It was more offensive than stupid.
Look at the stats. Dominique Wilkins was a bad ass player. Very underrated.
Larry Bird was a badass
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It was more offensive than stupid.
Look at the stats. Dominique Wilkins was a bad ass player. Very underrated.
The greats from the 80's on would dominate in any era, Bird is without a doubt a top ten player for me. In today's game he's shooting 8/9 three's a game, playing up, he's a starting PF in today's game. Playing some point forward, running the offense through him in the high post. He'd be prime Dirk with probably better shooting and a lot better passing.
I'm honestly not a LeBron hater. I think he's an interesting player playing in an interesting time.
I don't think his career will be diminished either. Shoot, his career is not over. But right now he is in the lime light, so naturally opinions will be slanted when being compared to players of other eras. Kobe is a great example of this. When Kobe was in his prime, he drew Jordan comparisons. Now he is considered nowhere close to GOAT.
Kobe basically handed the torch to LeBron and in time it's possible that torch gets handed to the Greek Freak and we'll wade through speculation of him being the GOAT. Who knows.
The biggest point of contention I have with LeBron is he quit on his team during the 2010 Celtics series and quite often throughout his career deferred to another player to take a clutch shot. Not always, but quite a bit. To me, Jordan and Bird were the ultimate competitors. I just don't see that as much in LeBron. Perhaps because he is just so physically gifted he seems to play with relative ease. I don't know. I think the other thing is I don't really hold this era of NBA basketball in as high of regards as I do the '80s and '90s.
I totally disagree with this as well. The NBA has more talent today than ever before. It's so much more athletic than it was in the 80's. The 90's was not a great era of NBA basketball aside from Jordan and the Bulls, there were six expansion teams introduced from '88 to '95 which diluted the talent in the league, this was pre the European and overseas influx of players. You had a much smaller talent pool to pull guys from. Scouting is so much more advanced today, I think the level of coaching is also much better today, they have so much more information available. The 2017 Warriors would destroy any team in the 80's, I think that's the greatest team of all time.
No the NBA does not have more athleticism today. The game has changed to allow the players today to demonstrate their athleticism. It could just as easily be argued that the guys scoring then were more athletic because they scored despite being absolutely physically hammered every single night.
You think players in today’s game are less athletic than in the 80’s? That’s not how sports work. So much has changed with training and nutrition since then, just look at the size of the guys back then, a lot of them didn’t even lift weights.
Yep. Athletes get better over the course of time, except in the NBA. Those athletes get worse as time goes on.
I don't think Patrick Ewing would suck in today's game. He was pretty damned athletic then and would be now as well. Hakeem wouldn't be athletic enough now? Give me a break. Kareem wouldn't dominate? He would clean up now as well. Karl Malone? He was and still would be a beast. That doesn't even include guys like Magic and Michael. They would all be all stars now as well. Michael would absolutely destroy things now without the physical beating he was taking then.
No the guys starting then were not less athletic than guys now. It is lazy to think so.
Since we are time traveling do you think the stars then wouldn't be taking advantage of everything you mention if they were playing now?
The Lakers and Celtics would be just fine against Golden State. Who would match up Kareem from Golden State by the way? You really think they could stop him? Hint....they couldn't
Athletes don't get better over the course of time. The guys that were at the top then would be just fine if not better now.
Michael Phelps could be the best swimmer in the history of the sport. He also was helped a great deal in the advances in pool design and swim gear. Was he better than spitz because his times were better or would spitz be faster because the pools are better now.
Look who wasn't on the 1992 Dream Team:
Isiah Thomas, Dominique Wilkins, Reggie Miller, Hakeem Olajuwon (not a citizen yet)
If the talent is so much better today, let's see the list put up against the 1992 Dream Team and four players I mentioned who were left off.
Believe what you want. The guy you are using there would destroy today.
You think magic Johnson wasnt athletic? What are you smoking
No is claiming there weren't athletic guys in the 1980's, but the overall athleticism is not close to what it is today. Today every team has multiple long, athletic wings, there weren't a ton of those guys around back then. You see Rick Carlisle guarding Jordan in the Last Dance, pretty much every team had at least one 7' stiff on their bench back then.
And if we're talking 80's Lakers Kareem, I don't think he can stay on the floor against the '17 Warriors. They go small and make him unplayable, that team hunted mistmatches and you have Magic and Kareem to put in pick and rolls with the three of the greatest shooters ever on the floor, good luck.
