http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/news/story?id=5952952 "Hopefully the league can figure out one way where it can go back to the '80s where you had three or four All-Stars, three or four superstars, three or four Hall of Famers on the same team," James said. "The league was great. It wasn't as watered down as it is [now]." now we know why he made his decision. and i think it would be better for the L as a whole. NBA ratings were at its highest during the late 80s into the early 90s when magic's lakers, bird's celtics, and jordan's bulls ruled the L and they had multiple stars on their own teams (sometimes 3-4). and that didn't include the pistons, knicks...
Hand-checking allowed the Iverson's, Marbury's and Francis's to roam free and be labeled as "superstars". I'd rather not go back to those dark times.
I wish the rules were like they were back in the 80's and 90's so people will stop bringing them up to criticize players that play in today's game.
How many teams in the 80s had that? His decision had nothing to do with this. Why stop there? Go all the way to the 60s where you had one single team hording all the Hall of Famers and winning out the whole decade.
IMO the league is actually much better now than when it first started expansion. When expansion hit, it was very watered down and you could always count on certain teams never being competitive because they had no talent at all. Almost all the bad teams (with the exception of Detroit, Cleveland and Toronto, who either had unfortunate circumstances or saw the end of their competitive eras.) have players you could look at as that team's star or borderline star. The influx of international talent, and making players spend at least 1 year in college, has increased the talent pool and helped players with their fundamentals I think.
Hand-checking had nothing to do with it. If anything, removing the hand-checking rule makes life easier on those guys because you can't touch them on the perimeter or the game becomes a free throw contest. Iso-ball is what made those guys "superstars" and that era died with the defensive rule changes that allowed zone and got rid of illegal defense.
while the underlying message might be that the League is watered down, I am more than annoyed that the media has let LeBron James speak out on issues like he is some sort of spokesperson for doing the right thing. why give him the mouthpiece to let his inner diva run wild? he is basically saying how the league needs more players like him, and that they should all go to Miami in a coup like he did, only to freeze out bad teams from competition... frankly I don't give a crap about LeBron's opinions on playing on Christmas or on contraction. if I were Howard Stern I would ask him to keep his mouth shut...
Someone hasn't a clue what hand-checking is, or when it was implemented. You've got it backwards, bruh.
OMG rep given. I always wanted to be a shock jock with a chance to give Lebron James a piece of my mind...
Ratings have gone down because players have become less competitive and more concerned about contracts, endorsements and big market cities. Players like LeBron don't help the situation when they stack teams in a watered down league. And I agree, who gave LeBron the mouth of the fans and NBA. Personally, I believe they need to lower the salary cap and go to a hard cap system.
Get rid of the 3 second rule. Get rid of the half-semi circle underneath the basket. Get rid of flops. Get rid of Illegal D.
This. Players like LeBron care less about winning than their being in the limelight. The league is not watered down in terms of talent. We have a lot more international talents than 20 years ago. It's the players' attitude that has been watered down.
