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Kevin Garnett Doesn’t Think 80’s-90’s Players Could Play In Today’s NBA

Kevin Garnett is one of the greatest power forwards to ever play the game of basketball. Drafted in 1995, Garnett managed to sustain his career for 21 seasons and was still able to make his presence felt until his age caught up to him at the tail end of his career.

In more than two decades in the NBA, Garnett saw the league experienced some massive changes along the way. Even today, Garnett, who’s been enjoying retirement, is still very familiar with the constant evolution of the game in terms of its style, rules and players.

In an interview published by the ‘New York Times’, Garnett was asked about his take on the current status of the NBA, the former NBA champion didn’t mince words when suggesting that the game is on another level now, and players from 20, 30 years ago would not be able to translate well.

The game is at another level. I know you said that you made the team with Vancouver, but I want you to get on a court, sprint corner to corner, stop on a dime and shoot a 3. I want you to do 10 of those. Then I want you to focus on how tired you are. Because these players do that for 48 minutes.

I don’t think guys from 20 years ago could play in this game. Twenty years ago, guys used their hands to control players. Now you can’t use your hands. That makes defense damn near impossible. Can you imagine not hand-checking Michael Jordan? Naw. The fact that you can’t touch players gives the offensive player so much flexibility. Defensive players have to take angles away and stuff like that.

But if you have any creativity and ambition, you can be a great offensive player in this league. The fadeaways, one-leg runners, the one-leg balance shots — that’s stuff that Dirk Nowitzki brought to our game. And now when I watch Joker play, it feels like he has taken that Dirkness and mixed it with his own talent. And Steph Curry revolutionized things with being able to shoot it from distance with such consistency. Klay Thompson. Dame Lillard. These guards changed the game. I don’t know if even the guards from 20 or 30 years ago could play in this time right here. It’s creative. It’s competitive. It’s saucy. You’ll get dropped! A [expletive] will cross you over and break your A.C.L. these days. The game is in a great place.