When comparisons get made to Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan, current Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James — and the pair's "GOAT" debate, which has been fueled by passion for over a decade — immediately comes to mind.
But in the eyes of Daryl Morey, the Philadelphia 76ers' president of basketball operations, a different bearded NBA player is worth placing in the same company as Jordan. That player would be James Harden, who currently plies his trade with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Both players have very different résumés at first glance. Harden is an MVP and 11-time All-Star in his own right, but that pales in comparison to Jordan's six championships, five MVPs, six Finals MVPs and 14 All-Star Game appearances, among a slew of other accolades.
Morey believes Harden is 'number one in NBA history' when it comes to scoring
Those accolades mean little to Morey — for the purposes of this debate, at least. Morey said he has his own reasons for believing why, among all the players who have stepped foot on an NBA court, Harden is the best pure scorer in the league's history.
"Based on the math, based on, literally, you give James Harden the ball, and before you're giving up the ball, how many points do you generate, which is how you should measure offense, James Harden is by far number one in NBA history," Morey said, via BasketNews. "He was number one even at the Oklahoma City Thunder. It's just he was coming off the bench."
That includes players like Jordan, who Morey mentioned when he discussed what it took for the 76ers to land Harden in a trade from the Brooklyn Nets midway through the 2021-22 season.
"We put all our assets in to trade for him, but no one could anticipate he'd be the best player in the world. Why did you put all your assets? Why him? Both the eye test, [and] because he looks amazing," Morey said. "I don't know if anyone watched him, but if you looked at data at the time, once he had the ball in his hands, and it's still true to this day, and I get a lot of s— because someone asked me, who's a better scorer, him or Michael Jordan? And then it's just factual that James Harden is a better scorer than Michael Jordan.”
If the true determinant of who is the best scorer in NBA history is the number of total points scored, Harden has quite a ways to go before garnering that distinction. As things currently stand, James leads the way with a staggering 42,184 points (and counting), with Jordan four places behind in fifth with 32,292.
Harden, meanwhile, is just outside the top 10 in 11th, having scored 27,687 points in 1,151 career regular-season games.