Lakers Legend Fires Back After Steph Curry Ranked Above Michael Jordan

The debate never goes away. Every ranking, every metric, every list that touches Michael Jordan sends the basketball world into a familiar spiral. This week, a new Bleacher Report ranking of the top 15 pure scorers of all time put Stephen Curry at number one and Jordan at number three.

The reaction was swift. Former Lakers champion Metta Sandiford-Artest, formerly known as Ron Artest and Metta World Peace, did not hold back.

Lakers’ Artest Fires Back at the List

Artest took to social media and made his position clear in no uncertain terms.

“No way,” he wrote. “Jordan is the best scorer. Please stop. He averaged 28 points rookie year. Rookie year. All day. Y’all need to stop. 6 rings. 6 Finals MVPs. 9 scoring titles. 9 scoring titles. That’s 9. Do you understand. 9 scoring titles. This will be the one accolade that will never be reached. It’s the number one accolade outside of MVP. MJ. Please stop mentioning MJ. It’s not even the same conversation.”

The passion was unmistakable. Artest spent his career as one of the most tenacious defenders in the league, winning a championship with the Lakers in 2010, and clearly has a strong view on where both players sit in the conversation.

What the List Actually Says

Bleacher Report built their rankings around three advanced metrics. Points per 75 possessions, relative true shooting percentage, and free throw attempt rate. The methodology was designed to reward players who scored efficiently without relying heavily on free throws, which is where the rankings diverged from conventional wisdom.

Jordan’s points per 75 possessions of 30.3 actually outpaced Curry’s 26.7. But his free throw attempt rate of 35.8 worked against him in this particular framework, compared to Curry’s 24.2. Jordan ranked 29th in the group in relative true shooting percentage.

Bleacher Report acknowledged Jordan’s dominance directly, noting his averages of over 30 points in eight different seasons and his ten scoring titles. Their conclusion, however, was that “Jordan’s production was often more about force than purity.” For Curry, they argued his combination of scoring volume and efficiency, built on a diet of contested deep threes, movement shooting, and underrated rim finishing, represented the purest form of scoring the game has seen.

It is a legitimate argument. Curry has redefined what scoring looks like at the highest level. His efficiency from distances that simply did not exist as viable options for previous generations makes direct comparisons genuinely complicated.

The Case for Both Sides

Artest’s argument is not wrong either. Jordan won ten scoring titles. He averaged 30.1 points per game for his career. He did it against physical, hand-checking defences in an era where officials allowed far more contact. His scoring came with defensive resistance that the modern game does not replicate in the same way.

But Curry’s case is equally compelling. He is the greatest shooter the game has ever seen, operating at a level of difficulty that no metric fully captures. He changed where defences had to stand, altered how teams were built, and produced scoring numbers of exceptional efficiency across nearly two decades.

Final Word for the Warriors

Curry did not ask to be ranked above Jordan. The list will not settle the debate, and Artest’s reaction suggests it will not go unchallenged.

What it does do is reflect how seriously Curry’s place in scoring history is being taken. A player who changed the game so fundamentally that the metrics themselves had to evolve to account for him.

Jordan is Jordan. But what Curry has done to the game of basketball is unlike anything that came before him. The debate will rage on, but the fact that it exists at all says everything about where he stands in history.

Keith Watkins Keith Watkins is a sports journalist covering the NBA for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Golden State Warriors, Boston Celtics, and Los Angeles Lakers. He previously wrote for FanSided, NBA Analysis Network, and Last Word On Sports. Keith is based in Bangkok, Thailand. More about Keith Watkins