When speaking about the current NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics, things got a bit heated on the set of ESPN’s Get Up.
Mike Greenberg, Stephen A. Smith, and JJ Redick were talking about the lack of toughness in the current NBA class.
Greenberg and Smith were taking issue with the amount of complaining they see among players and essentially compared the modern NBA to the past, suggesting that today’s players whine and moan too much and that refs are fouling athletes too often.
JJ Redick defends current generation of NBA players.
“This nostalgia that you have for the 80s and 90s, great era of basketball, it’s awesome. But it’s at the expense of our generation of players, and it has been for the last 15 years.”
(via: @GetUpESPN) pic.twitter.com/0wjj1Q1yeA
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) June 8, 2022
Redick wasn’t having any of it.
In a testy exchange, the former player said that it was disrespectful to always compare the NBA of the present to that of the past.
He also noted that some of the best players in the history of the league, such as Michael Jordan and Larry Bird, also complained to refs often.
It got so intense that Redick and Smith jokingly threatened to beat each other up, causing Greenberg to play the role of the ref and break things up.
Does Redick have a point?
Nostalgia At Work
Redick said that Greenberg, Smith, and others who complain about today’s league are looking back at the 80s and 90s with nostalgia
It’s hard to argue against that.
People look back fondly at the era of Jordan and Johnson, seemingly forgetting that many of the things that annoy fans about today’s game existed back then too.
Refs called too many fouls thirty years ago and players complained too much.
It’s just part of the game and it always has been.
Redick was doing the right thing by standing up for the players currently in the league and push back against this common talking point.
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