Golden age?

[superjohn]

These guys were lost without science based training...

 

[CardiacAndre7]

These guys were lost without science based training...View attachment 112794View attachment 112795

You love your era. It’s commendable. You hate this era, that’s a little bit of a shame but whatever.

 

[superjohn]

You love your era. It’s commendable. You hate this era, that’s a little bit of a shame but whatever.

You love this era and think you're an expert on an era you weren't even around for.

I don't hate this era at all, I watch games nightly.

 

[Waquoit]

These guys were lost without science based training...

Steroids have a scientific basis.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

You love this era and think you're an expert on an era you weren't even around for.

I don't hate this era at all, I watch games nightly.

I don’t consider myself an expert at all. You constantly whine about everything in this era, watching nightly doesn’t change the fact that you don’t have 1 good thing to say about it. Other than being a Jokic fan.

 

[HW611]

I didn’t say anything about College ball. In fact, my argument was that the last 20 years were the golden era.

Either way, numbers are like that because teams often had 1 star. Teams are deeper now and numbers are spread out.

Oh the NBA game is deeper than ever. My conclusion is that role players are better than ever, even the worse teams have at least one star worth watching, and the foreigners are out of this world.

Only thing missing is top level American players. We’ve fallen off there.

I can’t agree that this era of cbb is a golden era either. Post COVID might be the worst era in terms of high level quality of talent. I can’t agree with players back in those days putting up numbers because they had one star. JJ Reddick was putting up 26 a game at Duke. Tyler Hansborough did what he did next to 5*s at North Carolina.

Players were just that good of scorers. There’s so many guys from that era that looked unguardable because of their skill or, in cases like a Blake Griffin or Rose, athleticism we’ve never seen before. Only person I can think of from this era like that was Edey. And it was because he was 7’4, not because of skill or crazy athleticism.

 

[superjohn]

Steroids have a scientific basis.

Yes, they are synthetic derivatives of testosterone.

What do you mean by this?

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Oh the NBA game is deeper than ever. My conclusion is that role players are better than ever, even the worse teams have at least one star worth watching, and the foreigners are out of this world.

Only thing missing is top level American players. We’ve fallen off there.

I can’t agree that this era of cbb is a golden era either. Post COVID might be the worst era in terms of high level quality of talent. I can’t agree with players back in those days putting up numbers because they had one star. JJ Reddick was putting up 26 a game at Duke. Tyler Hansborough did what he did next to 5*s at North Carolina.

Players were just that good of scorers. There’s so many guys from that era that looked unguardable because of their skill or, in cases like a Blake Griffin or Rose, athleticism we’ve never seen before. Only person I can think of from this era like that was Edey. And it was because he was 7’4, not because of skill or crazy athleticism.

I dunno. I think you switch Redick/Hansborough with elite guys from now and the numbers are pretty similar.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Should put a bow on this thread maybe. Golden era is what you make of it.

 

[superjohn]

I don’t consider myself an expert at all. You constantly whine about everything in this era, watching nightly doesn’t change the fact that you don’t have 1 good thing to say about it. Other than being a Jokic fan.

I have tons of good things to say about it. Curry is one of the best players ever and the best shooter ever. Lebron is the second best player ever. I love so many of the players who play today and I like the spacing and three point shooting but the pendulum has swung too far the other way in play style, just like it swung too far the other way in the 90's.

 

[Deepster]

Maybe not but if you are trying to say that players in the past worked harder at their game than they do now, I completely disagree. Cooper was an outlier, everybody works overtime today.

I am not saying they work harder. They're wired differently. They're not friends and took losses personal.

Lebron is the poster boy of the new era where it's okay to lose as long as you get paid.

 

[QDOG5]

I can’t call this the golden age of NBA basketball because of two words. Load management. Living in Chicago during the Jordan years I saw how they handled load management. They would kick a teams butt so bad through three quarters that the starters would sit the 4th out with ice bags on their knees.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

I am not saying they work harder. They're wired differently. They're not friends and took losses personal.

Lebron is the poster boy of the new era where it's okay to lose as long as you get paid.

Lazy and tiresome

 

[Excalibur]

These guys were lost without science based training...View attachment 112794View attachment 112795

This is like saying that the NFL isn't made up of bigger/stronger/faster players now than in the 1960's or 1970's because Jim Brown and Earl Campbell existed. Those guys were outliers. The depth of big, athletic players is so obviously greater now just by casual observation. Even if the players are the same size, the combination of size, strength, and athleticism is unmatched.

