'Don't make no sense': Kevin Garnett sounds off on Anthony Edwards' claim

Edwards says players in the Michael Jordan era didn't have any skill.

February 20, 2022; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; NBA great Kevin Garnett is honored for being selected to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team during halftime in the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports / Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Anthony Edwards has upset an entire generation of basketball stars.

The 23-year-old Timberwolves star ruffled feathers when he said Michael Jordan was the only player with skill during his heyday from 1984 to 1996. Magic Johnson already ripped Edwards in response, saying he doesn't recognize comments from players who haven't won a championship. Now the greatest player in Timberwolves history, Kevin Garnett, is chiming in — and doing so with respect.

"You gotta know what you're talking about to be in the argument or be in the discussion of what we're talking about," Garnett said on All The Smoke. "I root for you, young fella, but know what you're talking about, young fella, because [what] you said don't make no sense."

That's how Garnett respectfully ended his rant. It began with the Hall of Famer saying most players in the modern game couldn't handle playing in the NBA 20-25 years ago.

"If I'm being honest, bro, I don't think anybody in this generation could've played 20 years ago. This is to Ant, this is to everybody in our league," he said. "Let me tell y'all something, bro. Twenty years ago you couldn't get to a triple step-back, and then if you shot that (expletive) it had to go in. You know why? We had efficiency back in the day, my dude. It was so (expletive) hard, it was too physical. 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 sit here and watch the rat race of the high-paced game."

Garnett said basketball in the '90s and early 2000s had a "different vibration" and would've been too physical for the modern NBA athlete.

"They ain't never seen a 6'7'' [Dennis Rodman] guard you," Garnett said. "You might get your nose broke trying to dunk. You understand? Dwyane Wade broke Kobe's nose in the All-Star Game."

"When you hear Michael Jordan and some of the greats talk about the different eras of play, the 80s was from the 70s, the 70s was different from the 60s, the 60s was different from the 50s. But in all of it, it had gamesmanship, it had aggressiveness," Garnett continued. "Half these [current NBA players] can't even be in the locker room."

Paul Pierce, the fellow Hall of Fame Boston Celtic who joined Garnett on the show, agreed.

"When I hear [what Edwards said] and I really start thinking about it, I'm like, nah, that's not true because you have multiple players that had hella skill," Pierce said. He named a bunch of freaky-athletic guards of the 1990s like Baron Davis, Steve Francis, Kevin Johnson, Jason "White Chocolate" Williams, Jason Kidd and Vince Carter.

"The skill level has gotten better with this generation, but I don't think overall it makes you a better player. I think the imagination and the flare of the game is not the same," Pierce continued. "They don't play as much basketball as we did. They work out individually. We played 5-on-5 and our creativity for the game was a lot better in our era."

Pierce cited the absence of the mid-range jumpers that helped define the games of Jordan and Kobe Bryant, along with the long lost big man post skills that helped turn Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and Tim Duncan into three of the best to ever step sneakers onto hardwood.

"Y'all dribble the air out of the ball. Y'all dribble the ball 100 times more than the [other guys]. Catch it off the bounce, one dribble, two dribble pull up. Let me see you do that off the bounce. Let me see your skill work off that," Garnett added. "You can't come for [our era] and not expect a rebuttal. Real (expletitve), it was totally different."