Why Retired Pro Athletes “Hate” the Younger Generation
The Battle Between Eras
Tell me if you heard this one before.
Retired player. Any Sport. Goes on a podcast and gets asked about the current generation of players.
After a couple of caveats and some light compliments, they proceed to insult nearly all of today’s players as a whole:
Anonymous NBA Hall of Famer
"Steph Curry would average 17 PPG if he played in my era.”
Dennis Rodman
"If Lebron was playing in the 80s or 90s, he’d just be an average player."
But the “old heads” aren’t the only ones who are completely dismissive and totally disrespectful.
How many times have we seen a younger player completely dismiss the older generation, reducing their careers to nothing more than a punchline?
JJ Redick
“Bob Cousy was being guarded by plumbers and firemen.”
Anthony Edwards
“They say it was tougher back then, but I don’t think anybody had skill back then. Michael Jordan was the only one that really had skill.”
These types of comments dominate sports shows, podcasts, and social media clips, and there’s a reason for that:
They’re pretty damn entertaining!
But why do so many former pro athletes seem to hate on the current players of the new generation?
And why do current players routinely disrespect their own forefathers who paved the way but didn’t get to reap the same rewards?
This isn't just about sports,
it's about the human condition. It’s about maintaining a level of respect for those who came before you, regardless of how high your bank account gets. It’s about being satisfied when your time is up and shining a light on your era without tearing down the new one.
It would be dope if we learned to relate to each other and build each other up instead of tearing each other down in a selfish attempt to hog all the glory.
Today, we’ll explore perspectives from both sides of the “Era Wars” and discuss a possible solution to all this pettiness.
The Retired Player Perspective
Ever since childhood, their identity has been clear: They were athletes- hoopers, football players, the biggest, the baddest, the fastest, the best.
The roar of the crowd, the thrill of a victory, the locker room camaraderie – it all fueled a feeling of purpose and a powerful sense of self.
But what happens when the cheering stops, and all you have left is the pain in your body? A fledgling reputation that dwindles each day, as you fade out of the spotlight and into obscurity.
Years pass, and your name’s been forgotten.
You turn on the game, and it barely resembles the sport you once played.
The players have it easy. They're driving million-dollar cars on a road that you paved with blood, sweat, and tears. They dont even give you a ride in their fancy ass cars. They splash puddle water on you as they zip right by.
Finally, you've had enough, so you decide to fight back. And you'll do it through the media game that they all love to play.
You hop on a random interview and throw out the same hot takes that everyone else throws out every single day. Nobody cares about you at this point anyway, so why should it be different than when somebody else says it?
Is it logical that every loudmouth dude on TV and every no-name on Youtube can have more freedom than somebody who played? So why is it cool for them to yap all day, but the second you say something, all of a sudden it's a problem?
BAM!!! You blast out a flaming hot take, packed with the oh-so-usual rhetoric.
“Today's players are soft! And (star player name here) couldn't play in my generation!”
Hell yeah, you said it!
Now they can shine some light on your generation and see how they were wrong to ignore you all this time. They’ll look at the film and say, “Damn, these dudes were tough as nails bro! We should put more respect on these retired players’ names.”
But,
you're not as good at this media thing as you thought. Your comments were dismissed entirely, and you were labeled a hater.
The current players play victim. They’re (supposedly) hurt and appalled that this dude they never paid homage or respect to once (who never got paid anywhere close to them, who wasn't nearly as famous, and who didn't experience the perks that were partially built on his back) has finally spoken out. Oh no, what a shame!
They use it to garner sympathy and to clown your generation even more than they did before. The War between the Eras rages on. All you did was add fuel to the fire.
Empathizing with the Old Guard
Many athletes struggle immensely to redefine themselves after their playing careers end. This can lead to a profound sense of lost identity, leaving some grasping for validation that what they did actually mattered, or worse, wondering if their life in its current state does.
As humans, it’s easier to empathize when we see someone’s full story, so I’ll use 3 Pixar movies (that I’m assuming you’ve seen) to help us all understand how the old guard feels.
It’s like when Mr. Incredible got banned from doing superhero work and was suddenly expected to blend into society.
It’s like when young Jackson Storm showed up on the scene in Cars 3. Remember the effect that had on Lightning McQueen?
It’s like when Buzz Lightyear pulled up and made Andy forget about Woody. You didn’t feel dude’s pain when he woke up under the bed?
These are just movies (kids’ movies at that, lol), but they illustrate a very real thing that most of us have or will experience at some point.
For some former athletes, the void in their lives is very real; their sense of worth can diminish, and sometimes they lash out.
