Many believe that modern NBA players would struggle in the physicality of the league in the past. However, there is seldom a consideration of how athletes from previous eras would fare in today’s NBA.
While players like Michael Jordan would still excel on the court, the off-court environment has drastically changed.
Jordan acknowledges that playing in the social media era would have presented more challenges for him.
He highlighted the impact of social media on athletes, stating, “What changed from that time-frame to now is social media — Twitter and all those types of things. And that has invaded the personalities and personal time of individuals.”
Jordan, like Tiger Woods, faced immense public scrutiny and struggled with his lack of privacy. He mentioned, “I don’t know if I could’ve survived in this Twitter [era], where you don’t have the privacy that you’d want and what seems to be very innocent can always be misinterpreted.”
In the documentary “The Last Dance,” Jordan spoke about how his fame deprived him of privacy, leading to his retirement to seek respite from the spotlight.
During his career in the 90s, Jordan experienced a lack of privacy, to the point where he stayed in his room to avoid fans. Today, with everyone carrying smartphones equipped with cameras, his every move would have been documented on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
