Sometimes, young players should keep their mouths shut and focus on what’s in front of them.
Last Thursday, a Los Angeles Lakers great delivered a ruthless response to a Minnesota Timberwolves phenom who refused to stay silent.
“I think he (Anthony Edwards) should've asked somebody, maybe his father or his grandfather about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dr. J., Isiah Thomas, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Clyde Drexler, all these guys, Dominique Wilkins,” Magic Johnson told Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday in response to Edwards’ ‘lack of skill in the 80s and 90s’ claim. “We had some of the most dominant players that's ever played."
"Also, too, you might want to talk trash when you've won something. You know, if this came from some of the guys who just won on the Celtic team, OK, you might want to look at it. But you haven't won anything. If I'm Anthony Edwards, I'm concerned about the Dallas Mavericks, about OKC, about Boston, about all these great teams. … Concentrate, because you got beat by the Mavericks. You didn't make it to the championship. So I'm concentrating on that instead of what happened in a time you wasn't born."
Johnson, who played 13 seasons with the Lakers and earned a reputation for being a creative passer on the move, made a valid point about the Timberwolves' superstar.
Edwards should focus on helping the Timberwolves take the next step as an organization. As a fourth-year pro, Edwards led Minnesota to the Western Conference Finals as the No. 3 seed. They swept the Phoenix Suns and eliminated the Denver Nuggets in seven games before suffering a 4-1 series defeat at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks.
Edwards averaged 27.6 points and 6.5 assists in the postseason but didn't shoot the ball particularly well against the Mavericks. Outside of his 55.6% shooting night in Game 5, Edwards struggled to score efficiently in the series. He also received heavy criticism for failing to shake hands with members of the winning team.
To be clear, Johnson isn’t insinuating that Edwards must follow in his footsteps by winning five championships before age 30. Instead, Johnson wants Edwards to realize that his priorities aren’t in order going into the 2024-25 season. It would be in Edwards’ best interest to block out basketball thoughts unrelated to the Timberwolves’ future success.
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