Throughout history, one thing the NBA has never been short on is scorers.

From the old era of Wilt Chamberlain, progressing down to the likes of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic in this day and age. However, only a select few get labelled as “pure scorers,” players that can create their own shots, score with efficiency against elite defenses, and do not rely on system gimmicks or roster bailout.

Two players that belong in that category are Michael Jordan and Stephen Curry, players who brought mid-range and long-range dominance, respectively.

These are two distinct but equally effective scoring mechanisms that put the ball in the net, which is the most important thing in basketball. However, at the end of the day, the debate comes up on who is the better pure scorer, seeing how they both deploy different approaches and are the best in their approach. Just as no one did it better than Jordan when it comes to the midrange game, no one has come close to matching Curry’s dominance from beyond the arc.

However, peeling back the curtain on shooting splits, true shooting percentage, efficiency, and shot-scoring mechanics, one name comes out on top, and unfortunately for modern game enthusiasts, it is not Curry.

Why Michael Jordan Still Clears Stephen Curry as the Best Scorer

Curry’s career true shooting percentage of 62.6% is higher than Jordan’s 56.9%, and that should probably end the debate. However, peeling back a little further to efficiency, the Golden State Warriors point guard has 26.7 points per 75 possessions, which is 10th all-time, as to the Chicago Bulls icon’s 30.3, which is third.

With due respect to Curry’s brilliance, which forced the NBA into a new space-and-shoot era, Jordan will always remain the standard for other scorers, pure or not.

Jordan averaged 30.1 points per game over his career, which is still the highest in NBA history. He led the league in scoring for 10 seasons and scored 30 points eight times. Curry has had two seasons where he scored 30 points, which shows that more points don’t always mean more efficiency.

In 2020-21, the Warriors’ superstar had his best season ever, making 42.1% of the 801 threes he tried. His field goal percentage of 48.2% is now the same as Jordan’s during his best season, 1986–87. However, Jordan didn’t shoot threes, which are the most valuable shots in basketball.

It was just the way things were back then; no one thought much about shooting from beyond the arc until Curry came along. There were great shooters before him, but none could do it with the same speed and volume. There is again a case to be made that the 3-point shot is harder to make, but the defence in the past wasn’t as free-flowing, so players could easily get into the midrange. But Jordan figured out how to get past that defence and became one of the best scorers in the game.

He scored an average of 37.1 points in 1987, 35.0 points in 1988, 32.5 points in 1989, and 33.6 points in 1990. This was all before the Bulls became a championship team and had to deal with tough defence, like the Detroit Pistons using the “Jordan Rules” to stop him.

Jordan had to dial back his shooting to win championships, but he still hovered around the 30-point mark until late in his career. That kind of scoring dominance has never and will never be seen in the NBA, and the icing on the cake was that his scoring was efficient, as the Bulls won games and titles.

The Bulls legend dictated the rules of offense no matter the defensive scheme or players around him. And interestingly enough, he won a Defensive Player of the Year award in 1988, the same year he made the NBA All-Defensive First Team and led the league in steals.

He was busy at both ends but still scored with ruthless efficiency and volume. His scoring singlehandedly denied a lot of Hall of Famers championships, and no amount of 3-pointers can match that.

Curry’s biggest downside, however, is that he has had to play his game scoring from beyond the arc and inside the perimeter, as opposed to Jordan, who just focused the majority of his game on the midrange and became the best at that.

That makes him the better pure scorer of the two.