“Nobody could score, everybody fouling,” Agent Zero once said about the ’80s and ’90s NBA era. His take is just one of many fueling the ongoing debate over which NBA generation was the strongest. Surprisingly, critics have dragged the era featuring Michael Jordan and other elite players the most in this debate. Sometimes for scoring, as Arenas suggested, and other times for its defense. People frequently discuss and compare the game’s physicality to the current generation. Arenas took it a step further, claiming Jordan was the era’s only elite player. After repeated criticism, a former NBA star finally stood up for the ’90s era. 

During an old segment of Gil’s Arena, Agent Zero boldly claimed that ’90s players struggled with shooting. This led the NBA to shorten the three-point line to improve scoring. He also went on to criticize the era’s defense, arguing it wasn’t strong.

“They ain’t no defense there. There was no defense. I’m sorry. There was no defense,” stated Arenas. He continued to highlight the state of players’ shooting back then, “Y’all couldn’t shoot the ball to put it in the basket. That was the difference….Like Jordan was a great shooter. He could shoot the ball. So when he got to his spot, it was cash money. Everybody else, stop. Y’all didn’t shoot the ball well like there was no threat,” Arenas said on the Gils Arena podcast.

Arenas claims the decade was filled with poor shooting, overrated defense, and only one true elite player: MJ. Arenas’ strong words didn’t go unchallenged. Tim Hardaway who played for the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat placed his opinion. A perfect counter to Arenas’ claims.

Tim Hardaway fires back at the NBA’s 90’s-era disrespect

He argued that while MJ was one of the best in the league, he also had some great competition. “Mike is the goat…Mike didn’t let people beat him. Mike didn’t. He went on about his business. He didn’t let people beat him and he knew how to play the game but you all think that we couldn’t play. You was like you know he playing against some scrubs or he playing against some guys that can’t play and and we let him do this and we let let him do that no man. A lot of you guys couldn’t play in our f——g era…We had some bad motherf——rs in our era,” the 5× NBA All-Star declared. For a solid time, he argued with the rest of the team including Nick Young.

When Arenas finally chimed in, he didn’t change his opinion. However, he said that his complaints aren’t with the ’90s but rather with the ’80s. Speaking of the 80s, Arenas once said, “It’s only golden because it was the merge, then you had Magic and Bird being the face of the league at that point in time,” Gilbert Arenas said on his podcast. Well, that era certainly had much more than that. But his newest argument is about something else. About an infamous technicality.

Recalling the 80’s, he brought up an old and seemingly forgotten rule. He questioned Hardaway about the now-banned hand check that was huge back then. The former Warriors player shared that hand-checking is claimed to have made defense tougher in the ’80s. Handchecks essentially allowed defenders to place their hands and forearms on an offensive player’s chest or hips to stop them. As mentioned by Arenas, it was considered one of the strongest techniques. 

“I said if the hand check was so dominant then how can the scoring guard come in as rookies tearing everybody’s a__ up right,” Arenas asked. Hardaway, however, had the answer to Arenas’ doubt. Hardaway explained that players including him were quick and skilled ball handlers and were not affected by handchecks. He said, “When we came into the game, Kevin Johnson myself even Mark Price, we was fast enough and quick enough and we can hand the ball and we used to get out of the offense and we used to not run off if you was going to hand check us.”

He added, “We used to not run offense and we used to take our man so he had to understand oh this these these motherf—-r ain’t running offense. These guys (speaking of the opponents) are…We got to play them legit!” Hardaway explained that while hand-checking was a major defensive tool, quick and skilled guards like himself and Kevin Johnson could still thrive despite it. However, not all players had that luxury. Defenders like Derek Harper, who relied more on strength than speed, were far more affected by the rule.

Even if Arenas questioned the ’80s, hand-checking was very crucial in the ’90s as well for elite players like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. After Jordan retired, the NBA noticed a lack of perimeter offense, prompting the league to ban the rule in 2004 to allow more offensive freedom. And just as the league had expected, perimeter-dominant players such as Kobe Bryant, and more began to produce high-scoring games. The NBA has evolved across eras, but the debate over past greatness never stops. Was the hand-check rule as impactful as some claim, or is Arenas right in dismissing its influence? What’s your take?