By Antonis Stroggylakis / info@eurohoops.net
Hall of Famer Dino Radja isn’t really a fan of modern NBA basketball. He thinks it’s nowhere near as tough it was back in the 90s when he was playing for the Boston Celtics and that matches are closer to the exhibition nature of an… All-Star game.
He also believes that Michael Jordan would be even more dominant today than he was during his reign with the Chicago Bulls.
“The games seem like an All-Star Game,” Radja said per Marca. “The referees whistle a lot. In the 90s, there was a tougher game and there was less whistling. But people like what they like. The business is expanding like this and we have to accept it. In today’s basketball, Michael Jordan would score 50 points on a bad day. For me, he has been the best ever for everything he achieved with the teams he had.”
This isn’t the first time that Radja makes such comments when it comes to his distaste for nowadays’ NBA or his praise for Jordan. The Croatian legend had previously said it makes him “vomit” when people compare Jordan with LeBron James, since the GOAT debate is a nonargument for him.
Radja votes ‘European’ when picking some of the names that stand out for him right now in the NBA . “If I had to build a team from scratch, I would sign Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo or Steph Curry,” Radja said. “The style of American basketball has changed and that has favored the adaption of the European player.”
Radja was a member of the Celtics from 1993 to 1997. He previously played for Jugoplastica, winning the back-to-back EuroLeague championships of 1989 and 1990 as a teammate of fellow Croatian Hall of Famer Toni Kukoc.