Gilbert Arenas claims that Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets and Stephen Curry of the Warriors are not “generational talents.”
Arenas has an interesting criteria for the word “generational.”
Former NBA player Gilbert Arenas is known for wild takes, but what he said on Friday would shock even the wildest trolls online. Arenas, of course, has a podcast where he continuously shares out-of-the-box and sometimes inaccurate opinions, especially regarding certain Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets superstars.
The three-time All-Star downplayed Steph Curry and Nikola Jokic’s greatness on Friday, via Gil’s Arena.
“Steph is not a generational talent,” Arenas said. “Wemby (Victor Wembanyama) is a generational person. That is a generational talent.”
While Wembanyama does look to be the best player of his generation thus far, there’s no denying that Curry has cemented himself as the greatest shooter of all time. If younger generations of kids yell a player’s name when they’re shooting threes, that says something.
“Generational means you can’t mimic it,” Arenas continued. “Can you mimic Magic Johnson? 6-foot-9 point guard with the vision…no. You can’t mimic Shaquille O’Neal’s body, you can’t mimic f***king LeBron James. You can’t mimic Wemby. Those are generational. It only comes once every (generation).”
Curiously, Arenas values physical traits more than statistical production when labeling a player the G-word.
“Physical traits,” he explained. “Somebody like Giannis (Antetokounmpo) is tweaking (on the edge of being generational)…Jokic is not a generational talent, he’s just a great basketball player. Curry was a great basketball player…generational is something that happens once every 20 years.”
The issue is that the phrase in question is generational talent, not body type. It’s even more impressive for players like Curry and Jokic to dominate despite not being built like gladiators.
Do Arenas’ claims have any validity?