Does anyone else get tired of people saying the old time athletes are better???

... they wouldn't have a clue how to joust.

 

Fixed it.

 

Kobe, if transported to 90s and earlier, would've been unstoppable, like MJ. Not quite as good as MJ, but definitely monster.


Easily the second best shooting guard or wing player in the 80s or 90s. The best in 60s and 70s.

 

I still think Jerry West could outplay Bird, Jordan, and Kobe.

 

There is no doubt that in raw athletic ability there is no comparison with athletes now and even just a few decades ago. I posted this in another thread but what struck me about this video was that this was one of the best teams ever but they appear so small compared to players today. Even though Fridge was a nose tackle there are LBs as large as he is.

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Also look at this video from a great moment in Rockets history.

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This is one of the best teams in Rockets' history, the largest team size wise at the time, playing a team that was a dynasty in the '80's but they look like toothpicks compared to today's players.

It's a given though that as people get richer, technology and medicine advance that athletes will get bigger, stronger and faster. Evaluating athletes from different eras though is like evaluating prices from different ages. You have to factor in inflation.

Previous athletes can't compare in raw ability but you have to factor in skill and other factors.

 

Interesting topic.

How would Wilt Chamberlain fare against that Sonics (illegal) defense during the 90's that used to give Hakeem so much trouble? Could Bill Russell even compete in today's NBA?

 

Of course not, he's old as ****!

 

It's all relative.

Take an athlete from the 1950's and give him the benefit of today's training, and he would probably own.

Take an athlete from today and give him the detriment of yesterday's training, and he may very well suck butt.

You can only judge people relative to their peers, trying to transplant them across generations is just an exercise in mental masturbation.

 

TL;DR: Masturbation

 

this is such a stupid topic.

your assuming an athlete today will all modern resources (diet, training, PEDs, coaching, little league/aau, etc...) would dominate past eras where they didn't have those resources. wow, you think?

you can't pluck an athlete from time and put him in another era but not let him use the resources of that era.

if you did, they would never let shaq play because he would destroy all of the peach baskets. also forget your fancy handles since you couldn't dribble when basketball was first invented.

 

Basketball players from the old days just look like they would suck today because of their shorts.

Give them shorts that go down past their knees...and they'll suddenly look athletic.

Anything that takes technique...Center with post up game, DE with swim moves, pitcher with curve ball, etc... All those skills dominate the test of time.

 

Iffin' ol George Washington would have been King of Egypt he would have done things differently in regards to Moses and the Hebrew slaves.

 

This is the key. I have heard that in some things like pitching there is a decline in skill as the emphasis is more on power rather than technique so there are fewer pitchers who can throw good curve balls but more pitchers that have blazing speed.

 

Imagine if Hakeem played in today's era...look at his competition at center:

We've seen what Yao can do to Dwight...Hakeem could do the same. Who else is there? Bynum? Marc Gasol? Bargnani? Hibbert? Jefferson? Nene? Monroe? Chandler? Noah? Can you imagine these guys trying to stop the Dream?

Instead, Hakeem had to go up against the likes of Robinson, Mourning, Ewing, Shaq, Mutumbo, etc...

20 years from now, Im confident that Hakeem could take any of the centers that we are going to see.

 

Hakeem wouldn't be as good no because the rules are set up to favor guards. No one went out and bought hakeem's they bought jordans.

 

Michael Phelps is great (maybe greatest of all time) but Jesus would own him.

 

They were far more skilled in past eras.

Basketball's talent level has been trending downward lately, just look at the centers.

 

Isn't it also statistical? There more than twice as many people in the world today as there was 50 years ago. Isn't it reasonable to believe that the top athletes in a pool of 7 billion will be better athletes than that of 3 billion?

 

Baseball is the exception. Look how many pitchers were able to throw complete games back in the day compared to now.

 

Overall, athletes today are better. And the reason is simple: THEY MAKE MORE MONEY.

The best talents will always flow to jobs that give out the most bucks. There's a reason why the best students in college tend become lawyers or doctors rather than teachers or artists. So in that sense, there's a hell of a lot more competition to be a MLB caliber baseball player than in the old days. If you have a bigger talent pool, you're going to have overall better talents.