Source: London Entertainment / Getty
Fresh off of winning his first gold medal at the
2024 Paris Olympics, Anthony Edwards was asked by the
Wall Street Journal’s Lane Florsheim about the difference in generational talent. He let his competitive nature get the best of him, praising Michael Jordan’s greatness and absolutely no one else.
“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? So that’s why when they saw Kobe [Bryant], they were like, ‘Oh, my God.’ But now everybody has skill.”
Magic Johnson, one of the greatest players of all time, heard Edwards disparaging his generation and told
Stephen A. Smith how he felt about the comments.
SEE: 15 Throwback NBA Ballers That Could Cook Anthony Edwards
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“I never respond to a guy who’s never won a championship,” Johnson said. “I’ve got nothing to say. He didn’t win a college championship, I don’t even know if he won a high school championship.”
Magic’s right; besides winning a gold medal, Edwards won a AAA state championship in 2018, but hasn’t won much else. However, he’s one of the flashiest and most promising young players in the NBA, even averaging 24.6 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 7.8 assists in the five-game series he eventually lost to the Dallas Mavericks.
But you’ve got to remember that no matter how many YouTube highlights Edwards could look up to see the immense amount of talent the NBA had in the 90s, he was still born in 2001, after Michael Jordan’s two three-peats and amid the era ruled by Kobe Bryant.
See how social media is reacting to Ant’s remarks below.
