The battle between the older generations and newer generations about which era was tougher has become a constant backdrop in NBA discourse.
Players from previous eras feel the game is too soft now, while modern players claim that the skill level is much higher than it ever was. Jason Williams recently added to this with a controversial claim about the legendary Oscar Robertson.
“I’m taking all current players,” Williams said on All The Smoke while building his ultimate black-top team. “All these older players were great, but to me, the game’s evolved. It’s hard to compare these players too, they were all great in their way, but like, Oscar Robertson’s one of the greatest ever, correct? He can’t play today. That’s what I’m saying.”
(starts at 42:43 minutes)
This is a wild thing for Jason Williams to say. While some arguments can be made to show that modern players play at a higher skill level than past legends did, the greatest would be the greatest in any era. And it’s especially wild to say that about Oscar Robertson, who could do everything on the court.
Williams isn’t the only NBA personality to suggest this, JJ Redick famously got into it with the likes of Jerry West when he said something similar about Bob Cousy. And Robertson’s numbers from back in the day prove Williams wrong as well.
Oscar Robertson Had The Tools To Be Successful In Any Era
Oscar Robertson is a former NBA champion with the Milwaukee Bucks, and during his career, he was also named MVP and made 12 All-Star teams. The Big O was the first player to average a triple-double for the season, in 1961-62, he averaged 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 11.4 assists per game. Those are mind-boggling numbers and it’s the type of play that gets Nikola Jokic his plaudits in the modern NBA.
He was also exceptionally athletic and shot efficiently. For his career, Robertson had a field-goal percentage of 48.5% which is better than a lot of modern stars too. He was also shooting 83.8% from the free-throw line, a solid number. And this is without counting that he would also have all the advantages that modern stars do in terms of training and medical assistance. Of all the players to level this accusation at, Jason Williams chose horribly when he mentioned Oscar Robertson.
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