Still doesn't make it the golden era -- interesting storylines, rivalries, national attention, dominant all-time great players all factor in to that.

For the NBA I'd consider the golden age to be 84-98 -- the first time the Bird Celtics and Magic Lakers played until the end of the Jordan Bulls.

MLB it's the 1960's. Nostalgia is such a huge part of it.

Golf was the Tiger era -- '97 through 2009

College Hoops was the 1980's. National attention was never higher with Phi Slamma Jamma, Villanova beating Georgetown, Jordan's shot to win the title for UNC, tons of all time coaching greats and personalities.

The NFL may be right now. It dominates the sporting landscape in a way never duplicated, except maybe the 1920's when baseball was the only game in town.

 

[Palatine]

Current pro athletes often make "career" decisions while on the court. Although it is more common in the NFL. In earlier eras, running thought a brick wall, taking out an opponent or ignoring pain was the status quo.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

I can’t call this the golden age of NBA basketball because of two words. Load management. Living in Chicago during the Jordan years I saw how they handled load management. They would kick a teams butt so bad through three quarters that the starters would sit the 4th out with ice bags on their knees.

Very good point. NBA has load management. MLB won’t let their pitchers go 6 innings. I don’t know enough about hockey. NFL is always the exception because of the limited number of games. Analytics have, to most fans, taken away from the overall product. People also need to remember that the health of a sport is measured by its weakest teams playing each other, not just number 1 vs 2.

 

[Scoe]

I agree. I dont watch sports to see the heights of athleticism necessarily, nor do I listen to music to hear an 8 octave singer.

Musicians have gotten technically better. Advances in technology have made anything possible. But NOBODY would call the 2010s the Golden Age of music.

Malcolm Gladwell talks about the Heinz ketchup phenomenon. He says that newer ketchups have food science and more advanced techniques at their disposal but you cant touch Heinz Ketchup.

Super Mario Bros and Zelda look horrible compared to today's games but its hard to argue that this age of video games was better than the Nintendo era.

For whatever reason, maybe the way the game has changed, but I'll keep it simple- it was way more fun to watch Bird than it is to watch Wemby.

Now the 90s and 2000s were the golden age of video games. Stop playing by 2010. You didn’t have the distraction of cell phones, you actually had to take turns with your brothers/friends. I had the Nintendo/SNES/ and PlayStation growing up. Had the video games in the basement, can recall the days my mom would call us upstairs, I would say ok I’ll be right there, obviously be too zoned in to listen, hear my mom come down stairs then I would turn it off and listen lol.

Today games are incredibly advanced I played my nephew in Madden, played as the Bengals, problem was Burrow and Chase weren’t available because they were injured, as was the case in real life last year. My nephew was laughing at me already knowing what I didn’t know lol.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Very good point. NBA has load management. MLB won’t let their pitchers go 6 innings. I don’t know enough about hockey. NFL is always the exception because of the limited number of games. Analytics have, to most fans, taken away from the overall product. People also need to remember that the health of a sport is measured by its weakest teams playing each other, not just number 1 vs 2.

Again, I don’t think really anyone was arguing this is the golden age of NBA, I think most of the arguments are on quality of players/the game at this point.

 

[cullaville]

Michael Cooper had a personal library of 150 games of Larry Bird tape. He took those videos on a family trip to Italy once and sat in his hotel room watching them nonstop because Bird had gotten the best of him the last time they played.

There's no one in the NBA right now who's even close to doing something like that.

This is from AI so it may be incorrect................

AI Overview

No, there is no evidence to suggest that Michael Cooper took Larry Bird videos on vacation; this appears to be a misunderstanding of his preparation for playing against Bird

 

[superjohn]

This is like saying that the NFL isn't made up of bigger/stronger/faster players now than in the 1960's or 1970's because Jim Brown and Earl Campbell existed.

No, it's not like that at all. NFL players have significantly gotten bigger since the 90's and 2000's. NBA players haven't gotten bigger since the 90's and 2000's.

 

[RuffRuff]

True, but the problem with "personality" is the more you get of it the less you like it.

Sports = entertainment. Don't ever convince yourself otherwise. Watch a morning of Get Up, or any sports talk show - they're all looking to spark up the conversation with hot takes and the most dramatic storyline out there. Fans eat it up, they don't like watching human math equations (maybe some people like Navery do).

