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Dwight Howard explains why the era of basketball he played in is the best of all time
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- Dwight Howard explains why the era of basketball he played in is the best of all time
Comparing eras, dynasties and the greatest players will probably never go out of style. There's no objective measure to declare whether Shaquille O'Neal was better than Wilt Chamberlain , or Luka Doncic better than Magic Johnson, for example.
Many dream of a matchup between the '90s Chicago Bulls and the 2010s Golden State Warriors — Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen against Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry . Would offense or defense win? Interior or outside play?
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Debates can go on forever, but we'll never have a definitive answer. Still, if you ask Dwight Howard , he firmly believes the "Golden Era" was the one he played in.
"Our age of basketball was the Golden Era — the Brons, KG, Duncan, Shaq, Kobe, KD, Dwyane Wade, Curry, CP3, Dirk, Boogie, Melo, Westbrook, Paul Pierce… I mean I could type all day! But I got confidence the future will bring us some legends, just wait," Howard wrote on his "X" account.
It's impossible to compare eras
Howard's take definitely has a case. Looking at all the players who came through the 2000s and 2010s, it's hard not to put that era right up there with the 90s, which is still widely considered one of the greatest in basketball history.
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Still, how do you overlook the 60s with epic duels between Chamberlain and Bill Russell, or the 80s when Magic and Larry Bird put the league on the map, with Isiah Thomas constantly trying to ruin their plans?
The 90s are often viewed through the Jordan lens, which makes sense given how much the league's popularity exploded with his arrival. Yet the reality is that three teams dominated the league up to the early 2000s: the Boston Celtics , Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls.
Of course, there were other great squads, like the New York Knicks , Detroit Pistons , and Houston Rockets , who won multiple titles, but those three dynasties truly ruled the league until that point.
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What about today's NBA era, where parity is at an all-time high? We've never seen seven different champions in seven consecutive seasons. In the past decade, franchises like the Cleveland Cavaliers , Toronto Raptors , Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder (if we do not include the Seattle SuperSonics) won their first-ever titles.
Today's players like Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous‑Alexander are rewriting NBA history books almost every night, yet they still can't win titles in succession, which only proves how difficult it is today to build a dynasty.
However, one who long ago supported Howard's take is Antawn Jamison , explaining why the 2000s was the best NBA era .
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"I was a teammate of Shaquille O'Neal. A teammate of LeBron James . I had a locker next to Kobe Bryant and saw how he prepared, night in and night out," Jamison said . "Some people used to give him a bad rap as far as what type of teammate he was, but if you cared about the game and wanted to be great, he was the best teammate ever. He just wanted to win and he wanted to do things the right way. And also, a guy I called a friend."
"In Washington, I played with Gilbert Arenas, who was an up-and-coming young guard giving people fits before his knee injury," he continued. "I went up against Tim Duncan — dealt with him in college for a year; just one of the toughest competitors out there, even though he demonstrated it differently than Kevin Garnett, another great I faced in the NBA. Paul Pierce, too."
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Howard's era provided some of the greatest players of all time
Of course, subjectivity plays a role in evaluating any era, especially when players reflect on the generation they experienced. But their perspective, based on competing at the highest level, carries significant weight.
Kobe Bryant , LeBron James , Tim Duncan, Curry, Durant and Shaq — most of these players appear in everyone's top 10 all-time lists. For example, Russell Westbrook is the all-time triple-double leader, LeBron the top scorer, Curry the leader in made threes, while James Harden and Durant are also in the top 10 scoring list while some other players are closing in fast.
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As stated earlier, every era has a case to be made as the greatest of all time, which is why it's so difficult to judge definitively.
Related: Dwight Howard addressed the rumors of him being gay yet again in 2025
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Feb 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