Ahh yes that's why all the 100 m dash records are from the 1910's.
I played fantasy basketball back in those days and Schremf was always a good guy to grab early after the elite guys were off the board. He rarely got hurt and contributed to pretty much every category.
Agreed up until probable best team being the 2017 Warriors. They aren't beating the 90's Bulls in a 7 game series. Not sure about Magic's best Lakers teams either. It would be an interesting matchup watching Bird's Celtics try to guard the Warriors on the perimeter and GS try and guard Bird, McHale, and Parrish too.
I would take that Warriors team over any other team. What do you think the best Bulls team was '92, '96? Either way you look at their 3rd and 4th options against Golden State's, plus what Golden State has coming off the bench too. That five man lineup of Steph-Klay-Durant-Draymond-Iggy, is about as perfect of two lineup that has ever played the game.
Well, the Bulls take 2 of their top 3 away immediately with Jordan and Pippen guarding them. Grant or Rodman take care of Draymon. (I know they were on different Bulls teams) If you look at 96 then maybe Rodman plays KD. You're thinking of the Warrior offensive side. What about defensively? Who's guarding Jordan and Pippen? Bench time you're right though. Probably a mismatch when the benches are on the floor.
A lot of it comes down to what rules you're playing under, the Warriors ignore guys they don't consider offensive threats like no one else. That's where I think the Bulls would run into trouble, with Harper and Rodman they have two very solid defender but two guys the Warriors could almost completely help off, they can hide Steph on Harper and go Klay and Iggy on Jodan and Pippen and let Draymond and Durant roam around and help. Playing 90's rules would limit how much they can help, but I still think they have so much fire power that they could more than hold their own.
The '96 Bulls would have at least one weak spot on one end of the floor with every lineup, Kerr and Kukoc defensively, Harper, and Rodman offensively, that Warriors lineup is just so well rounded on both ends of the floor.
The 2001 Lakers get left off these all time lists. They are right up there, and went 16-1 in the playoffs. Shaq would give those 2017 Warriors fits...but that '17 Warriors team was unreal. Durant is an all-time great but people hate the guy so they don't give him any benefit of the doubt.
The Warriors would outscore the Bulls by 30+ from the three point line. It would be incredibly difficult to overcome that. The Bulls would have to pound the offensive glass and get a shit ton of 2nd chance points to stay in it.
That's true, that team flipped the switch come playoff time. It would be interesting to see who blinked first if the Warriors went small against Shaq, can they hit enough three's to make the Lakers have to sit Shaq.
The crazy thing about the 2017 Warriors is I think they still had another gear that they never had to get to. The Steph Durant pick and roll was basically unstoppable but they ran it so rarely, like they were keeping it in their back pocket for when they really needed it. I wanted to see them get pushed to the where point they were running that over and over.
I'd like to see:
- 2014 Spurs vs 2017 Warriors.
- 2004 Pistons vs 2001 Lakers
- 2011 Mavs vs 2016 Cavs
Plenty of people say this, especially people that played and coached in the NBA.
Larry Bird was and still is the best small forward to play the game of basketball, ever.
There, I just said it too. It's indisputable.
So the Warriors wouldn't be guarded? How are Clay and Steph getting shots off over the taller and stronger Jordan and Pippen?
Then Scottie can take him. Again...the Warriors will have to guard the Bulls. Same if it was the Lakers. Or the Celtics.
Cool, now Klay or Curry get buckets. There’s never been a team with three perimeter scorers as good as the ‘17 Warriors. The Warriors were a terrific defense team that year, they can hold their own on that end too.
Lolwut? I didn’t say anything about athleticism I just said I didn’t like him. Never liked Malone either.
One thing that I don’t think gets mentioned in these discussions is how much more movement there is in today’s NBA than in the 90’s. That Warriors team never stopped moving, screening, or cutting. I know Jordan and Pippen were superhuman, but making your only two real offensive threats defend out to 30 feet and chase Curry and Klay around screens for 40 minutes a game doesn’t sound like a very good plan.
On the other side, that Warriors team was pretty well-equipped to defend the Bulls. They could take turns throwing Iguodala, Durant, Klay, and Draymond at MJ and Pippen.
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