If there’s one thing we as NBA fans have grown accustomed to, it’s players from however long ago talking about how their modern counterparts wouldn’t have been able to play back in the day. Whether it’s confidence or condescension, it seems like a constant through the ages. While the take is usually monotonous and same-y, Bill Cartwright, the former teammate of Michael Jordan, is at least willing to admit that his aversion was hugely biased and personal.
Advertisement
Cartwright grew up in Central California before attending college at the University of San Francisco. He would be good enough to go third overall to the New York Knicks in 1979, where he would play for nine years. Growing up, he idolized players like the hugely underrated Wes Unseld, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the magnetic Julius Erving.
By the time Bill was traded to the Chicago Bulls in a deal that brought the Knicks a franchise legend in Charles Oakley, he was old by NBA standards, but not nearly done yet. Still, it was only as Jordan’s teammate that he started to gauge how good MJ could truly be.
“I thought he was good, young, exciting player,” started Cartwright on Stacey King’s Gimme the Hot Sauce Podcast. After naming his aforementioned heroes, proving that he does in fact get starstruck, the big man did get to brass tax, “people ask what it was like to play against Mike… to me, my heroes are the guys that I played and saw when I saw a kid. The rest of you guys are just young kids.”
It’s hard to hit that nostalgic itch that basketball brings as you get older. If Cartwright’s perspective is widespread, it would explain why players of the past have an appreciation for not just their era but the one just before it as well. You will always think that what you loved as a kid was perfect, even if that is rarely the case.
Cartwright continued, “I couldn’t be enamored by young kids because I saw John Hamilton play, Bob Cousy, I met Bill Russell when I was in highschool. So I was supposed to be impressed by these young guys? Get out of here.”
While this sounds like your run-of-the-mill hating, it may just be better for the NBA fan discourse we have. Instead of claiming that the new players were untalented or simply not as good in a roundabout way, Cartwright is at least acknowledging that nothing ever would’ve been good enough to change his mind. Being up front with your biases is far better than acting like they don’t exist.
“I have an appreciation for talent,” ended Cartwright, “and of course, Michael had incredible talent, I have a strong appreciation for that, and I love to win.”
They certainly did win. Cartwright would be the starting center across the first three-peat. While he certainly doesn’t deify Jordan like the kids born in the ’80s would, Bill is definitely thankful for the hardware. Realistically, that approach is all anyone can ask for. Bill loves basketball, and he loves what he knows. The fact that he can still accept things beyond that scope is a great change of pace.
