Shaquille O'Neal Opines On "We're Done With The `90s And `80s" Culture
A new movement of bashing old school NBA basketball has gained steam in recent month.
Among them is YouTube creator Mike Peek, who hosts a podcast called Peektown. Peek uses old clips of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson to show they could not have competed in today's game.
Peek has the catchphrases "We Done With The `80s" that are popular among his followers. Among his criticisms are of Bird being non-athletic, Julius Erving lacking an outside game, Jordan unable to use his left hand and Mugsy Bogues being too short.
Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal recently commented on the movement. While he wasn't critical, he understood why it exists.
"It's cute, but it's natural," O'Neal said on a podcast appearance with Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo! Sports. "And let me tell you about it's natural. They always compare me to Will Chamberlain, and I'm looking at his '70s highlights like, I would have killed this guy. So it's just, you know, normal stuff like the stuff that we see in 2024 is way more advanced than the stuff we see in the '90s. So if you're a guy, especially on social media, and all you see is the 2024, 2024, 2024, and then you see 1990, you're definitely not going to be impressed by the 1990."
O'Neal said he felt the same when he was a young player. He thought the stars from the previous era could not make it in the 1990s and 2000s.
"But when I came in 1990, I wasn't impressed by Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or Will Chamberlain footage. They only had one or two moves. Nobody was banging them under the rim. And nobody act like they wanted to fight them. So for me, doing exactly what this generation was doing, I'd say the same thing about the '60s, the '70s, and the '80s. So it's cute. I understand it."
The full interview can be heard here:
Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Back In The Day NBA. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com