I was going to bring up Wilt. Do you happen to have a link to the story of how was still playing pickup basketball with NBA players and holding his own against prime robert parish. I remember the sixers tried to get him out of retirement to be their missing piece for a championship, I think the year before they signed Moses.
As for Jordan, if the story is real, how much does it matter if he's out of shape right now. The article said in 2 years. I'm sure he would be in better shape by then. Don't forget that he had the same issue when he came back with the wizards and would have timed getting back into shape for the season perfectly had Artest not cracked his rib. As it was, he played quite well the first season until his knee injury - something likely caused by having to rush training after the injury. At the all star break there was MVP talk, then he had surgery. Before the surgery, he had consecutive games of 32, 32, 16, 21, 44, 30 points. In the 16 point game he had 12 rebounds. Then had another consecutive game stretch of 29, 30, 40, 41, 32, 26, 28, 23, 23, 25, 22 points. 11 straight games of 22+ points scoring including back to back 40 point games. The first game on that stretch he had 14 rebounds. Another time he had back to back games of 51 and 45 points. The 44 point game he had 10 rebounds and 7 assists. He also hit several game winning shots that year.
THe following year, he started the season still recovering from the surgery and had the team around him quit on him. Yet immediately after he turned 40, he went on a stretch of 20/6, 43/10, 30/9, 25/6, 35/11, 17/8/8 points - the second numbers are rebounds. He closed his career with consecutive games of 24, 25, 26, 23, 19, 17, 22, 25, 26, 21, 25, 17 points. During that stretch he had a stretch of rebounding totals of 14, 13, 10, 10. He wasn't the best player in the game anymore, but 40 year old Jordan would start on most teams today. On the few he wouldn't start with, he'd be their 6th man.
Now can 50 year old Jordan play in the league? Who knows, but with his basketball IQ, I'd have to think there would be worse players in the league. I'd take him today over a guy like Jamario Moon.
