Bill Simmons, American podcaster, sportswriter and cultural critic who is the founder and CEO of the sports and pop culture website The Ringer talked about who “invented” small-ball era.
It is well known that we live in the modern era of basketball where strict positions no longer exist. Many basketball analysts refer to this state as position-less basketball, where guards set screens for centers, and centers bring the ball up the court, organize attacks, and shoot three-pointers.
The small-ball era began about a decade ago with the emergence of the Golden State Warriors, specifically the dynasty of Steve Kerr, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.
They were among the first to play basketball where the center pulled the opponent’s defender out of the paint, thus creating additional spacing for the rest of their team, which led to an evolution in the number of three-point attempts.
“We’re like, ‘Oh my God, what is this?'”
However, Bill Simmons does not share this view. He believes that Pero Antic, a former member of the Atlanta Hawks, Fenerbahce, Olympiacos, Crvena Zvezda, and the Macedonian national team, deserves credit for an entire new era of basketball.
Made me think of the Pero Antic series for some reason,” Simmons told Ryen Russillo on his podcast after discussing the Atlanta Hawks. “One of the great series…when Pero Antic ruined Roy Hibbert’s career in the Atlanta Hawks-Indiana Pacers series and created small ball.”
“Everyone thinks Steph Curry created it. It was Pero Antic and that weird Hawks team, remember? They pulled the center out 25 feet from the basket, and people were like, ‘What are they doing?’ And he made like two threes. We’re like, ‘Oh my God, what is this?’ Now, that’s how everyone plays it.”
Bill Simmons is presumably referring to the matchup between the Hawks and Indiana Pacers in the first round of the 2014 playoffs. That series saw the Hawks face a giant, figuratively and literally.