Sacramento Kings forward DeMar DeRozan spoke for himself as well as Philadelphia 76ers star Paul George when he claimed they would not under any circumstances talk down on older generations of NBA players like Anthony Edwards did.
“My take is, listen — Ant is one of my favorite players to watch, by far,” DeRozan said when asked to give his take on Edwards’ comments. “But even something like that — we never would have made no statement like that. You see what I’m sayin’? Because regardless, at the end of the day, I respect every OG who ever played this game. This game was built on the foundation of taking steps of wherever it came from. And I never discredit wherever the league was at 20 years ago, because it’s all about elevatin’, and granted, I only read the headlines of what he said. I don’t know what context further he went into to further explain it. But if you look at it back then, it was — those guys still was incredible.”
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal that was published less than a month ago, Edwards suggested that NBA players who played when Michael Jordan was in the league weren’t skilled like they are today.
“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.”
Edwards has received pushback from a number of folks for his above comments. George — who was a child when Jordan won his last of six NBA titles in 1998 — labeled the comments as “disrespectful” along with “immature.”
“I thought it was kind of disrespectful to the game,” George said. “I thought it was a very immature comment. Obviously, Anthony Edwards is super talented and is a huge talent going forward. But, just how much the game has grown and how far – you gotta pay dues to those dudes that did it before us.”
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith also took exception to what Edwards had to say about previous generations of the NBA.
“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’ remarks came just a couple of months after he enjoyed the most successful season of his NBA career from both individual and collective perspectives. First off, from a personal standpoint, Edwards averaged career-highs in points (25.9) and assists (5.1) per game during the 2023-24 regular season while also finishing seventh in the league’s MVP voting. In addition, he converted a career-high 46.1 percent of his shots from the floor on 19.7 field-goal attempts per game.
Edwards also helped the Timberwolves have one of their better seasons in franchise history. Minnesota finished the regular season with a record of 56-26, which was only one game back of the best in the Western Conference. The Timberwolves then parlayed their auspicious 82-game campaign into a deep playoff run to boot.
In the 2024 NBA Playoffs, Minnesota secured a berth in the Western Conference Finals for the first time since the year 2004. At that time, Kevin Garnett was leading the way for the Timberwolves. The Timberwolves did lose to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks in convincing fashion, however, seeing as Minnesota was eliminated in a gentleman’s sweep.
NBA fans shouldn’t be surprised if even more folks in league circles voice their disagreement with what Edwards had to say about the talent level in past generations of the league.
