James Worthy: All NBA Players Do is 'Practice 3s, Lift Weights, Get Tattoos, Tweet'

James Worthy, the current Los Angeles Lakers analyst, became the latest former player to criticize the current generation of ballers because they aren't exactly the same as they were back in the day.

Worthy argued that players spending less time in college in the one-and-done era has made the game less fundamentally sound.

"I mean, Kareem had four years with John Wooden, Michael Jordan and I had three years with Dean Smith, Isiah (Thomas) had some years with Bobby Knight. So you learned the fundamentals. Not only that, you learned how to live. You learned how to balance your freaking checkbook in college, there's a lot of things. When you don't get that, guys are coming to the NBA who are not fundamentally sound. All they do is practice threes, lift weights, get tattoos, tweet and go on social media. That's it."

Worthy played for the Los Angeles Lakers for 12 years, winning three titles as a sidekick to Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

He's an NBA legend, though players from previous generations probably thought that all he did was drugs, sleep around with women and push the pace in transition.

The game changes. The culture around the game changes. That seems to upset the former players.

Kevin was the one who had his own response to Worthy.

The modern NBA has players who have dedicated their entire lives to the game, and has better athletes with more resources for having proper nutrition and physical maintenance.

The game has grown around the world, with many of the league's best players coming from overseas. There has been a huge influx of talent in the league.

The growing trend to spacing the floor has meant more skilled players in the NBA, and it has also meant that more athletic, versatile and switchable players are needed to play defense at a high level.

Is the NBA more of a sport than a sport? It is hard to imagine the players who are so incredible at their craft only spend their time on social media and at tattoo parlors.

There are many criticisms of the NBA. The season feels too long, and it leads to injured superstars in the playoffs who can't play or aren't 100 percent. The product suffers in the process. There have been a lot of blowouts in the playoffs.

Like many former NBA players before him, Worthy felt angst about the inevitability of change and constructive criticism about the actual state of the game.