Former NBA star didn't hold back.
The NBA has had some of the biggest superstars in history. LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry have carried the league for years. Now, with these legends nearing the end of their careers, young stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Edwards, Ja Morant, and Luka Doncic are stepping up. The big question is, who will become the next face of the NBA once LeBron and the others retire?
But the answer isn’t as clear as people expected. Even with all their talent, it seems like none of these young players are rushing to take on that massive role.
Recently, Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards said that he doesn’t want to be the face of the league and just wants to play good basketball.
Now former NBA player Channing Frye has opened up about young star’s hesitation to lead the league. In a recent episode of the Road Trippin’ Show, Frye blamed the modern media for constantly comparing today’s players to legends from the past.
He pointed out how people always talk about Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, but pointed out that the 90s basketball was “not as clean as people think it was.”
“Nostalgia is killing the NBA”, Frye said. “90s basketball Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant was not as clean as y’all think it was.”
“Y’all forget Jordan left the league for two years. Y’all forget Kobe, rest in peace, quit on his team in the playoffs and didn’t even shoot the ball,” Frye said. “So all this ‘Kobe, Jordan, he’s not this, he’s not that’, that’s propaganda.”
Frye went on to explain how the constant comparisons to players from decades ago make it hard for young stars to thrive.
“The rules were different. You’re not watching help-side defense. Who’s doing this? What is this rule? What is that rule? Nobody celebrates these new people. So why the f**k would anybody want to be the face of this league?“
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The 41-year-old said that current players like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, along with Giannis and Nikola Jokic are some of the greatest players to play the league but the media is too busy to compare them to “superstar era”.
“LeBron is one of the greatest players ever to play. Stephen Curry is one of the greatest players ever. Giannis is one of the great, Jokic as well. And you know, what we do? We talk about f**king Michael Jordan, all this superstar era. Shit is over the card cap called the second apron, it’s over teams are gonna take over.”
Frye’s comments didn’t go unnoticed. Darian Vaziri, the host of the Dime Dropper podcast, posted the clip and added his own thoughts on X.
“You know what killed the NBA more than ‘nostalgia’? Constant comparison. We can’t just say a player is great. We have to compare them to someone else, and it makes people hate on the new players”, Vaziri posted.
Kevin Durant, known for speaking his mind, agreed with Frye and tweeted, “You and Channing are saying some real sh*t.”
When a fan tried to argue that comparing players isn’t the same as hating on them, Durant hit back with a simple phrase – “Comparison is the thief of joy.”
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