s long-term health during that era. It just was.

It’s also hard to question the validity of Jordan’s DPOY award for something where most modern stars probably still benefit from home cooking, just to a lesser extent. If you don’t think guys like LeBron James and Nikola Jokic occasionally get the benefit of the doubt on 50-50 assists or rebounds, I have a bridge to sell you. They might not be absurdly inflated, but there is almost certainly an interest in making them seem exceptional at all costs whenever possible.

Jordan earned his 1988 Defensive Player of the Year Award. I know that mostly because we had to revisit this discussion 26 years later.

NBA fans chimed in accordingly on the Jordan DPOY debate