On Tuesday evening, the Golden State Warriors continued their winning ways with a big road win over the Memphis Grizzlies. The Warriors were led in this one by point guard Stephen Curry, who scored 52 points on the evening, including 19 in the first quarter alone, to continue his long legacy of torturing Memphis.
This all comes amid an ongoing feud between members of the current NBA and its previous generations about which era was more difficult to play in.
On Wednesday's episode of First Take, ESPN sports media personality Stephen A. Smith claimed to have gotten a highly valued opinion about how Curry's game would have translated to previous eras.
“I had a Hall of Famer come up to me and said to me, ‘Steph Curry would not have averaged more than 17 points a game. … In our era, we would've hurt him,'” said Smith.
It's unclear who the Hall of Famer was.
This all comes shortly after Warriors star Draymond Green said that “just because you played before me does not mean you deserve respect,” per the Draymond Green Show podcast.
An ugly feud
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Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler III (10) reacts with guard Stephen Curry (30) during the fourth quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum.
Petre Thomas-Imagn Images
While older generations claiming that things were tougher back in their day is a tale as old as time, it seems that specifically the generation of players that were in the NBA during the 1980's and 1990's have taken a particularly harsh outlook on the current state of the league, perhaps out of jealousy due to the record-breaking contracts that players today are routinely signing.
There's no question that the skill level in today's NBA is far greater than it ever has been previously. Beyond players like Curry routinely burying jumpers from near the half court line, the NBA today also features seven footers with guard-like skills, several players who can guard all five positions, and many other anomalies, all of which were not present in previous generations.
To his credit, Curry has generally shied away from taking shots at previous legends of the game, even when he has so often been a target of their jealousy, as seems to be the case here.
In any case, the Warriors will next take the floor on Thursday evening vs the Los Angeles Lakers in a potential first round playoff preview.