The G.O.A.T. Player Appreciation Post

During these quarantine times, I think most of us have been tuning in for the Michael Jordan documentary, The Last Dance. As episodes 7 and 8 aired last night, I had to make a tribute for basketball and Showdown's respective GOATs. Enjoy!

Michael Jordan: The undisputed GOAT of basketball, MJ famously spent a season in Double A in the midst of his 6 NBA titles. It did not go well...... and this card is (seriously) much better than his .202 average and .289 OBP entitled him too. I came up with this card by reading 1994 baseball scouting reports on Jordan, which absolutely panned his power and were skeptical about his ability to hit for average. However, thanks to his work ethic, I saw him getting a decent enough average and enough discipline at the plate to get an OBP over .300 (for the OB 6) in his best baseball timeline. The biggest thing here is the elite speed and the very good defense (which was suspect starting out, but I have no doubt MJ would've figured out the OF and used his strong arm, by all accounts, to be a +2 defender). Thus, MJ projected to a very useful 4th outfielder or, in Showdown, a solid #9 hitter to save salary and give you speed at the end of the lineup that couples with above-average defense at any OF position.

Barry Bonds: I re-made Bonds' 2001 card and created his 2002 card last night. This time, I didn't restrict myself to forcing Bonds into an OB 11 card and this is the most accurate version I've created. His expected OBP against the average pitcher (C3, BB at 17, 1B at 18) is .515, his expected batting average is .323, and the HR rate is 11.25%..... In 2001, Bonds had a .515 OBP, ..328 average, and a HR rate of 10.99%, so I feel like this card is officially *chef's kiss*

Meanwhile, this 2002 card is an absolute stud and necessitated an OB 13 with his ridiculous .582 OBP. This card's projected OBP? .575! Projected average is .350 vs his IRL average of .370, and HR rate is 7.5% vs IRL rate of 7.516%. So again, should perform really on point.... but you're going to be spending so many points for a guy who mostly gets walked. Stay tuned for newly done 2003 and 2004 cards too, but this is a good start for Showdown's GOAT.

I hope you've enjoyed these GOATs! Do you have a higher ceiling for MJ? What would your chart for Jordan look like, and why? I know I personally would love to see him in NBA Showdown form (hint hink Matt ;))

Since Peter asked and hinted so nicely:

(For those curious about this, I remade the NBA Showdown game in a breakdown from power and speed to straight offense vs defense, and gave guys a fatigue to make benches necessary. Offense and Defense maximum is 20. For anyone interested in more NBA Showdown cards I have made the 2019 playoff teams after the league got shut down. I also made as you can see the 92-93 Bulls and Suns. So if my new version of NBA showdown is something you would like to see more of I would be glad to post them on here along with the rules for my new version of the game!!!)