They’ll never admit it, but I believe that at the center of most of that is a longing for a fraction of the respect they once garnered.
I mean bro, imagine the career that you gave your life to being diminished to a point where you’re just a punchline. I don’t think that would sit too well with most people. So maybe show a little respect to the guys who paved the way.
The Current Player Perspective
When you were young, everybody in your whole neighborhood wanted the life you're living right now in real time. The money, the status, and everything that comes with being an active professional athlete.
But it's not as easy as they think. Everybody’s in your business. They love you one second and hate you the next.
They don’t know the work you put in, the stress you endure, or the sacrifices you make to play this game.
The media’s unrelenting. They attack without boundaries.
Social media is even worse. They’ll even attack your family.
And if you clap back at either party, you’ll be called soft or petty for defending yourself.
So, you just put on your $50k shades, blast your customized headphones, and try to block them all out. But soon, you find out that always being on guard is a constant drain that depletes your patience and discernment.
Anybody can get it, whoever says something. You’ll snap back first and ask questions later.
This mentality, combined with your competitive nature, saps the empathy from your heart almost entirely. So when the “old head” says something crazy on an interview, you’re not in the space to think about what's really going on with the dude. If you had a conversation with him, could you find common ground? That’s not a question that ever crosses your mind.
You do what you were trained to do, go into attack mode, and tear the old head’s career down like an old abandoned building.
To you, it's just another person trying to bring you down, but maybe you could have stopped to try to pull your forefathers up…
But to be fair, you see an older man attacking your career. So you feel that he should be the bigger man as he should be more mature. Because he’s older, you feel no remorse, and the war between eras rages on.
Actionable Solution
The older generation does need to be more mature. Going on and on about the game being soft has gotten pretty stale. While it has some truth to it, don’t let that be the focal point of every public conversation you have about the game.
And since people will just clip it up even if you talk about it for 10 seconds, take that time to talk about some things you like about today’s league. Or just highlight a couple of players who play a style that you enjoy watching.
The younger generation often accepts a more gracious approach. Once you find some common ground, your complaints will be better received. But ex-players often come out with so much venom and spite that the current players feel justified in attacking right back.
That said, the younger generation should be more respectful and allow more grace to “old heads” who might throw a little shade. Understand your history, and unless one of these dudes gets truly personal, try to understand their perspective before completely belittling their entire generation.
In science, they have a saying. You prolly heard of it.
They say, “We’re standing on the shoulders of giants.”
What that means is they’re "using the understanding gained by major thinkers who have gone before in order to make intellectual progress."
Sports work the exact same way. The players you’re belittling didn’t have the privilege of watching themselves play on TV when they were growing up. They didn’t have the chance to mimic moves at 7 years old and perfect them by the time they were in their teen years.
But because of all the data collected before you existed, you have the chance to learn at an accelerated rate. The internet spreads instruction and ideas across the corners of the globe, when all the older cats had for inspiration was the rival neighborhood.
It's like if a garage band toured around the chitlin circuit, living out of a van and eating fast food for years. Then they switch out the members, and the new guys come in and reap the rewards from the grind the old members put in.
As a new member, this is not your fault, meaning you are not responsible or to blame. But that goes both ways; you are also not responsible for the success of the league and how big the money has gotten.
So when it comes to dudes who put in any amount of work into helping to pave this golden road you now cruise on. Maybe the least you could do is avoid the puddle and don’t splash mud all over dude’s career.
To the retired players who throw constant shade on the new guys, you need to grow up. Who am I to say this to? Honestly, nobody.
But this is unbiased, honest advice from a neutral party. You can take or leave the advice; that’s up to you.
I know it's hard to see dudes who don’t seem to care as much as you did, have a different set of values, and a different approach to the game. But to be fair, you had your time, and you made mistakes just like they do.
Let's try to understand that the young players are putting in work, too. And when you try to diminish their grind by saying their league is “soft,” you’re doing the same thing they do to you, which means you’re JUST LIKE THEM; yall are mimicking each other.
Their grind looks different, but it's a grind all the same. So, when you disrespect their work, you invite that same disrespect to be reflected right back at you.
In Closing
The next time you hear an old pro bashing the new generation, remember that it's often a sign of deeper struggles. A fear of irrelevance, a longing for the past, and a desperate search for identity.
And the next time you hear a current player bashing the old cats, remember that those cats didn't have the same privileges players enjoy today. They didn't have access to all the trainers and information or decades of clips to sift through and be influenced by.
A little bit of empathy can go a long way. We could get more clips of players from different eras showing love to each other, current players educating a younger audience on the history of the game, and OG’s being honest about the transition out of the league.
Then maybe we can understand each other just a little better.