Anthony Edwards pushed some buttons when he said Michael Jordan was the only skilled guy of the older generation. What made that comment even more puzzling is that the Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star admitted he didn't watch any games back then.
Reacting to the sticky situation, former NBA veteran Eddie Johnson had some choice words for Edwards and an interesting proposal to end what he called "ignorance."
"History plays an important part of everything," Johnson said on PHNX Sports' Outside Shots with Eddie Johnson. "It just blows me away that when I hear these young guys say stuff, and Anthony Edwards, what comes out of his mouth… He thinks he is the new Charles Barkley. I think he is a good quote master; he's funny. But I think he's going overboard, and now his jokes and comments start to sound corny."
The former NBA Sixth Man of the Year said he doesn't hold it against Ant-Man but blamed the "adults" who tried to erase the game's history. Nevertheless, the 17-year vet felt Edwards shouldn't have spoken on things he admittedly doesn't know about.
"If you haven't seen much ball from the day, how can you comment, man?" quipped Johnson.
EJ wanted to educate young NBA players
Johnson wasn't just a solid veteran and the old-school version of a shooter; he was also heavily involved in the NBA Players Association. Back then, EJ already found it highly important for young players to know how to play basketball and be educated about the game's history.
"I said for years when I was in the Players' Association of the NBA when I went to NBA meetings, when I worked at the rookie orientation. I have said that there should be a class where these young players have to take on the history of the game," Johnson recalled. "Because they don't know the game. They know how to play the game, but they don't know the history. It's an embarrassment, and they got to get better with it."
JJ Redick's name has been mentioned, thanks to his similarly controversial "firemen and plumbers" take . Nevertheless, Johnson unmistakably got his point across.
Johnson explained his view
NBA players naturally love and defend their eras, but there is also a need to be unbiased. The game's objective has not changed — put the ball through the hoop to score — but the way players do it now compared to before are apples to oranges.
That said, Johnson believes that the inside-out game, the main theme of old-school basketball, requires more skills than today's open-court style.
"Back in the day, the three-point line wasn't a weapon. Everything was done inside the three," EJ continued. "So it made the court tougher to move around because you have 10 bodies in there fighting. So, what did they do? We have a skill to be able to get open. We used up and outs, V-cuts, we used our teammates to get open. We knew how to face up and triple-threat, instead of stepping back like these young guys do. How many times do we see them step back and out of bounds?"
"We didn't catch the ball outside the three. Two dribbles back in our day with handchecking, you couldn't get to the rim. So, you had to get as close as you can, and that's getting open with different cuts to get open, holding your man off. Once you caught it, triple threat. Now, one dribble can get you to the rim. That's a skill!" argued Johnson. "They don't play that way in today's game. They shoot from way out-- that's their skill. And then, they got all the dribbling, concluded Johnson.
Oldheads Unite
It wasn't only Johnson who had issues with Ant-man's comments. Two-time NBA champion and Hall-of-Famer Isiah Thomas likewise did not take Edwards' dig lightly.
"Propaganda works so be careful who you believe," Thomas said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Edwards might need a history lesson, and Eddie seems like a willing teacher. Throw in Zeke, and that's a masterclass. It's safe to say that this issue is far from over.
Related: Stephen A. Smith asks for understanding of Ant-Man's criticism of the Jordan era: "Forgive the young buck for what he does not know"
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