I Watched a Game From Every NBA Decade

[Ice Man]

I watched a YouTube video of that name, which takes up about half an hour, and quite enjoyed. It's not as if I were totally unaware of the topic. I have watched NBA games live since the Seventies and have on occasion seen clips of earlier games. But it was useful to have that broad span of NBA experience all placed into a single short video, for easy comparison.

Watch on YouTube

These were my preliminary thoughts -

1) Fifties - The players were awful. Never mind white, slow, can't jump -- the stuff in that Scottie Pippen commercial of old. They couldn't shoot, and they made terrible shooting decisions. If you put a gun to my head, I could not tell you whether they could beat a WBNA team. I guess they would based on athleticism, as they would swarm the ladies defensively and block their shots, but otherwise those NBA players were far worse at the sport.

2) Sixties - The game was more skillful but man was it soft. Yeah you could hand check, I guess, but the referees called things so tightly. Skinny players and touch fouls.

3) Seventies - See the Sixties, although the athletes were taller and faster. But still soft. When people talk about the old physical days, they mean "dirty." But the game itself was low-contact.

4) Eighties - Looks a lot more like today, as by then the players are allowed to put bodies on each other. But nobody guarded the 3 point line. Defense was WAY easier when no defender ever went more than about 17 feet from the basket. And getting a good offensive shot was a lot harder. There just wasn't much space in which to operate.

5) Nineties - See above.

After that, I stopped watching, because I remember well what basketball in the last 20 years looks like.

Oh, and the subhead about the 3 point line ruining the game is clickbait. The guy who put together that video does not show any evidence to that effect -- in fact, it's clear that today's game is at the very least far superior to that of the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies -- nor does he even really state that case. It's just a junk headline designed to get people who yell at clouds to watch the video.

[MrSparkle]

Fun video. NBA’s got to have the most rule changes of the 5 biggest sports leagues. Watching superstars/super teams find ways to loophole them, seeing the new rules come out to address the hack… fairly fascinating. Although part of me wishes they wouldn’t try to influence the game so much with officiating.

Player nutrition, gear/shoes (seeing Converse makes my back hurt), training and surgery/rehab treatments are exponentially better… not to mention the money, planes, staff. So this alone makes pre-90s NBA a hard comparison. I love Magic and Bird; Kareem and Wilt were freaks, and they’d be perfectly fine superstars in today’s NBA, but on the broad scale, the 5th-8th men on most 80s squads probably don’t make today’s NBA.

Kobe and MJ saw some of the toughest defenses ever. This video supports that, although 90s Jordan benefitted from illegal defense rules, whereas Kobe benefitted from Shaq (arguably top-5 dominant player of all time, in his peak).

Anyway, today is by and far the most difficult era to “hang.” A lot of talented prospects bust cause they can’t figure out their liability well enough (Hutchison, Dunn, etc.), or they just aren’t smart enough. Some fringe prospects surprisingly flourish (Duncan, Strus, Herro… Spo/Riley have their defensive concept down).

I watched a 2001 Bulls game not long ago… Artest, Brand, Miller, Hoiberg, etc. My impression was that the game revolved so much more around the post, and the horriBulls actually looked like a fundamentally sound (and talented) team. Lot of ball movement, footwork, cuts. Everybody played tough grind defense.

The one constant has been scoring. If you don’t have 1-2 guys who could score comfortably on just about every single 1-on-1 possession, you can’t dominate the NBA. Cause that’s the thing that disrupts a defense, regardless of era: You need to double that guy, or else you’re getting cooked. Mercer, young Brand, they weren’t those guys (little did Floyd/Cartwright/Krause realize that Miller/Artest were… and Brand, in a year’s time). Demar and Coby are showing it at a fringe level.

Much different when you have Jordan/Pippen, Stockton/Malone, Magic/Kareem, Lebron/Davis, Jokic/Murray, etc. Almost feels like a 3rd all-star scorer is honestly just a distraction- you want that #3 to be a defensive freak who just passes and collects garbage buckets. Or if you’re lucky, you have a defensive anchor and scorer (Duncan, Garnett, etc.).

[Bandit King]

I miss hand checking

[madvillian]

The eurostep was basically an auto travel until like the 90s. Players didn't even start to get the gather step consistently until around the same time. It was a different league prior to the interpretation of a legal dribble changing to generally allow more movement with the ball.

