In his prime, Shawn Marion was an absolute force to be reckoned with. Now at 40 years of age, Marion has been retired from the league for three years. Nonetheless, he is adamant that it would have been a walk in the park for him had he been playing in his prime in today's NBA, according to Vivek Jacob of Sportsnet.

“Oh my god, it would be a cake walk,” Marion said. “Right now, ain’t nobody really playing defence, it’s really third on the list. Everybody wanna shoot and score. That’s all everybody cares about now.”

This statement would sound arrogant had it come from just anybody, but this is The Matrix we are talking about here. This is the player who averaged 18.4 points on 48.1 percent shooting, 10.0 rebounds, 1.9 steals, and 1.4 blocks during his time with head coach Mike D'Antoni, back-to-back MVP winner Steve Nash, and the rest of the run-and-gun Phoenix Suns.

Moreover, he was a four-time All-Star and was selected to the All-NBA team twice in his 16-year career. In 2011, he was a crucial piece of the Dallas Mavericks squad that defeated LeBron James and the Miami Heat to win the NBA title.

Marion also does make a good point about how defense has become more of a second priority these days. He claims that this was not the case during his time, which he believes makes his accomplishments even more impressive.

The 6-foot-7 forward also thinks that this is the very reason why there is a lack of competitive balance between teams in the NBA.

“That’s why there’s so much disparity between the top teams and the lower teams, the disparity is clear as night and day,” added Marion. “You got three or four teams in the Eastern Conference that are really good now but the others all bunched up together.”

Marion is definitely on to something here, and his sentiments are echoed by a lot of critics who believe that the Association needs to address the disparity in competition between the two conferences.