Ja Morant on playing against Michael Jordan: “I would have cooked him”

Ja Morant posted career-high numbers in the 2021-22 NBA season, and now the young guard thinks he would have defeated Michael Jordan during his prime one-on-one. Instead of comparing LeBron James to the Bulls legend, let’s talk about Morant defeating the GOAT. Wait, what? While speaking to Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks this week on the topic of playing against Jordan, the 22-year-old said, “I would have cooked him.”

Morant’s heart might be in the right place, but some comments are better left kept behind closed doors. During the 1990s, Jordan won six NBA championships, six Finals MVPs and five MVP awards with the Bulls. In addition to winning six rings, M.J. was selected All-NBA First Team a total of 10 times in his playing career, and the guard was a 10-time scoring champion.

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Will Michael Jordan take these comments personally?

Not to mention, Ja Morant went on to state, “I hear he was like — just how he go about the game — just that mindset that he had, I would like to play against him. I would have cooked him, too. Nobody got more confidence than 12. I’m definitely not going to go and say somebody is going to beat me one-on-one on any day.”

Although Morant didn’t go into detail explaining how he would defeat Michael Jordan one-on-one, he said he trusts his own abilities enough to come away with the W. In other words, fans have to use their own imagination. Though, one cannot help but imagine that Jordan is sick of all the comparisons and trash talk by now.

"I would've cooked him too" 😂@JaMorant is confident he would've beat Michael Jordan in his era pic.twitter.com/TEKJtcgqJC

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 10, 2022

Based on height, Jordan has him beat by three inches. His speed and determination even led to him winning two slam dunk contests (1987, 1988) and leading the league in steals three times (1988, 1990, 1993). It would be tough to say for absolute certainty on which player would win one-on-one. No one has a time machine.

However, Jordan’s résumé speaks for itself. Not only is he the best NBA player of all time, but he is also the greatest basketball player ever. As a player, he was the ambassador of the sport. Also, there was a time when fans thought Kobe Bryant would surpass Jordan’s accomplishments at one point of his playing career.

During The Last Dance documentary, viewers quickly learned that Jordan would take every negative comment he ever received and use it to his advantage on the court. This of course led to funny “And I Took That Personally” memes on social media.

Ja Morant recorded career-high numbers in the 2021-22 NBA season

Last season, Morant averaged 27.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game in a total of 57 games played. Plus, he shot 49.3% from the floor and 34.4% from downtown. On Feb. 26, in the Grizzlies’ 116-110 win versus the Bulls, the All-Star scored a then career-high 46 points.

Two days later, in the team’s 118-105 win against the Spurs, the guard scored a career-high 52 points. He went on to win NBA Most Improved Player of the Year.

During the second round of the 2022 NBA Playoffs, Morant scored playoff career-high 47 points in the Grizzlies’ 106-101 win over the Warriors. The guard became only the third player — alongside Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant — in NBA playoffs history to have multiple 45-point games before turning 23 years old.

Perhaps this explains why Morant has a lot of confidence. While positivity is a good thing, at the same time, the guard needs to learn his limits. Everyone can start comparing Morant to Jordan after he wins multiple MVPs and championships. Other articles pertaining to Ja Morant are on the main page.