Hall of Famer urges fans to embrace greatness in today's NBA

Kevin Garnett believes NBA fans and media are too hung up on championships and legends of the past. The former Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves forward is concerned that everyone is overlooking greatness in arguably the most talented era the league has ever seen.

Garnett's comments came during a guest appearance on "The Stephen A Smith Show." 

"The problem I think with today is that we're so hung up on yesteryear, the culture, the history that built the league, that we're missing out on greatness right in front of us," Garnett said. "LeBron James is 38 … years old, doing something we ain't never seen. We've got a 7-foot-6 Frenchman in the … league … He nutmegged a guard … We gotta get off this. I say this to the world. We gotta get over this. Michael Jordan, Magic [Johnson], they are the past. We gotta embrace this new ish. We ain't never seen nothing like Steph Curry."

The NBA is littered with exceptional talents at every position. Kevin Durant is one of the best pure scorers the league has ever seen. Luka Doncic is a magician when on the court. Nobody has ever had the ball control of Kyrie Irving. 

The league has evolved. Years of sports science, studying and developing new coaching strategies, and basketball evolution have produced players who operate on a whole different playing field. 

There's nothing wrong with paying homage to the former stars of the league. They helped build the NBA into the global brand it is today. However, with popularity comes a need to evolve and elevate; the league has done that, as have the players who are transitioning into the pros year over year. 

More talent means more excitement and competitiveness, which in turn generates more interest and leads to greater revenue. Everybody is winning. 

Garnett is right. It's time to embrace a new golden era of basketball and understand that comparisons are what suck the fun out of the game. 

We will never know if LeBron could have beaten Jordan in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, but we may find out if Doncic can carry his team to a championship. History is being made in front of our eyes. It would be a shame to miss it because we were too focused on what happened 20 or 30 years ago.