Opinion: The TikTok trend “We’re done with the 90s” is generational psychological warfare where Gen Z goes overboard on Gen X, but I get what they’re doing.
Editor’s note: The following article is a column, and the views expressed represent only the author’s personal views. read more Opinion On Glio.
I have to admit, at first, when I saw the “we’re tired of the 90s” TikTok wave, I was angry. This is one of the hottest trends on the app right now. Gen Z youngsters made entire videos arguing that Michael Jordan wasn’t actually good at basketball. (It was really hard for me to write this sentence.) They show clips of Michael Jordan failing to score or throw the ball away, and they say, look, he’s actually trash. It took me a minute to understand what was going on.
I now see this as intergenerational psychological warfare. These young men are rejecting the basketball gods that Generation X anointed them long before they were born. It’s a way of saying screw your old head off and get off our lawn. They go overboard on older generations and use anger bait to get clicks.
It’s also about intergenerational pride and the belief that human progress means everything is better now than it was just a few years ago.
This is also to allow LeBron to surpass Jordan. This is the real subtext of saying Jordan is trash. That means LeBron is the GOAT. Generation X and Millennials have been debating Jordan and LeBron for decades, comparing numbers and nuance to discuss who is the best of all time. Gen Z has become embroiled in this controversy like Bill Laimbeer attacking Jordan while flying through the paint. Just like Laimbeer deserves a technical foul for this, Gen Z deserves a technical foul for this garbage opinion. But I understand and support their private intentions.
The kids definitely know that Generation X will be outraged by this. As far as athletes go, Jordan is a god. It hurts to watch the clip of them picking on Jordan and screaming “Trash!” when he misses a shot. I watched Jordan’s entire career, from his game-winning shot at UNC to his game-winning shot at Utah State. (The whole Wizards thing didn’t happen). When Jordan was playing, he was the most popular athlete in the country and was considered the epitome of everything an athlete should be – physically gifted, mentally tough and the hardest worker on the team. If you play any sport, Jordan should be a role model.
I could use hundreds of words to express my praise for Jordan, but no, I’m just going to point out one thing: In 1992, when the U.S. Olympic basketball team, aka the Dream Team, traveled to Barcelona and held a game composed of future Hall of Fame players During scrimmages – the best player on the planet at the time – it was clear to those players that the best player was Jordan. Everyone agreed.
But now our kids rarely see Jordan say “no.” All your memories are wrong. He’s actually so bad, he competes with plumbers. Wow. This disrespect is disgusting. To be sure, today’s NBA players are, on average, more skilled than players from decades ago. But while the average NBA player today is better than the average NBA player in the ’90s, the truly elite players of the ’90s — Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird — are still the stars of today’s game. Truly elite players shine in any era.
If Jordan in his prime were in the NBA now, do you really think Devin Booker or Donovan Mitchell could slow him down? That’s who’s covering him. In Boston, he could draft Jrue Holiday, who many in the industry consider to be the best defensive back in the NBA. But Holiday, like Alex Caruso, Desmond Bane or Dillon Brooks, couldn’t stop him.
There’s no question that the game has changed – most players today are better ball handlers and shooters than they were a few decades ago. They are also healthier and stronger. What’s more, the game itself has changed – in the ’90s, there were still centers who played with their backs to the basket and wings who liked to shoot from mid-range or even closer to the basket. Nowadays, even if you’re a center, it’s all about shooting from behind the three-point line. No more rough physical confrontations like we once had. It’s more of a skill game. In the 1990s, they had to play man-to-man defense, but now teams can play zone defense. It’s easy for the anti-Jordan Gen Z to consider that the league is made up of better athletes, but ignore that the rules also changed things to create more offense.
Many people counter that “we are done with the 90s” which is completely wrong. That includes JJ Redick, who actually played in the NBA (unlike those who promote the “Jordan is garbage” narrative). He is now a top NBA analyst for ESPN. In a recent episode of his podcast The Old Man and the Three, he said, “We often talk about what the NBA of the past would look like in today’s modern NBA. I think it’s no secret that Michael Jordan, with his The space created by the three-point revolution, analytics and all that stuff, he would absolutely destroy in today’s NBA.” Do you hear those kids? destroy.
So the core argument that Jordan wasn’t actually a good player or that he wouldn’t succeed in the modern NBA is, yeah, garbage. But what these young people are really doing is standing up for themselves and their generation. They say we will not accept the opinions of our elders. We will remake the world in our image. While I cringe at the ahistorical nature of their bizarre anti-Jordan arguments, I understand that every generation needs to assert itself, and sometimes that means rejecting the clichés of the previous generation.
Hip-hop came out when I was a kid and it scared a lot of baby boomers. Essentially, it was a rejection of the music they loved. R&B is based on singing, melody, and love, while hip-hop is based on rap and rhythm about how hard life is in New York City, with broken glass everywhere. I remember older generations telling us that hip-hop is not music. I remember them complaining that while their band had an aspirational name like The Supremes, our band had a nihilistic name like NWA.
In the early days of hip-hop, we gave the middle finger to everything the baby boomers cared about musically. This is what young people are doing to us now. Part of growing up is standing up to the older generation. It doesn’t matter. I respect that. But part of being an adult is realizing that Michael Jordan is still the GOAT.
Touré is the host and creative director of theGrio. He is the host of GrioTV’s Game Masters. He is also the host and creator of the documentary series podcast “Being Black: The 80s” and the animated show “Star Stories with Toure,” which can be found at TheGrio.com/starstories. He is also the host of the podcast “Toure Show” and the documentary podcast “Who is the Prince?” He is the author of eight books, including the Prince biography Nothing Compares 2 U and the e-book The Ivy League Counterfeiter.
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The post I Can’t Believe I Have to Say This, But No, Michael Jordan Is Not Trash appeared first on TheGrio.