We’ve grown accustomed to hearing about this never-ending debate about who is the best NBA player who ever lived, as superlatives like “the greatest of all time” are constantly handed out like its nothing. One player who is tired of this fact is Kelly Oubre Jr., who is convinced no one currently deserves this title.Â
The Philadelphia star guarantees that the GOAT conversation should’ve come to an end when players like Michael Jordan, or even Kobe Bryant decided to hang up their basketball shoes. The guard believes that this is because the physicality of the modern era is watered down.
“This game today is a little bit more soft,” Oubre Jr. said when asked about his thoughts on the generational changes of the sport. “To call anybody a GOAT nowadays is disrespectful to … the awards and accolades [MJ] and Kobe have won.”
Kelly’s comment about this matter first came in 2021, when he was still a Golden State Warrior, despite having Stephen Curry as a teammate. The former Jayhawk has praised some of the modern icons, but with context, he doesn’t believe they measure up to the true legends.
Other player like Kevin Durant have talked about how the sport has been changing over time. “I go back and watch a lot of that ’90s film, ’80s stuff, and they play physical, but I just think they got away with a lot of flagrant fouls,” he said. “And I think that’s why they call their era more physical than ours.”
However, does this mean players like LeBron James shouldn’t even be taken into consideration? “There’s more space, but guys play physical, we got strong, athletic guys here, too. But I watched some of those games, the paint was clear, nobody was getting touched, it wasn’t a lot of help defense,” Durant added.
The two-time Finals MVP insisted that just because physicality was higher before, doesn’t mean they were tougher. “But you did get a lot of flagrant fouls [that] didn’t result into fines or getting kicked out the game, so it just seemed like it was a little tougher,” KD explained.