In light of last night's ... exhibition ... here's a real game that was played at the All Star break in 1987. Enjoy. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1PsumgdA_DY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070215 Here is Bill Simmons funny running diary of the game written in 2007.
Because the All-Stars cared about destroying each other rather than being bosom buddies like they are now.
For the love of God, LOOK at those lineups again. You had Magic and Bird in their absolute primes. You had MJ during the season when he won the dunk contest, averaged 37 a game and put himself on the map as The Next Great Guy. You had Barkley and Hakeem in their breakout seasons. You had Isiah, McHale, Parish, Worthy and 'Nique at their absolute peaks. You had Moses, English, Cheeks, Davis and Kareem with something left in the tank. You had Doctor J in his final All-Star appearance. You had six guys who ended up making the NBA's "Top 50" list on the bench to start the game. You had John Stockton, Joe Dumars, Patrick Ewing, Fat Lever, Clyde Drexler, Terry Cummings, Sidney Moncrief and Karl Malone watching from home because THEY WEREN'T GOOD ENOUGH TO BE INVITED. Will we ever see anything approaching this again? I say no.
Just noticed that Isiah, Laimbeer, Bird and McHale are playing together right now. Three months later, the Pistons and Celts would be battling it out in the Eastern finals and Laimbeer would get punched by Bird AND Parish. Remember when teams could hate each other in the NBA and it was OK? I miss those days.
it was refreshing to watch. i watched the 1st quarter, and the 4th quarter along with over time. the east was down by 5 after a wilkens free throw in over time with 20 seconds left and the east was STILL desperately still trying to steal the inbound pass. crazy
Were these guys wired that much differently where they were so competitive that they never wanted to lose no matter what the situation was ? I remember watching as a kid and it was a known fact that Magic like to help make whomever was playing in their home arena the MVP if he could. That was Chambers this year and he was having a fantastic season the Rockets found out when they bounced us out of the playoffs that year.
I think it's all related to salary. The average salary for superstars back then was under 1 million. Comfortable but nothing like today. Stars didn't have to worry about their brand (except Jordan), no social media, etc. You really had to work harder to make a living playing hoops, and if you are going out night after night against guys who have to take second jobs in the offseason, there will be more resentment, focus, intensity.
It's hard to hate someone you know, or have known since you were kids. Most American pros play AAU, and many stay in touch. The top American players get together every summer for USA Men's National Team and bond over their FIBA or Olympic experiences. Also, you see players that share agents or endorsement partners forming friendships. Free agency is a different animal now, too, in that players have more control over their destination. Combine all of that with social media. Reality is, over the past 50 years, there are only a little over 3,000 people who have ever played an NBA. At any given time, there are at most 450 players in the league, making up .0001% of the US population. Average salary is over $4.47m (including minimum and 10 day contracts), and the average NBA career is 4.8 years, meaning the average player will earn $21.47m in their career, not including endorsements. A net worth of $11m puts you in the 99.50 percentile in America. We're talking about a super elite, exclusive club of income earners, who on average are black (74.4%) Americans (77.8%) in their 20s (26.9), many of which have known each other for half of their lives. Of course they're friends. For the sake of sport, it was more fun when players legitimately had beef. Now, rivalries take on a different form, and I don't see it ever going back.
There were also fewer games, and overall the schedule was less grueling. Also, there were incentives to winning the AS game. Now, it's an offensive exhibition. If the NBA wants to make the AS game worth a damn there are some easy fixes. First and foremost make it like the Pro Bowl and make it near the end or after the season is over. Injury concerns are still present but a lot lower. You could combine it with the end of the season award show. Second, make it decide who gets homecourt in the finals. If the East wins, even if an 8 seed makes it out they get homecourt, if the West wins same thing. This means teams will actually sending their guys to it and guys will try and win it. Small changes, but the results could be huge. Also, why not make the host city able to nominate their coach and a player from their team to their respective all star team? If it's in Toronto, Dwayne Casey and Lowry should be there. Like how FIFA used to have qualifiers for the WC.
Normally in these situations I would just repeat myself and talk slower, but I can't really type slower. Where do you seem to be lost?
Fewer games?? There have been 82 games in the NBA schedule since 1967. Fewer playoff games? Yeah by a handful. But the ASG is a good few months before the playoffs. I think that's where he's lost, because you're making things up :grin:
The first round of the playoffs was only 5 games long and rarely made it that far. Now in the 7 game series most teams duke it out to 7. If you couple that with how grueling the 2-2-1-1-1 schedule can be it adds more wear. Furthermore, with more teams that are farther away the grind of back to backs has gotten worse. They've done studies on this crap.
There was nothing fancy about that game but it was sooo much better than todays games. Seeing these stars go at it at a fast pace and throwing elbows and crashing the boards. Incredible.
Not to beat a dead horse, but you're literally talking about 2 additional games in the first round, something which had minimal impact on the players. The studies you quote refer to high minute loads on a per-game basis. By that metric, the 80's were actually WORSE in that many starters played 30+ mpg and bench rotations were short year-round; moreover, there was no "resting" in the middle of the season a la Pop/Kerr. The pace in the 90's was slower but was pretty fast for much of the 80's. Also, the Team USA/FIBA thing probably contributes a bit to wear-and-tear as players have less downtime. There are a lot of variables in play, but one variable which probably has zero impact is the extension of the first round from 5 to 7 games. Beyond that, nothing major has changed in the NBA schedule for a while.
