In a segment on “Gil’s Arena,” former Wizards point guard Gilbert Arenas dropped a bombshell on his opinion of 3x MVP Nikola Jokic and Warriors star Stephen Curry. According to Arenas, neither the Joker nor Curry should be considered a generational talent like LeBron James and Victor Wembanyama.
“Steph [Curry] is not a generational talent,” said Arenas. “Generational means you can’t mimic it. Can you mimic Magic Johnson, a 6’9″ point guard with the vision? You can’t mimic f*cking LeBron James. It’s based on physical traits. You can’t mimic Victor Wembanyama… [Nikola] Jokic is not a generational talent.”
Arenas, a 3x NBA All-Star, defines a generational talent as a player whose game cannot be easily replicated. In the case of Stephen Curry and Nikola Jokic, Arenas argues that their general mastery of the game is more common and easier to obtain compared to the freakish size and skills of Magic Johnson or Victor Wembanyama.
As a 25-point-per-game scorer with the Wizards, Arenas certainly had some special abilities in the league but he couldn’t call himself a generational player by his own standards. He didn’t even give that title to Spurs legend Tim Duncan.
“Like Tim Duncan was Mr. Fundamental because his fundamentals took him over the top,” said Arenas. “He was a good basketball player, freak of nature.”
The segment eventually devolved into a debate with his co-hosts and the YouTube chat (he was Live at the time). Despite getting some major pushback on his argument, Arenas doubled down on his opinion.
“Steph, he’s a hard worker. That’s the difference between him and like a Michael Jordan,” said Arenas. “They’re generational, they’re engines itself. Kobe was not a generational talent, he was hard-working. Generational is you got God’s gift, that’s why it’s once in a generation.”
In truth, while Arenas may be on to something by differentiating between natural skill and mastery through hard work I don’t agree with the premise that players with less “impressive” physical advantages can’t be considered generational talents. In fact, both attributes are usually required for players to reach the highest level. On social media, many fans shared a similar sentiment and many were much more aggressive in shooting down Gilbert’s take.
https://twitter.com/Antiissb/status/1796673366671171630
To say that Nikola Jokic, in particular, is not a generational talent is especially egregious considering Nobody has seen anything like him since the NBA began. The 6’11” Serbian can do everything offensively and his combination of efficient scoring and elite playmaking make him close to unstoppable when he’s running the show.
The same argument could be made for Stephen Curry. The Warriors star and 4x champion may not be as tall, fast, or strong as others at the point guard position but nobody can do what he does with the ball, and his back-to-back MVP campaigns in 2015 and 2016 are proof of the kind of impact he had. The 36-year-old inspired countless athletes across the world with his three-point shooting and his championship runs single-handedly altered the legacy of the Golden State Warriors.
With all due respect to Gilbert Arenas, he might want to re-think his take on this. If Curry and Jokic don’t count as generational players, then who can qualify? These guys have fundamentally changed the game and their stories will be told when anyone looks back on this period in NBA history. Their careers are as rare as it gets in the league and we might never see it replicated again.
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