Stephen A. Smith upset an entire generation of basketball players this past week when he declared this generation to be the softest in the entire history of the NBA. Smith made this comment while speaking on LeBron James and whether or not he could ever be considered the greatest player of all-time. Smith effectively said that Michael Jordan went up against much more physical competition, while LeBron never had to deal with that sort of thing.
Today on Twitter, Metta World Peace refuted Smith's comments as he made claim to the fact that his own generation played a scrappy style of basketball. LeBron started his career in the midst of that era and seemed to do just fine for himself. Based on this alone, Metta wasn't exactly feeling Smith's sentiments.
"Lebron is not playing in the softest era. I was in his era. And we all know I could’ve easily played in that 80’s era. I know players that played in the era coming out the 90’s that didn’t want any real smoke. All you commentators and players , never call my era soft," Metta wrote. "1999 draft had one of the toughest players ever. I will not let you guys and girls call my era soft. I would’ve loved to play in an era where you can scrap. That’s the type of ball we like."
Debates surrounding LeBron and the era he played in will be present well past his retirement. Ultimately, it's unfortunate his greatness is debated more than it is appreciated.