NBA Nightmare? Star Defensive Player and His Team Under Fire After Allegations That His Stats Are Juiced
With the NFL season winding down, this is when the NBA season usually ramps up.
Between the All-Star Game and the trade deadline, there are plenty of headlines the NBA wants out there.
“LeBron James throws down SICK 360 windmill dunk” or “Your favorite player just got traded to your favorite team” are the kinds of headlines the NBA wants you to see this time of year.
“Is the Memphis Grizzlies scorekeeper juicing Jaren Jackson Jr.’s defensive numbers?” is decidedly not the kind of headline the NBA wants out there, and yet here it is.
For the unfamiliar, Jackson is a legitimately great defensive player for the Grizzlies. He is the perfect sidekick to rising superstar Ja Morant in just about every conceivable sense. The two just fit together.
On the year, Jackson is averaging 16.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, which is hardly noteworthy. But when you look at his steals and blocks? In those categories he is putting up elite numbers, averaging a steal per game (a statistic typically more associated with guards, not 6-foot-11 bigs) and a whopping 3.1 blocks per game.
For comparison, Hall of Fame big men like Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo all have career block averages below 3.1 per game. It’s genuinely impressive stuff.
But people began looking closer at those numbers after a viral Reddit post noted the wide discrepancy between Jackson’s home and road numbers.
Memphis Grizzlies’ scorekeeper is likely embellishing defensive stats for DPOY candidate Jaren Jackson Jr.
(via u/AdMassive6666 on Reddit) pic.twitter.com/KqqQGOQYuA
— Jon Asaad (@jaynbablog) January 28, 2023
This led people to the conclusion that the Grizzlies’ scorekeeper is being uber-generous with what is tallied as a steal and/or block.
NBA blogger Jon Asaad shared some more findings on Twitter.
On average, that’s 5.5 steals + blocks per game at home compared to a still impressive 2.81 on the road.
That’s a 96% boost in performance based on location alone. This disparity demands closer inspection & raises legitimate q’s as to what exactly could be happening here…
— Jon Asaad (@jaynbablog) January 28, 2023
While Asaad did irresponsibly speculate that the Grizzlies’ scorekeeper may have some “financial incentive” for Jackson to win Defensive Player of the Year, he also provided some striking visuals of these questionable calls in action.
I’ve gathered a few (of many) video examples of stats wrongly credited to JJJ:
1. Zion Williamson loses the ball on a drive to the basket and Tyus Jones recovers it. JJJ was credited for blocking Zion’s “layup”. https://t.co/mxXiOyDyo5 pic.twitter.com/0JBFi0hcHA
— Jon Asaad (@jaynbablog) January 28, 2023
4. Brandon Clarke blocks Saban Lee’s layup but JJJ is awarded with the block. https://t.co/QaKVEO57Jl pic.twitter.com/deRgnWE3N1
— Jon Asaad (@jaynbablog) January 28, 2023
A quick look at Asaad’s responses shows that many NBA fans do agree that something fishy is going on.
But while some on Twitter may be on Team Conspiracy, a couple notable NBA pundits fired back that, while there may very well be errors in official stat-tallying, it’s not the tin foil hat conspiracy you’re looking for.
Here’s The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor, who went to the tape and found only three incorrectly attributed blocks for Jackson at home, a number he calls “a completely insignificant amount.”
I watched every block by Jaren Jackson Jr. in slow motion from alternate angles to investigate the NBA Reddit thread claiming the Grizzlies scorekeeper is “posting fraudulent numbers.”
But only 3 of his 66 home blocks are incorrectly labeled, a completely insignificant amount. pic.twitter.com/84ZiE1rPVD
— Kevin O’Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) January 28, 2023
Here’s NBA stats guru Kirk Goldsberry claiming that of the 66 blocks Jackson has tallied in Memphis this year, “at least 60” are clearly blocks and properly attributed.
1. Thread: THE JJJ FILES
I just watched all of JJJ’s 66 blocks in Memphis this year.
Here are my findings
1. JJJ might be the top rim protector on earth.
2. Of the 66 blocks, at least 60 are clearly blocked by JJJ
3. 3 to 5 are questionable
4. 2 are kinda sus (here they are) pic.twitter.com/3n5rYp6Zgz— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) January 28, 2023
This is hardly the first time that scorekeeping in the NBA has been put under a microscope.
As The Salt Lake Tribune noted, Utah Jazz legend John Stockton has long grappled with accusations that his insane assist totals were aided by Utah scorekeepers. Stockton tallied 15,806 assists in his career, a commanding record that will not be broken anytime soon.
Current Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd is No. 2 on the NBA’s career assists leaderboard, and there’s a gaping chasm between him and Stockton. Kidd had 12,091 assists for his career, nearly 4,000 fewer than Stockton. In fact, Kidd is closer to 12th place than first on the all-time assists list.
But while Stockton has long since retired, Jackson is an active player and, barring injury, should play for another decade or so. His reputation would be in tatters if fans thought his impressive stats were artificially inflated.
So the NBA ran some quick damage control on Saturday.
Tim Frank, senior vice president of league operations, said in a statement that independent auditors “review all plays and stats decisions in real-time during NBA games.”
“All of the plays questioned in the post on Memphis games were scored consistently within the rules set forth by the NBA statisticians manual,” he said.
Whether you buy this explanation or not, you can bet that watchful fans will be keeping an eye on the Grizzlies (who have the second-best record in the Western Conference, despite losing five games in a row) when they host the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.
If Jackson notches five steals and 10 blocks, get ready for another avalanche of controversy.
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