Kevin Garnett responded to Anthony Edwards recently saying that no player outside Michael Jordan from over 20 years ago had any skill. These comments have already irked legends such as Isiah Thomas and Magic Johnson, with a more modern legend like Kevin Garnett also taking issues with it. Garnett fired back by saying no modern player would be able to make an NBA roster 20 years ago.
“If I’m being honest bro, I don’t think anybody in this generation could have played 20 years ago, if I’m being 100. This is to Ant, this is to Tatum, let me tell y’all something, 20 years ago you couldn’t get to a triple stepback. If you shot that sh*t, it had to go on because we had efficiency back in the day, my dude. It was so f***ing hard, it was too physical.”
“The league had to come off of it for the floor movement to be able to have scoring go up… But let’s not talk about the gamesmanship and the physicality of the game back then because I don’t think half these kids would have been in an NBA locker room 20 years ago, the locker rooms were too grown.”
KG responded to Ant Edwards saying him & the younger gen NBA couldn’t handle the 90s and earlier pic.twitter.com/JxCuGXEDca
— Vévo (@vevosuave) August 26, 2024
The comments Garnett’s response was aimed at came from Anthony Edwards at the Fanatics Fest last week.
“I didn’t watch it back in the day, so I can’t speak on it. They say it was tougher back then than it is now, but I don’t think anybody had skill back then. Michael Jordan was the only one who really had skill, you know what I mean? So that’s why when they saw Kobe, they were like, ‘Oh, my God.’ But now everybody has skill.”
We’ve heard the ‘physicality in the old days vs. the skill in the current era’ argument a million times by now, these are two of the most basic talking points in any generational debate. These are both true, as rule changes in 2004 altered the game from one decided by physicality to one decided by skill, especially on the perimeter.
Newer players have had a generation of training to settle into the current way of playing, so we see remnants of the old-school players ebb further away. The only active NBA player to have played in the hand-checking era was LeBron James, but those rule changes were made at the end of his rookie season.
Stars of any generation would likely find a way to be a star in some other generation as well, that’s the nature of ultra-competitive and talented individuals. All players ultimately adapt to their surroundings, and the modern group of players are comfortable with knowing their skill level is at an all-time high, and so are their contracts.
The older players can relish playing in a more challenging era due to the stifling rules the league had in place, but they need to stop side-eyeing the current generation in the same way current players need to stop dismissing the older generation.
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