Magic Johnson Smacks Down Anthony Edwards

The younger generation of athletes is just that, a younger generation. They were born into a world of social media, where someone needs to know how to run their mouth if they want to survive. They were also brought up by parents and teachers who told them it was OK to have nothing in their brains. The result is that the least educated generation is talking louder than anyone else.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Minnesota Timberwolves star player and Olympic gold medalist, Anthony Edwards, takes shots at a generation of NBA players who paved the road he's traveled. "I didn't watch it back in the day, so I can't speak on it," he started, letting the interviewer know how much research he did on comment he was about to drop.

"They say it was tougher back then than it is now, but I don't think anybody had skill back then," he embarrassingly continued. "(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."

Nobody Was Blown Away By Kobe

Kobe Bryant is one of the five greatest players of all time. He scored over 26,000 points during his career, played in 15 All-Star Games, was All-NBA 15 times, won 5 NBA Championships, and is enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Despite all of his accolades, nobody was wowed by Kobe when he entered the league in 1996 at the age of 17 (his parents had to sign his first contract for him).

Kobe came off the bench as a rookie. Even though he averaged 25.0 points per game for his career, that first season he failed to score 25 points even once. It took time for him to develop (if Anthony Edwards is reading this, that means getting more skilled), and by the time he became the Mamba, fans appreciated him, but they weren't blown away by him.

Magic Johnson Shoots Back

Lakers legend, and all-time great in his own right, Magic Johnson had a few thoughts on Edwards's comments. Speaking with Stephen A. Smith, Johnson had the following response:

"I never respond to a guy who's never won a championship...He didn't win a college championship. I don't even know if he won a high school championship."

At least Magic Johnson said he didn't know about Edwards High School career, instead of stating facts about something he's never seen or researched. He wasn't wrong. According to Max Preps, Edwards's senior year at Holy Spirit Prep, they went 2-12 and were ranked #478 in the state. The site also lists his GPA as 1.2 and his SAT score as 350. It's not hard to see how Ant-man comes to his conclusions.

It's hard to know for sure if Edwards will look into the past more before commenting on it. Whether he does or not, it was nice to see someone who has achieved a level of success that Edwards is incapable of, putting the young cat in his place. It's OK to be ignorant, even willfully, but it's a bad idea to do it with a mic in one's face. That will usually end up with a foot in one's mouth.