Anthony Edwards has seen his name in headlines recently thanks to some comments he made in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Specifically, Edwards downplayed the level of talent in previous eras of the NBA and claimed that players didn’t really have skill with the exception of former Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith — who has covered the NBA for quite some time now — voiced his disagreement with Edwards’ comments on Wednesday.
.@stephenasmith had this to say about Anthony Edwards' comments regarding past generations in the NBA 👀 pic.twitter.com/NHQSaqTtcM
— First Take (@FirstTake) August 21, 2024
“Of course they’re out of bounds,” Smith said regarding Edwards’ comments. “Forgive the young buck for what he does not know. He openly admits his youth comes into play, and he’s barely seen the older competition from back in the day. So, he just doesn’t know. Evidently, he talked about Michael Jordan.
“He didn’t see Charles Barkley play. He didn’t see Larry Bird play. He didn’t see Isiah Thomas, one of the most skilled point guards this game has ever seen, a person that Michael Jordan has called the second-greatest point guard in the history of basketball behind one Earvin Magic Johnson himself, who Ant Edwards did not mention. So you take those things into consideration — don’t get me started with Larry Bird, I already threw that up in there.”
Edwards said the following to the Wall Street Journal in an interview published earlier in the week.
“I didn’t watch it back in the day so I can’t speak on it,” Edwards said. “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 that really had skill, you know what I mean? So that’s why when they saw Kobe [Bryant], they were like, ‘Oh, my God.’ But now everybody has skill.”
Most of the previous NBA stars who Smith mentioned — Barkley, Bird, Thomas and Johnson — had already retired from the league by the time Edwards was born back in August of 2001 in the city of Atlanta. But Jordan played for the Washington Wizards in the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons before he decided to call it quits on his storied career.
As Smith implied, there are several players who competed during Jordan’s generation who are widely perceived as some of the greatest players in NBA history. Bird and Johnson stand out as a few people who have the resumes necessary to be in the conversation for two of the best players ever to play the sport.
Starting with Bird, he led the Boston Celtics to three titles in the 1980s thanks to his scoring, rebounding and passing chops. He made 12 All-Star games during his 13 seasons in the pros and is also one of only nine players in the history of the league to have three-plus MVP awards to his name, as he won three straight in 1984, 1985 and 1986.
As for Johnson, the floor general won five titles during his time as a member of the storied Los Angeles Lakers franchise and possessed a unique ability to pass the ball. He led the NBA in assists on four occasions and dished out a career-high 13.1 dimes per contest across 67 games with Los Angeles during the 1983-84 regular season.