Do you think reality TV shows look to put on boring people running analytically driven outcomes?

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Sports = entertainment. Don't ever convince yourself otherwise. Watch a morning of Get Up, or any sports talk show - they're all looking to spark up the conversation with hot takes and the most dramatic storyline out there. Fans eat it up, they don't like watching human math equations (maybe some people like Navery do).

Do you think reality TV shows look to put on boring people running analytically driven outcomes?

Goes both ways though. People hated Odell’s personality and emotions, and people love Skattebo’s. I never had a problem with Odell at all because I know he wanted to win and gave it everything he had. But there are many examples of that. I think players are largely weary of the media and putting themselves out there nowadays for fear of backlash, which I can’t criticize because I have seen it so much.

 

[HW611]

Goes both ways though. People hated Odell’s personality and emotions, and people love Skattebo’s. I never had a problem with Odell at all because I know he wanted to win and gave it everything he had. But there are many examples of that. I think players are largely weary of the media and putting themselves out there nowadays for fear of backlash, which I can’t criticize because I have seen it so much.

In both cases they’ll draw eyes and interest. Agree that players don’t want to be the brunt of unnecessary criticism, even though your example kind of speaks a lot to who gets that criticism and who doesn’t.

 

[UCFan1513]

I prefer when the average NBA score was 80-76 not 125-120

Bingo

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I guess if seeing 7 footers hoist up 3 pointers all night is your thing, you probably love todays NBA.

The Warriors and Curry broke the sport whereby you'll see 70 3s a game as opposed to 20 in the 90s.

Clearly talent affords the ability to shoot these shots and at a percentage that makes it efficient, but I just don't find it an interesting brand of ball.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Zero doubt there is more skill in shooting and movement with today's players. I also find it less interesting to watch.

Same thing happened with baseball and the analytics with pitch counts, infield shifts, and everything else. Is it a "higher" level of thinking and optimization of your comparative advantage with the 3 ball being shot in basketball and baseball shifts? Sure. Is it more enjoyable? Not for me.

 

[HW611]

I guess if seeing 7 footers hoist up 3 pointers all night is your thing, you probably love todays NBA.

The Warriors and Curry broke the sport whereby you'll see 70 3s a game as opposed to 20 in the 90s.

Clearly talent affords the ability to shoot these shots and at a percentage that makes it efficient, but I just don't find it an interesting brand of ball.

So far this year Wemby has went from taking 9 threes a game to under three.

Think the combination of SGA’s MVP/Scoring title/Championship season and the Celtics crashing out against the Knicks might have saved the league here.

 

[TheHorde]

I guess if seeing 7 footers hoist up 3 pointers all night is your thing, you probably love todays NBA.

The Warriors and Curry broke the sport whereby you'll see 70 3s a game as opposed to 20 in the 90s.

Clearly talent affords the ability to shoot these shots and at a percentage that makes it efficient, but I just don't find it an interesting brand of ball.

It resembles all star game play at times for me. I don’t think you see the type of defensive intensity in an 82 game regular season obviously, so guys aren’t getting run off the three point line or seeing aggressive close outs nearly to the degree they do in the playoffs. I enjoy playoff NBA ball but not regular season ball as much.

 

[navery12]

Sports = entertainment. Don't ever convince yourself otherwise. Watch a morning of Get Up, or any sports talk show - they're all looking to spark up the conversation with hot takes and the most dramatic storyline out there. Fans eat it up, they don't like watching human math equations (maybe some people like Navery do).

Do you think reality TV shows look to put on boring people running analytically driven outcomes?

 

[superjohn]

Goes both ways though. People hated Odell’s personality and emotions, and people love Skattebo’s. I never had a problem with Odell at all because I know he wanted to win and gave it everything he had. But there are many examples of that. I think players are largely weary of the media and putting themselves out there nowadays for fear of backlash, which I can’t criticize because I have seen it so much.

Odell Beckham as a NY Giant was getting penalties and fines constantly. He was suspended and there's an Odell Beckham rule in the NFL. They didn't trade him because of his on field production, he became a huge headache and distraction for them. The Giants got to the point as an organization where they "hated" him, the Giants as an organization seem to "love" Skattebo. Trading Beckham is one of the only thing that's worked out for the Gaints since their last Super Bowl.