Kevin Garnett YELLS @Anthony Edwards After Michael Jordan Era ‘SKILL’ ‘U Couldn’t play 20 Yrs Ago!’ | HO
Minnesota Timberwolves great Kevin Garnett has chimed in on the explosive conversation around Anthony Edwards. The star T’Wolves guard who led them to a Western Conference finals said the Michael Jordan was the only skilled player in his era. He also stated he didn’t actually watch the games from that era.
We are currently in the doldrums of the NBA offseason. Thus, every questionable take spewed on podcasts and interviews tends to be magnified. Last week, it was Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards who got the ball rolling with a take that drew the ire of Magic Johnson; Edwards said that no player who played in the 1990s had “skill” other than Michael Jordan. It’s a change of pace from the usual old head viewpoint where they believe that the stars of today’s game cannot survive in their bygone era — which Kevin Garnett is convinced of.
Garnett, in response to the current Timberwolves star’s take, clapped back and said that the style of play that Edwards and the rest of the league’s stars are accustomed to these days won’t work back in his day.
“If I’m being honest, bro, I don’t think anybody in this generation could have played like 20 years ago,” Garnett said in the most recent episode of Ticket & The Truth. “Twenty years ago, bro, you couldn’t get to a triple step back. You hear what I’m saying to you? You couldn’t get to a triple step back. And then if you shot that s**t, it had to go in. You know why? Because we had efficiency, back in the day, my dude, and it was so f**king hard.”
Kevin Garnett then proceeded to parrot yet another common viewpoint among retired NBA players. The Timberwolves legend said that the game was simply too physical back in the day that the stars of today would fold.
“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 why we like to sit here and watch kind of the rat race of the high-paced game right now,” Garnett added.
At this rate, it’s looking like bridging the gap between how the new generation and the old heads think is an impossible task. Kevin Garnett is a big fan of Anthony Edwards, which he has made clear plenty of times, and yet he still discredits how the current Timberwolves star’s skill would translate back in the day.
At the end of the day, it’s hard to agree with either Anthony Edwards or Kevin Garnett. Edwards has a lot of things to say, and everything that comes out of his mouth has conviction, but he did overcorrect when he said that no one who played in the olden days other than Michael Jordan had skill. The game evolved quite a lot since its inception in 1891, and those legends of the game paved the way, skill-wise, for those who are carrying the torch of the sport. That in itself deserves respect, and Edwards’ statement crossed the line.
Magic Johnson, in particular, felt irked by Edwards’ statement. Johnson said that he’s not listening to the opinion of someone who hasn’t won a championship at any level, which is a harsh, but perhaps justified, response to the Timberwolves star’s misinformed take.
But this is not to say that Kevin Garnett is right either. Edwards’ athleticism would make him a marvel had he played in the mid-2000s, and it’s not like he’s a one-trick pony who could only hoist up jumpshots. He could get to the rim too and finish strong once there, and he has the physical tools to survive what Garnett believes is a physical era.
Then again, this is peak offseason drama. With nothing much going on around the league, every bit of drama tends to be magnified, which is the case here.
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