{"id":94043,"date":"2024-09-02T23:12:32","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T03:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=94043"},"modified":"2024-09-02T23:12:32","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T03:12:32","slug":"nba-paul-george-calls-out-disrespectful-anthony-edwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/02\/nba-paul-george-calls-out-disrespectful-anthony-edwards\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA All-Star Calls Out \u2018Disrespectful\u2019 Anthony Edwards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Minnesota Timberwolves wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/edwaran01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Edwards<\/a> has gotten himself in hot water. Last week, the two-time All-Star was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal\u2019s Lane Florsheim. While the primary topic was Edwards\u2019s Olympic experience, 2020 No. 1 pick was at one point asked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/sports\/basketball\/anthony-edwards-nba-olympics-2024-basketball-cb0d8124?mod=sports_lead_pos1\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to compare different generations of players<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI didn&#8217;t watch it back in the day so I can&#8217;t speak on it. They say it was tougher back then than it is now, but I don&#8217;t think anybody had skill back then. [Michael Jordan] was the only one that really had skill, you know what I mean? So that&#8217;s why when they saw Kobe [Bryant], they were like, &#8216;Oh, my God.&#8217; But now everybody has skill.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As expected, those comments didn\u2019t go over smoothly. Philadelphia 76ers star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul George<\/a> summed it up best, saying \u201cit was kind of disrespectful to the game,\u201d on the latest airing of <em>Podcast P with Paul George<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paul George Sr. on His Son&#039;s Clippers Departure, Epic 76ers Meeting &amp; Raising PG to NBA Stardom\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W8KHDDYWbow?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought it was a very immature comment,\u201d the 34-year-old continues. \u201cObviously, Anthony Edwards is super talented and is a huge talent going forward. But, just how much the game has grown and how far \u2013 you gotta pay dues to those dudes that did it before us.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Paul George Calls Out \u2018Disrespectful\u2019 Anthony Edwards<\/h2>\n<p>As Edwards says himself, he didn\u2019t watch \u201c back in the day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, while he can\u2019t help when he was born, there are plenty of throwback games that are viewable. He doesn\u2019t seem to know that. Yet, from his comments, he was knowingly speaking from a place of ignorance.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps he didn\u2019t believe his comments would be taken so seriously. After all, Edwards built something akin to a class clown image in the NBA. Most times, his charisma and humor are endearing qualities. Nonetheless, the 23-year-old is approaching his fifth year in the league. As a result, there are times when more maturity is expected.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the rising star is a face of the new generation. It\u2019s Edwards\u2019s responsibility to carry the torch, all while showing respect to those that came before him. This doesn\u2019t mean he has to have encyclopedic knowledge of basketball history. He just has to pay homage.<\/p>\n<p>In this case, all he had to say was he didn\u2019t watch enough to know for sure, but he believed Jordan was the most skilled player. That would\u2019ve sufficed, because even if controversial, it wasn\u2019t disrespectful. It wasn\u2019t dismissive.<\/p>\n<h3>There Were Plenty Of Players With Skill<\/h3>\n<p>The biggest issue with Edwards\u2019s comments might\u2019ve been that they were off base.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thomais01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isiah Thomas<\/a>, a 12-time NBA All-Star and two-time NBA champion, certainly was skilled. Indeed, he was so skilled that Jordan was bested by his Detroit Pistons on several occasions. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/birdla01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Larry Bird<\/a>, a three-time NBA MVP and three-time NBA champion, was a do-it-all player. Players like Bird, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pippesc01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scottie Pippen<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/barklch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Charles Barkley<\/a> were among the first point-forwards in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Isiah Thomas Eliminates Michael Jordan, Again (Game 7 - 1990)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RX3QCp4hnyw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If Edwards was looking for the prototypical modern-day wings, 10-time All-Star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/drexlcl01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clyde Drexler<\/a> is someone to study. If he was trying to determine who the best ball-handlers were, not only Thomas, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/abdulma02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hardati01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tim Hardaway<\/a> should\u2019ve been on his list. Prior to his injury, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hardaan01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Penny Hardaway<\/a> was sensational.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Clyde Drexler Puts Up 50 Pts In a Thriller vs Kings | Career HiGH\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qnrsIFsnz_4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The list <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/28\/bleacher-report-ranks-the-10-most-skilled-nba-players-of-the-90s\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">goes on and on<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully, the backlash Edwards has gotten will make him want to educate himself. He\u2019s been universally beloved up to this point. Now, it\u2019s not just George or fans, but NBA legends like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnsma02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Magic Johnson<\/a> (arguably the most skilled passer of all-time) <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/26\/magic-johnson-claps-back-at-anthony-edwards-over-recent-comments\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">taking shots at him<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minnesota Timberwolves wing Anthony Edwards has gotten himself in hot water. Last week, the two-time All-Star was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal\u2019s Lane Florsheim. While the primary topic was Edwards\u2019s Olympic experience, 2020 No. 1 pick was at one point asked to compare different generations of players: \u201cI didn&#8217;t watch it back in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":94073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1608,62,3,13,36],"tags":[2109,607,50],"class_list":["post-94043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-timberwolves","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","category-76ers","category-podcasts","tag-anthony-edwards","tag-michael-jordan","tag-paul-george"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}