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Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards recently gave his take on the older generations of NBA players, specifically those who played against Michael Jordan, and it’s not anything that anyone will get mad at. Nope, no outrage brewing here. Nothing too spicy that will get older fans frustrated at the player seen far and wide as the next Jordan.
Edwards talked to Lane Florsheim of the Wall Street Journal about his experience in the Olympics, being a father and his everyday routine, among other things. The Timberwolves All-Star didn’t hold back when discussing previous generations of NBA players.
Here’s what Edwards said when asked about the differences between this era of basketball and older ones: “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 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.”
Anthony Edwards' take on Michael Jordan era of NBA
Edwards does try to soften the blow of his opinion by saying he wasn’t around to watch it — he was born just before Jordan's playing stint with the Washington Wizards — but this take has indeed caused an uproar in the basketball-watching world. Maybe that’s a good thing, though. It’s very important and healthy to get bent out of shape over trivial stuff like this.
OBVIOUSLY, Jordan was not the only player in his day with skill. There was a much more open embrace of brute-force physicality back in those days — unless you were the Detroit Pistons — which is often regarded as non-skilled hoops. But the likes of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon and many more all possessed scoring and/or playmaking chops that should absolutely be seen as “skilled” basketball.
Bryant was certainly skilled but he was not the only high-scoring perimeter player to inspire awe. Maybe Ant was just picking the one who went on to become the most famous but Allen Iverson, Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill and many more that came around before or during Bryant's career also seem to fit into this criteria.
When the question was asked, Anthony Edwards could have diffused it or stopped after saying he didn’t watch. But as he always is, the Timberwolves star was honest and direct.
