The conversation about players from bygone eras thriving in the modern NBA is often an interesting premise to discuss. Every generation believes that they play or played the superior quality of basketball. Five years ago, Dennis Rodman decided to put his belief on the record by claiming that he could’ve ‘locked up’ LeBron James on the court. However, former NBA star Gilbert Arenas strongly disagrees.
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One of the greatest defenders of all-time making a tall claim against another all-time great shouldn’t be treated as ridiculous. However, the important thing in this context is the difference in eras. During an appearance on Dwight Howard’s Above The Rim with DH 12 podcast, Arenas went off on Rodman’s claim.
Arenas said, “Just like an old n***a back in the day, he thinks he’s better than what he really was…When Dennis Rodman said, LeBron is easy to stop, he’s got no moves, I was like, ‘Hey Dennis, what moves did you have when you was playing?'”
Arenas has strong feelings against Rodman’s statement even though the Bulls legend had said it about five years ago.
During an appearance on Overtime, Rodman played the lie detector game. As his last question for the segment, he was asked, “Can you lock up LeBron?” He had said, “I would’ve locked his a** up…LeBron is so easy to play, he’s so fuc**ng easy to play, he don’t have any moves.”
Before taking his own name, the Worm had said that Scottie Pippen could lock him up as well.
Rodman’s comments came up while Arenas was discussing the difference in skill between the modern NBA and the 90s. The three-time All-Star believes that the NBA has evolved so much in terms of skill and overall quality, the 90s basketball and players of that era have lost their relevance completely.
The co-host of the podcast, who goes by the name of Snipe on social media, brought up another important point in this discussion. He said that in his opinion, the 2004 Detroit Pistons were the best defensive team in the league in modern history. But LeBron still scored 25 straight points of his total of 48 in the fourth quarter against the same Pistons in 2007.
Snipe and Arenas believe that there are enough reasons to consider LeBron among the players who played an extremely physical form of basketball. They also think that he could thrive in any generation regardless of the rules and the style of play.
