Fresh off of winning his first Olympic gold medal this summer and his first two playoff series this spring, two-time Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star shooting guard Anthony Edwards has helped keep the NBA world on its toes deep into the offseason.
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The 23-year-old made an absolutely bananas statement in a recent interview about the relative skill level of the NBA generations that preceded him.
During a conversation with The Wall Street Journal’s Lane Florsheim, Edwards simultaneously dissed all players who were not a certain Chicago Bulls Hall of Fame shooting guard and revealed why he was hardly qualified to have much of an opinion on that era’s performers at all.
“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?”
By conceding he hadn’t watched Jordan and Scottie Pippen’s elite competition — Hall of Famers like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Isiah Thomas, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Charles Barkley — Edwards essentially undermined the potential validity of his entire argument.
On their very entertaining podcast “Ticket & The Truth,” Hall of Fame former title-winning Boston Celtics teammates Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce weighed in on Edwards’ thesis. Garnett, of course, had spent 13-and-a-half of his 21 pro seasons on Edwards’ Timberwolves, leading Minnesota to the Western Conference Finals in 2004, 20 years before Edwards did the same. He was traded to the Celtics in 2007.
“I think that was directed more toward the Jordan era,” Pierce, a 10-time All-Star, said of the comment. “Because when I hear that, and I really start thinking of it, I’m like, ‘Nah that’s not true, because you had multiple players who had hella skills.’ …I will say this: the skill level has gotten better with this generation, but I don’t think overall it makes you a better player.”
Garnett, a 15-time All-Star and the 2004 MVP with Minnesota, weighed in next. And he was a bit more disparaging of the modern crop of NBA talent.
“If I’m being honest bro, I don’t think anybody in this generation could’ve played 20 years ago. And I’m being 100 [percent honest]. And this is to Ant, this is to everybody in our league — Tatum, all y’all,” Garnett said. “20 years ago, you couldn’t get to a triple-stepback… We had efficiency back in the day, my dude, and it was so f—ing hard, it was too physical. And guess what? The league had to come off of it, for the flow of movement, to be able to have scoring go up, which is what we like to sit here and watch.”
“I don’t think half these kids in the league could’ve been on an NBA team 20 years ago. The locker was too grown, it was too much of a fraternity, you understand?” Garnett added. “It was a different vibration. David Stern did a great job of taking all of the physicality out of the game.”
Anthony Edwards of the United States (R) in action with Isaia Cordinier of France during the Men’s Basketball Gold medal game between France and the United States of America on day fifteen of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 10, 2024 in Paris, France. Edwards had some strange comments about past legends.
Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images
Garnett and Pierce are hardly the first players from yesteryear to take umbrage with Edwards’ claims. 12-time Los Angeles Lakers All-Star point guard Magic Johnson also bristled at the notion that anyone not named Michael Jordan playing in the 1980s and 1990s was somehow unskilled.
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Both these players straddled the pre- and post-pace-and-space eras, having logged significant time prior to the NBA‘s revised hand-checking rules, which to Garnett’s point opened up the floor and put a premium on scoring over hard-nosed defense.
Edwards, as a wing built like a football player with an explosive first step, no doubt would have thrived in the 1990s. Although one wonders if he would have developed the 3-point shot he currently has in his bag.
Last season, for the 56-26 Timberwolves, Edwards averaged 25.9 points on a .461/.357/.836 slash line, 5.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.5 blocks, while playing in 79 regular season games. He finished seventh in MVP voting and eighth in Clutch Player of the Year voting while being named to his second All-Star team and his first All-NBA team.
