for those old enough to remember, and please don't be bias towards the rockets... but it just seems like it was better basketball in the 90's... maybe more sound? Land of Big Men and MJ... ? does anybody else feel like this? Or am i just a pissed Rockets fan?
Today's NBA is to soft. I like a more open game but it has gotten to be a bit much for me. I miss the days of Xavier McDaniel, Charles Oakley and Otis Thorpe battling down low. Even though Derek Harper made Kenny look silly when hand checking was aloud, rather see some defense be played.
The 90s was a terrible decade for basketball because the NBA added, I believe, six new teams (in groups of two every couple of years) and greatly diluted the talent pool. Furthermore, the late 80s Pistons ushered in a style of "hack first" ball that had every team scoring < 100 for most of the decade. The 80s was the best era of basketball IMO, and I'd rate the current era over the 90s.
It's obvious you aren't old enough to have seen anything but youtube highlights from the 90s, but those games were BOOOOORING with all of the milk the clock on offense, grab on defense possessions. Outlawing handchecking may have upped the #cheap fouls but it also made the game a lot more fun to watch.
Too much flopping nowadays. I rewatched part of the 1994 Finals over the weekend, and ugly as the Knicks were, it was still a better game than now. When someone drove to the basket, there was no one jumping in front of him and falling down like he had been hit by sniper fire.
I think it was more about skill level and basketball IQ back then and less about athleticism. Only a handful of players (Jordan, Drexler types) back then could drive from the perimeter through the lane for a dunk and chances are they'd get decked if they did tried it a second time. Nowadays Chase Budinger can do it and it's like nothing. You can't guard anyone in today's league, especially on the perimeter, the way they rode people back in the 80's and 90's. That's what's funny about the MJ thing. He would have a big advantage with the rules in today's game because nobody could touch him now but the league is a lot more athletic so he wouldn't be able to just smoke anyone that tried to guard him one on one the way he did in his time.
'90s and it isn't even close. I could watch any two teams play back then. Now, I only really watch Rockets games. I think I have seen about 5 quarters total of the playoffs, and that only to catch some Battier. In the '90s you had to do some work to score points. The FTs were hard to draw and the perimeter play was more difficult so there was a reason to have a back to the basket post game. Who now compares to Hakeem, Barkley, or even Mark Jackson? Getting rid of hand checking and allowing zone was a terrible solution to a non-existent problem. Sadly it is all clippy's fault (and fans like him).
You give me too much credit, I think. Hakeem was one of a kind. Blake Griffin is a more athletic clone of Barkley. There are dozens of PGs more exciting than Mark Jackson (at least use KJ if you want to bring up a good 90s PG). FTs hard to draw? Freakin' MJ lived at the FT line in the 90s. My theory is that people mostly fondly remember the decade they started watching basketball in. I watched from the early 80s and I swear it was way better than anything since. Players actually had a floor game (not just three pointer or layup), the pace was quick, and physical fouls were allowed without BS technicals. Players stuck with their teams for the most part, there were real rivalries, and the playoffs didn't take six months to complete. I hated the 90s because everyone played that stupid Pistons brand of basketball. The Knicks were the most boring team I've ever seen and they made the Finals! Even those celebrated Bulls teams were boring as ****.
Definitely gonna be biased toward the 90s when your team wins back to back titles smack dab in the middle of that decade. Honestly I didnt really like the sludgefest style of play of the 90s. The 90's "Bobby Sura" era Cavaliers was the worst example of slow-it-down basketball EVER. NBA shortened the 3 point line in the 90s for a reason. And with Rockets iso-ball shortly to follow after that, some UGLY product to watch at times. 90s was still a more athletic league than the 80s. So though the style was uglier, there were more explosive athletes doing it. The Sonics were a physical team, but with Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton running the break it still brought some exciting moments. What I also like about the 90's is its the last before all the advanced analytical quant stats approach took over. You could watch it for the product on the floor and articles in the paper. Not for PER and rebound rate and +/- and all that crap. Or polarizing fan favorite Vernon Maxwell woulda been run out of town well before the '94 title for his inefficiency. 2000s was alright actually. But the no hand check rules and flopping have ruined it.
Haha. In the 80s and early 90s I remember that sometimes I didn't even know the scores or stats of the game until two days later because the newspapers did get all the games. Talk about being out of the loop. It's crazy that we get all of this stuff (including those advanced stats) in realtime now. In '88 I ran a fantasy basketball league and had to get my numbers from the Tuesday USA today that compiled all of the stats. What a pain in the ass!
90's. soft, easier for perimeter players to get to the rim, flopping, no hand checking, etc. some of the worst finals teams came in the early 00's. sixers and nets were terrible. let's not get on the influx of fundamentally poor high school players that came in the leauge at that time. 05-06 is probably one of the worst defensive years in nba history. and the mid range game is a lost art in the 00's. just slashers and 3 point shot jackers.
The Finals matchups in the 2000s have largely sucked because the East was so weak, but we've had some stellar series. The Kings/Lakers series in 2002 was maybe the best series ever, way better than anything in the 90s (even with the rigjob that was game 6). The Bulls/Celtics series a couple of years ago was epic. Even the Lakers/Celtics last year was a really good one. The only good series I remember in the 90s was the Pacers/Bulls. And it was just ho hum MJ and the Bulls every ****ing year. The 90s sucked. And not just basketball either.
Yeah, I forgot about Rockets/Suns.. that was a good series. I can't call any series with the Knicks a good one. Those games were more like boxing matches.. not basketball. Those mid-90s Knicks teams were unwatchable. They tried to clone the early-90s Pistons but didn't have the flair of Isiah Thomas to make them fun to watch. Ugh, I wish I could forget it all.
i guess it's an acquired taste. i enjoy seeing excellent defense. that's why i liked the knicks series. it's like when people said the 2005 finals was boring. i personally enjoyed it because the spurs and pistons were giving their all defensively
