Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett criticize modern NBA players for not practicing enough

Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett criticize modern NBA players for their lack of practice and declining work ethic.

Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett criticize modern NBA players for not practicing enough

Kevin Garnett & Paul Pierce discuss about today's practise culture in the NBA

The NBA’s pioneers, ex-champions, sages, and other legends have been severely discerning of the league’s rough patch. Players are being held accountable for the NBA’s current state, with former Celtics champs Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce attributing it to a declining work ethic and skipping practices.

On the latest episode of All the Smoke, Ticket & The Truth reignited the debate over what’s hurting the NBA, leading to its waning interest and eroding viewership. KG and Pierce reminisced about the practice culture they followed during their tenure in the league. Here’s what The Truth had to say about the modern NBA atmosphere:

YouTube video

This is the culture that the NBA has created. You know why? Because you don’t practice. We practiced every day, so according to the season. We had a mentality like ‘to grind’, we had a mentality of hard work, we had a mentality to show up, to be available every day, I wanted to come to practice because I wanted to practice with my teammates, I couldn’t be over here looking on the side while they going hard. Nah, I’m coming here to practice because everybody else is practicing.

Paul Pierce observed

There’s a nugget of truth to the 2008 Finals MVP’s remarks. The mentality to grind is scarce among the young players coming into the NBA today. However, that’s not the sole factor behind the NBA’s fall-off. Numerous personalities have pointed fingers at myriad reasons, from load management to political stances and social activism.

In the past, the duo has pretty much blamed everything—from over-reliance on threes to flopping and poor officiating—all of which have joined forces to cause this unrealistic decline. Gone are the days when the NBA stood on the backs of hardworking sports personalities, now hinging instead on novelties.

Ticket & The Truth sounds off on how the three-point craze is killing the game

The NBA has been bleeding money from its media partners as of late. In the past decade, the league has witnessed a nearly 50% drop in television ratings. And according to Paul Pierce, it’s the excessive reliance on long shots from beyond the arc that has been highly corrosive to the NBA product. Here’s what The Truth said:

Does anybody work on their game or their moves? What are they doing in the offseason? You get with these individual trainers and work on moves to shoot a three. Every move is to get into a three. I don’t see the art of go-to move

Paul Pierce stated

To this, Kevin Garnett concurred and added that he isn’t even aware of “any of these trainers” and that most of these unknown experts have never “played a lick of basketball.” He also expanded on Pierce’s argument, asserting that the goal isn’t to get to the three-point line—the purpose has always been to get a layup, ideally.