Anthony Edwards is one of the most earnest characters in sports today. Where most stars are media trained and polished to give nice answers that rarely have much depth, Edwards has maintained his personality even as he’s rocketed into superstardom in the NBA.
That comes with bumps in the road, but Edwards’ blunt honesty when answering questions makes him a delightful quote and one of the most engaging personalities in the NBA. A recent Q&A with the Wall Street Journal illustrated that fact, as he very matter-of-factly answered a wide array of rapid fire questions about his offseason, the Olympics, and his life off the court.
At one point, he was asked about how the game today differs from past generations, and decided to take a shot at former players who love to talk about how much tougher the game was by saying players didn’t used to have skill.
How do you think your generation of basketball is different from older generations?
I didn’t watch it back in the day so I can’t speak on it. 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.
There’s some truth in the last sentence, as the league certainly has more skilled players top to bottom than in the past — that’s just how sports work, as generations build on the foundation paid by the past. However, the “I don’t think anybody had skill back then” part unsurprisingly caused a stir, with fans listing off players for Edwards to watch to see how skilled they were. Usually we don’t get current players ripping on the past, as it’s typically going the other way around, so perhaps Ant was just taking an opportunity to give them a little taste of their own medicine.
It is objectively funny to start the answer with “I didn’t watch so I can’t speak on it” and then immediately fire off a heater about how no one other than MJ had skill. If nothing else, Ant has given the First Takes of the world some mid-August content to yell about.