There’s been a growing divide among the generations of NBA stars, with different eras having different outlooks on talent level, load management, and play style.
Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady thinks the tension between generations can be boiled down to one simple issue: the increase in pay today’s players receive and the massive disparity it has created with the old guard.
“It’s money. Did you realize, like, in the 90s, Reggie Miller and Michael, they were only making $2-3 million? And they were the top guys,” T-Mac said in an appearance on Shannon Sharpe and Chad Ochocinco’s Nightcap podcast, after being asked why the previous generation is so critical of the state of the NBA today.
Today’s NBA salaries have the backing of massive media rights deals, global revenue streams, and NBAPA-negotiated revenue shares, resulting in role players earning more than an All-NBA player might have earned in the 1990s, when McGrady was drafted.
“I don’t think anybody making $2-3 million dollars in the league right now,” T-Mac continued. “These guys making so much money. It’s the money and how the league has really catered to the players.”
McGrady also feels that the league capitulates to the current generation a little too much.
“They made the league soft for these guys, trying to cut the 82 games to 72,” he said.
“I think it’s just all the other stuff of babying and coddling the players when they making all this money. It has to be that the players got so much,” he added.
The league has certainly evolved to a place where players today have an immense amount of freedom and wealth in comparison to previous eras, but decreasing the number of games in a season is the last thing commissioner Adam Silver wants to do, and the league rarely makes changes to the benefit of players that don’t put the league’s interests first and foremost.
Hopefully, the previous generation begins to celebrate their role in building the league to where it is today, rather than harping on how much better players might have it today.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.