Minnesota Sports Forum

It was nice to read https://www.yahoo.com/sports/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/larry-bird-thinks-this-era-of-the-nba-might-be-the-best-one-ever-205500827.htmlthis article. So finally one of the game's past legends embraces how the game has evolved since "back in the day".

I would go further, and have said it before on here: I don't think the NBA has ever had this much talent, depth, and beautiful basketball being played. Of course there are still crappy teams and crappy games. But the expanded value of the 3-point shot and getting rid of hand-checking has really infused more pure skill into the game on both sides of the ball.

Good stuff.

....and here is what I would say about the silly '96 Bulls vs. Today's Warriors hypothetical matchup. If each had to play in the context of their respective eras, the Bulls would probably win in the 90s and the Warriors would probably win today.

Thanks for posting Q. Bird was my favorite player growing up and those 80's Lakers Celtic matchups were so fun it is good Bird has embraced the evolving game. It kinda funny how he and McHale (when he was with the Rockets) embraced the new stuff and others don't.

Both of your posts were great.

Yet another reason why everybody should believe in Basketball Jesus.

Michael Jordan also said recently that he thinks the game has changed for the better. I saw him say it this weekend on an NBA TV show with Michael, Yao Ming and Steve Balmer discussing NBA ownership.

There is no comparison between the game today and the game I watched as a kid...today's players are leap years ahead of yesterday's players in terms of athleticism. One thing I do miss though are the high-scoring games from the old days. Ball-handling and shooting were as good as they are today, but today's defense is so much better. As a result games are much lower-scoring today than they were in the early days of the NBA...I miss some of those 135-133 games!

The thing I miss is the competitive nature that turned into legitimate heat between teams. There wasn't as much isolation offense, which I find really boring. I also hate the flopping in today's game. Each generation will have better athletes and more skill because they are building off others success. The pioneers of the game were more original and had to dream up things. These guys get to build off other generations so the skill level is greater and should continue to be.

TRKO wrote:The thing I miss is the competitive nature that turned into legitimate heat between teams. There wasn't as much isolation offense, which I find really boring. I also hate the flopping in today's game. Each generation will have better athletes and more skill because they are building off others success. The pioneers of the game were more original and had to dream up things. These guys get to build off other generations so the skill level is greater and should continue to be.

What era are we talking about exactly?

Because I thought the mid 90s/early 2000s was atrocious basketball. You had guys like Anthony Mason playing PG. Mark Jackson playing PG while largely facing the other hoop. The Houston Rockets with 3 HOFers creating a triangle on one side of the floor taking turns on isolation plays while two stiffs stood off on the other side.