Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors are off to a phenomenal beginning of the year, putting their name up with some of the greatest teams in NBA history, and they have already broken the record for best start to a season. Most people credit this to starting point guard Stephen Curry, who is having a season people can only compare to the great Michael Jordan. Some followers of the game think that he even has a chance to break Kobe Bryant’s second all-time single game scoring record of 81 points, an absurd amount.  These things may all be true, and better yet there are stats to help predict and prove these events. In order to be able to decide who is better, we must compare some of Jordan’s best seasons’ stats to Curry’s. During Jordan’s best scoring season, 1986-87, he averaged 37.1 points per game. So far this year Curry is averaging 34.2 points per game. These scoring averages are not far apart, and that season for Jordan happened the year after he set the record for 63 points in a playoff game. Jordan was also only 24 years old at the time, as Stephen Curry is 27.

Putting common sports logic in predicting the career of such a young player, you would have expected Jordan to possibly be even greater than he was, but his scoring average never passed his third year mark. Though he did not score more than his third season, 1990-91 is considered by many as Jordan’s best season. This was the year that he won his first championship, produced a few of his signature highlights, and beat the Detroit Pistons in the playoffs who had terrorized his career up to that point. His stats were godly that year, as he averaged 31.5 points, 6 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game on 53.9 percent field goal shooting. Curry compares this year with 34.2 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game. These stats are extremely close. It is worth noting that Curry is three inches shorter than Jordan, but averaged nearly as many rebounds. Defensively, Jordan averaged 2.72 steals per game and 1.01 block per game compared to 2.6 steals and .2 blocks by Curry.  Senior Steven Homsher said, “Curry is doing some extraordinary things on the basketball court, but Jordan put up those numbers since he came in the league. There’s no one who has done what Stephen has since Michael Jordan, but he is no MJ.”

 Aside from all of those normal statistics used to compare two players, there is an advanced stat that greatly portrays the effectiveness of a player. This is called a Player Efficiency Rating, or PER, which takes all the statistics kept by the NBA and weighs the player’s production by minutes played per game and the number of team possessions per game. This is a confusing formula that takes all of the normal measurements of a player and puts it into one number. The player who has the highest PER over one season is Wilt Chamberlain, who averaged 50.8 points per game and scored 100 points in a game. However, amazingly as Chamberlain played, he finished with a 31.82 PER over the season, and Stephen Curry is beating that number by 1.87 PER points. That means Stephen Curry is having a greater effect on his team than a man who scored 100 points in a game. Sophomore Zane Mondschein said, “Stephen Curry is changing the game. I am a shorter player, and he is teaching us all how to dominate without the height or crazy strength.” Still, Chamberlain has the highest PER ever but is not considered as great as Michael Jordan because when he played, the competition was nothing compared to now. Wilt Chamberlain’s competition every night was comparable to Shaquille O’Neal backing down a 5’8” man. Jordan’s PER in the 1990-91 season was 31.63 compared to Curry’s 33.59, which means Stephen Curry is making more of an impact on his team than Michael Jordan. Curry cannot truly be compared to Jordan as the greatest of all time until he creates a legacy of his own, which will require him to win at least 4 more championships and have his PER above 31 for at least 3 more seasons. Michael Jordan is still the GOAT, but Curry is knocking at his door and is improving every season. Sorry Mike, but sooner than you think, you might have to step aside for 6’3” 190 pound kid.