The NBA’s warring generations are throwing stones again. But does Anthony Edwards have a point about the skill of the league in Jordan’s day? Or should the latest young provocateur quit before he attracts the ire of too many more retirees? It isn’t so much that the current generation’s house is made of glass. It’s actually pretty sturdy. It’s just that the old guys built it for them.
Does Edwards Have A Point About the Skill in Jordan’s NBA?
The First Stone
Edwards, the young Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star and 2024 All-NBA selection, recently claimed that:
Anthony Edwards says that Michael Jordan was the only player with real skill back in the day
“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… pic.twitter.com/fZ5GkqbxnZ
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) August 20, 2024
And decorated expert of “back then” Magic Johnson, who rarely engages with these kinds of interactions, responded… or rather… specifically declined to… by saying:
“I never really respond to a guy who’s never won a championship… He didn’t win a college championship, I don’t even know if he won a high school championship.”
Magic pulled the G14 classified card on Edwards. Maybe it’s just that it doesn’t feel like a constant refrain from him, but it sounded notably less petty than when Shaquille O’Neal constantly does it to Charles Barkley on Inside the NBA. It’s largely for the simple reason that it sounded somewhat sincere. The entertainment dynamic is that Shaq flaunts his rings when Chuck’s quick wit and relentless enthusiasm have run him around in too many circles. You have to imagine that Magic had plenty more he could have said to Edwards if he’d felt like it. It’s more believable that he just genuinely didn’t feel the need to lower himself to arguing with someone he doesn’t see as a proven winner yet.
Magic’s argument could be quite simply this: Magic Johnson was a whole heck of a lot more skilled at basketball than Anthony Edwards will ever be.
The Merits of Edwards’ Jordan and Skill Claim
Edwards wouldn’t really have said anything controversial if he just hadn’t named one single player. “Besides a few guys”, “other than the top dogs”, “not including the greats”. Any of those would have made his statement entirely reasonable. Only excluding specifically Jordan just makes it look like he suddenly remembered all those comparisons everyone had been making.
But there is a kinder interpretation of Edwards’ perspective. The fact is that Jordan is an outlier. Everybody knows that. That’s why he and LeBron James are the only two players anybody ever makes a serious Greatest Of All Time case for anymore. But Jordan wasn’t just possibly the greatest. He was the most influential.
After Jordan, everybody wanted to look like Jordan until Kobe Bryant did such a good job looking like Jordan that everybody wanted to look like Kobe. Crucially, that isn’t just every star player in the NBA. That’s every kid growing up messing around with a basketball at the park or in their driveway. Those stylistic instincts don’t just go away when the venue changes to a high school gym or a college arena. Coaches might try to remind the role players to play like role players, to stop pounding the ball and hunting for turn-around fade-aways with a hand in their face. Sometimes they might even have some success. But those hours of practicing those types of shots won’t have happened just because a coach convinces them not to try it in an actual game.
With the current reputation of AAU basketball in particular, you’d think that even the coaches aren’t really bothering with any of that. Watch a Summer League or a G League game too. What you’ll see is six to ten players all auditioning to be the next Jordan or Kobe.
What About The Big Leagues?
Even in the actual NBA, you see a dilution of the same phenomenon. Edwards even has to play against big men with skills inspired by Jordan nowadays. Of course, superstar center Joel Embiid is really more like a jumbo Kevin Durant, but since Durant is like a jumbo Kobe… it all traces back to his Airness. Another interesting avenue to Jordan from Durant, incidentally, is that KD’s favorite player growing up was Vince Carter. Meanwhile, Carter memorably gave up his 2003 All-Star start to a 40-year-old Jordan on the Washington Wizards.
When Edwards looks back at the NBA of old and sees a bunch of players who don’t know yet to try to look like Jordan, it makes sense that it would look strange to him. It would look slow, ponderous, and a little drab. It would look… unskilled. Frankly, it probably looks the same to a lot of us. Even those of us who don’t have the same appreciation for just how long it takes to practice those extra flashy crossovers or the proper footwork to move into a pull-up going left. The average NBA player today is objectively more individually skilled than the average NBA player in the 80s. However, the average NBA player today is not Larry Bird. Or, for that matter, Magic himself, very likely the most skilled passer of all time.
Edwards’ Skills Take Is Nothing New To Jordan
The constant back-and-forth discourse over different eras of the NBA has become a mainstay of the media cycle. A lot of it gets absorbed into a Jordan versus LeBron debate. Ironically enough, even this seeming praise of Jordan could be seen as a means of diminishing him compared with LeBron.
According to Edwards, after all, LeBron has to play against more skilled competition. But those players are more skilled precisely because of the generations that came before them. And not just Jordan either, Hakeem Olajuwon, Scottie Pippen, Isiah Thomas, Bird, Magic, and Barkley all of those players contributed something to future generations with their skill sets. Furthermore, they came by those skill sets without the benefit of getting to watch Jordan do any of it first. Or, for that matter, themselves. For a league with so much emphasis on height, the phrase “standing on the shoulders of giants” doesn’t get used nearly enough.
The Last Word
Edwards isn’t known for being especially careful with his words. And Magic, goaded on by sensational sensationalist Stephen A. Smith, was probably being at least a little tongue-in-cheek. Magic will still probably fantasize about Edwards somehow winding up on his beloved Los Angeles Lakers. The battle between the eras will rage on, however. It’s just a case of waiting to see who throws the next stone.
