Four-time NBA champion Horace Grant is all-in on the talent in today’s league — especially stars like Victor Wembanyama and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — but he still wants one big change.
In an exclusive interview with Heavy Sports, the Chicago Bulls legend said he loves watching modern skill sets but believes the NBA has gone too far in cleaning up physical play, with too many free throws and too many reviews on light contact.
“I love the talent out there now,” Grant said, before adding that he wishes the league would allow it to get “just a little more physical, just a little more hand-checking.”
Grant spoke with Heavy while promoting his new TV show, “Legends in Session with Horace Grant,” a Chicago-based series that follows a game-style format and donates signed memorabilia proceeds to each guest’s charity of choice.
Horace Grant Loves Wembanyama & Today’s Young Stars
Grant made it clear he isn’t one of those ’90s guys who dismisses everything about the modern game. When asked what he enjoys about today’s NBA, he immediately pointed to the evolution of big men and the star power across the league.
He highlighted Wembanyama, noting how rare it is to see a player that size handle the ball and stretch the floor.
He described Wembanyama as a 7-foot-5 player with guard skills who can put it on the deck and knock down threes — the kind of unicorn skill set that simply didn’t exist when he was battling in the paint in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Grant also shouted out SGA, calling him “just a great talent.” For a player who shared the floor with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and a loaded 1990s talent pool, that is high praise.
Overall, he said, “I love the talent out there now,” repeating that sentiment as he ran through the league’s new wave of stars.
But He Wants the NBA to Be ‘Just a Little More Physical’
For all his appreciation of the modern game, Grant still carries an old-school bias — and he’s not shy about it.
The “con” for him is simple: he thinks there’s too much whistle and too much replay.
He said he often turns on games and sees players constantly heading to the free-throw line or referees stopping play to review minor contact, like a slap on the wrist. As someone who fought through hand-checking, hard fouls and playoff slugfests, it doesn’t always sit right.
Grant’s fix isn’t to rewind fully to the 1990s, but to nudge things back toward that direction.
He wants the league to allow “a little more physical” defense and a touch more contact on the perimeter. In his mind, that would balance the scales between offensive freedom and defensive toughness without hurting the star-driven product.
Coming from a player who once talked about the Bulls “getting your head smashed in by the Pistons” before breaking through, the message is clear: the skill level is higher than ever, but he believes the game is at its best when physicality is still part of the equation.
Why Horace Grant Prefers FIBA-Style Physicality
Grant said he loves watching the international game and sees some things overseas that he wishes the NBA would borrow.
He pointed to the FIBA style, where players can knock the ball off the rim and defenders are typically allowed to be more physical without immediate whistles. That kind of environment, he believes, rewards toughness and doesn’t bog the game down with constant stoppages.
Grant isn’t just a casual observer, either. He noted that he keeps tabs on European basketball in part because he has a nephew, Jerian Grant, playing in Athens, and he locks in when international competitions like the Olympics roll around.
It all feeds into the same takeaway: Grant respects what today’s stars are doing — and he’s excited about players like Wembanyama pushing the game forward — but he thinks the NBA product would be even better with a little more old-school edge.
Horace Grant’s New Show Keeps the Conversation Going
Grant’s comments on Wembanyama and today’s NBA came as he discussed his new project, “Legends in Session with Horace Grant.” The show, based in Chicago, is structured like an NBA game: “pregame” questions, four quarters of deeper conversation and a “postgame” rapid-fire segment.
Early guests include Charles Oakley, Grant’s twin brother Harvey Grant and former rival Vernon “Mad Max” Maxwell. Each guest signs memorabilia on the show, which is then auctioned off with every cent going to the guest’s charity of choice.
Episodes will roll out one by one on LegendsInSession.com in both video and audio formats, giving fans another place to hear honest, sometimes old-school takes on the past, present and future of the game Grant still clearly loves.
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