Former NBA guard JJ Redick said he doesn’t enjoy comparing players from different eras of basketball, yet the 17-year veteran finds himself mired in a debate doing just that.
Redick fired back Friday and responded to comments made by Basketball Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins, who termed Redick’s viewpoint “stupid” after Redick contended that Larry Bird was not one of the great three-point shooters of all time.
The 38-year-old Redick clapped back against what he called a “trope” that players of past decades incurred more physical play than their contemporary peers.
“The trope that every old talking head uses, Mad Dog, Stephen A., ‘physicality, physicality, physicality,’” Redick said Thursday. “My entire point about the segment was that outside of hard fouls and fighting, the physicality, the basketball play … is not that much different than today’s NBA.
WHAT WE KNOW:Basketball Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins slams JJ Redick over ‘idiotic’ take
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“But it’s become such a talking point that people take it as gospel.”
Wilkins took issue with Redick’s original take, one he made during a Feb. 15 episode of “First Take,” where he argued Bird’s lack of three-point volume made it impossible to put him in the same conversation as Stephen Curry.
Redick, who said repeatedly Bird should still be considered one of the great players and all-around shooters of all time, ruffled the feathers of many with his take.
Chief among them was Wilkins, who called Redick’s take “idiotic” and “ridiculous.”
“First of all, Redick don’t know what the hell he’s talking about,” Wilkins said. “I’m like, what basketball was you watching? To say something as idiotic as that is ridiculous. The physicality that was a part of the league. Hey, look, when you can put your hand on a guy’s hip and make him go a certain way, and you can put your elbow in his chest a guy to slow him up — there’s not that many guys that can deal with that type of pressure.
“For JJ Redick, who played this game, I’m very disappointed that he said something so stupid.”
Redick responded to those comments while speaking on his podcast Friday and denied that he disrespected any past players of eras. Redick, who added that he laments such debates, also dismissed the notion that contemporary players couldn’t handle the NBA of old, and vice versa.
“The idea that I’m disrespecting older players for questioning media narratives around that era, that’s not disrespect!” Redick said. “What I said then, what I’ve said 15 or 16 times since then, on the podcast, on ESPN … Players should be celebrated, we should congratulate greatness for that era. The greatest players of every era would be fine in any era.
“And one of the pushbacks on that comment is always, ‘Today’s players wouldn’t be fine in the ‘80s and ‘90s,’ which is (expletive) (expletive).”
