Just days after Kevin Durant surpassed Michael Jordan in all-time scoring chart, the Bulls legend’s place in NBA lore came into question. A new list of ‘pure scorers’ was created, and Stephen Curry took the #1 honors. That’s why the former Lakers champion came to the defense of His Airness with a staunch response.

“No way,” Ron Artest aka Metta World Peace, tweeted.”Jordan is the best scorer. Please stop. He averaged 28points rookie year. Rookie year. @Jumpman23 all day. Yall need to stop. 6 rings. 6 finals mvp’s. 9 Scoring titles. 9 scoring titles. 9. 9 scoring titles. That’s 9. Do you understand. 9 scoring titles. This will be the one accolade that will never reached. It’s the number one accolade outside of mvp. MJ. Please stop mentioning MJ. It’s not even the same conversation.”

The list that the former Lakers champion was talking about was Bleacher Report’s Top 15 pure scorers of all time. Last year, BR did a top 100 players list, and they ranked Kobe Bryant at 11 and Stephen Curry at 10, which caused a backlash from the netizens. This time, in a new list, they have ranked Curry higher than Michael Jordan.

For these rankings of pure scorers, they have used different advanced analytical metrics. Points per 75 Possessions (PTS/75), Relative True Shooting Percentage (rTS%), and Free-Throw-Attempt Rate (FTAr). While describing MJ at #3, the report began with “Michael Jordan might take this personally.” Although the Bulls legend never gets involved in any such debates, his fans do. Being known as a lockdown defender, Artest had his fair share of battles with Curry.

Judging by Artest’s reaction, he was disappointed with BR.

They acknowledged MJ’s averages over 30 in eight different seasons and his 10 scoring titles. Yet, according to their metrics, “Jordan’s production was often more about force than purity.”

His Pts/75 of 30.3 was higher than Curry’s 26.7. But the other two metrics skewed in the Warriors superstar’s favor. MJ is 29th in the group in relative true shooting percentage. BR gave the nod to players who put up numbers without tons of free throws. Michael Jordan had 35.8 in comparison to Curry’s FTAr of 24.2.

In their argument, they added, “Curry has put together his seemingly impossible combination of scoring volume and efficiency with a huge diet of contested, way-too-deep-for-anyone-else or on-the-move threes, a handful of mid-range shots and far-better-than-you-realize finishing around the rim.”

Just like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant once again gets pushed further back

For the same reason that halted MJ’s race to the top, BR put Kobe down to 10th. In fact, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the OKC Thunder, who has 13,161 points, was at the No.6 spot. Actor O’Shea Jackson Jr. was tired of such a narrative of disrespecting the Lakers legend. “N****s haaaaaaaate Kobe,” Ice Cube’s son tweeted.

BR stated that instead of using pure for Kobe Bryant, they would use “relentless” or “calculated” as descriptors for the 5x NBA champion. However, there was a consistency issue while stating this. Because some of the players ranked higher than Kobe had more attempts from the charity strip lane. #5 Joel Embiid FTAr: 54.7 (94th), #6 Shai FTAr: 41.8 (79th) and #8 Luka’s FTAr of 40.4 (71st) where higher than Kobe’s FTAr of 38.2

So the metric that was used to push Michael Jordan below Stephen Curry was not considered while ranking Mamba. That’s why the list from Bleacher Report is not sitting right with the majority of the fans.

Former Bulls star and Lakers legend comes to Michael Jordan’s rescue as a new list crowned Stephen Curry as number one.