Watching the 94 finals and lamenting on the changes in the NBA since

Still fun to watch. Basketball purism like this is annoying just enjoy the play

But flopping these days is out of hand for sure

 

That's what I've been telling some of my friends. Players play a lot more selfish. A lot of me-first attitude, trying to get on ESPN or whatever the case might be. I've been critical of Harden for the way he plays, not because of lack of talent or skill. Same goes for LeBron, a lot of holding the ball, ball dominate (ball hog). But he is the best player in the game.

 

meh I agree with you.

Players back then just were more fundamentally sound, even if lack of athleticism or talent. They just know how to play the game of basketball. Players nowadays are all athletes. They run fast, jump high, strong athletic, but lack some of the fundamentals of basketball.

 

80's were good too especially mid-late 80s, from watching old films. Im sure fundamentally sound and playing the right way anytime older than 90's. Players were not as athletic as 90's. I think what the 90's showed was a blend of fundamentals and athleticism.

 

I agree with most of your points. But #2 seems odd. Ball movement has nothing to do with how many stars you have but what kind of stars. Both teams' stars were centers. They needed to work the ball inside. If the stars were perimeter players, you would see lots of ball holding.

Michael Jordan and the Bad Boys Pistons changed the face of basketball. The 90s were an ugly era of ISO balls and the emergence of the so-called "defensive specialists" (defensive players who have no offensive skills) a la Ryan Bowen.

The abolition of illegal defense has cleaned up the clear-out ISO and made it difficult to hide the offensive liability of defensive specialists.

If you want to be depressed, watch the games in the 80s, when they still wore the short shorts. Ball movements were beautiful.

 

I think there's a lot of factors in play.

The rise of Jordan as the transcendental "superstar" changed how the NBA views revenues. While Wilt, Bird and Dr. J were all "superstars", they never had the sort of revenue impact on the NBA that Jordan did. And since Jordan retired, the NBA has been looking to recapture that "lightning in a bottle" ever since.

Every year they're pumping up players to be the next "Jordan", "LBJ" or "Shaq". And I wouldn't be surprised at all if that had some impact on some of the changes in rules. Since the Rules are ultimately decided upon by the Owners, it makes sense that they would try to move the game towards one that rewards more individual play, exciting athleticism, and larger than life personalities.

Let's not forget the proliferation of international media. The rise of international broadcasts, sports dedicated cable channels, and more recently the Internet and Social Media makes information about teams and players available around the clock, anywhere in the world. This plays into the "star driven" narrative of the current NBA.

While I understand your love of 90's smashmouth basketball, the fact is that's not what most people want to watch, or are even interested in watching.

Today's game is a game of Player stars and ESPN highlight reels, heavily skewed toward flashy dunks and blocks more than fundamentally sound but visually quiet team basketball.

And as long as the NBA is a growing international commodity, I don't expect that to change any time soon.

 

I think perhaps the change in hand-checking rules has something to do with it. Now, guards have a lot more freedom to create offense by going one-one-one. Back then, this was much more difficult to do. It was necessary to rely more on ball-movement to get a good shot.

 

Amazing, as that season was about the peak of the "the NBA ain't what it used to be"-movement.

 

imo the #1 reason is the lack of college experience. we went from full NCAA careers to skipping it altogether to today's one and done....

 

You are watching the nba finals and comparing every team in the current nba to them. Why don't you compare them to the 2013 nba finalists. The spurs and the heat. I actually both those teams are more fundamentally sound than the Knicks and rockets

So, what's your point again?

 

I think the years after the championship were actually the height of uglyball. The Rockets offense became less dynamic after the trade for Barkley, and the phenomenon spread to more teams.

 

Sounds like he didn't watch 90s ball and didn't read your post.

The obvious clue is that he never referenced the 94 series or their players.

 

The early 90's was the beginning of ugly basketball. Throwing it into the post and iso ball are not that great IMO. I think it has gotten better with SSOL suns which led to the more up tempo offense across the league.

 

It was the Knicks not the rockets that made the 90s ugly.
Dreams game was beautiful.

 

I think we are talking about team game, not individual players.