The 90s Bulls played great ball but it always cracks me up watching them run a play to get Wennington or Kerr or whoever a 16 foot open jumper. That shot has basically been eliminated out of basketball. If someone is taking an open 16 foot jumper, it's in iso 95% of the time now.

[Ice Man]

I watched a 2001 Bulls game not long ago… Artest, Brand, Miller, Hoiberg, etc. My impression was that the game revolved so much more around the post, and the horriBulls actually looked like a fundamentally sound (and talented) team. Lot of ball movement, footwork, cuts. Everybody played tough grind defense.

Teams had to execute very, very well to score inside back in the day, because the spacing was condensed (and because of hand checking, although for me that was less of a factor). Now it's much easier to get to the basket because if teams pack the paint they get destroyed on 3s. So they spread and leave big gaps for dribble attackers.

I mean, that's what the NBA wanted with the 3-point line, although I suspect that nobody saw the trend going THIS far.

[wojoaderge]

I 1) Fifties - The players were awful. Never mind white, slow, can't jump -- the stuff in that Scottie Pippen commercial of old. They couldn't shoot, and they made terrible shooting decisions. If you put a gun to my head, I could not tell you whether they could beat a WBNA team. I guess they would based on athleticism, as they would swarm the ladies defensively and block their shots, but otherwise those NBA players were far worse at the sport.

Come on

[madvillian]

I 1) Fifties - The players were awful. Never mind white, slow, can't jump -- the stuff in that Scottie Pippen commercial of old. They couldn't shoot, and they made terrible shooting decisions. If you put a gun to my head, I could not tell you whether they could beat a WBNA team. I guess they would based on athleticism, as they would swarm the ladies defensively and block their shots, but otherwise those NBA players were far worse at the sport.

Come on

It was really bad and the dribbling rules didn't help.

Check the footage from the 2 minute mark in this video:

Watch on YouTube

[wojoaderge]

I 1) Fifties - The players were awful. Never mind white, slow, can't jump -- the stuff in that Scottie Pippen commercial of old. They couldn't shoot, and they made terrible shooting decisions. If you put a gun to my head, I could not tell you whether they could beat a WBNA team. I guess they would based on athleticism, as they would swarm the ladies defensively and block their shots, but otherwise those NBA players were far worse at the sport.

Come on

It was really bad and the dribbling rules didn't help.

Check the footage from the 2 minute mark in this video:

Watch on YouTube

How do you expect them to look?

[MrSparkle]

From a personal standpoint (though I’m sure we all agree), post-oriented basketball is just way more interesting and fun to watch. At heart, MJ, Magic and Bird were post-up players with perimeter skills. Along with Kobe, Dirk, Duncan, Garnett.

Lebron developed a strong post game in Miami, but he ultimately established the trend of face-up “running back” ball. It was always a kind of ugly move IMO, and the gradual ref lenience on ambiguous “euro step” and first step carries just made it worse to watch. What I most dislike is there’s no fine line between a travel or a fair step and carry, and ultimately defenders get baited into chicken **** fouls, refs make incorrect calls in the heat of the moment, and superstars get way easier face-up buckets with shoddy footwork.

[madvillian]

Come on

It was really bad and the dribbling rules didn't help.

Check the footage from the 2 minute mark in this video:

Watch on YouTube

How do you expect them to look?

Like that. Same with old highlights of any sport really. We've come a long way. In MLB the average fastball has gone from like 91 to 94 just in the last 5 years after sitting around 91 for decades. Guys are now regularly coming in out of the pen and hitting 99-101. Guys are shooting step back threes at 35-40%. Skill level in sports is just through the roof and it's not fair to compare the eras just appreciate them on their own merits.

[MrSparkle]

Anyway, as this all relates to today’s Bulls… One of the biggest shocks to me, besides Vuc’s blunders (turnovers, losing defensive rebounds, inability to score on 1-on-1 post ups consistently).. it’s his 3P%.

Horford, Brook, just kept shooting better with age… and these guys weren’t even remotely good 3P shooters to begin with. Vuc was fairly automatic from midrange, and it’s just odd that he hit 40% 3Ps as a 1st option and has regressed to 28% as a 3rd option… on a team with definitively more spacing than what MCW/Isaac/Fultz/etc. offered.

If he shot 40% from the arc, we’d be a good modern team. That’s all. I’m not optimistic about Vuc, but if there’s anything a 33yo and his shooting coach should be able to fix… it’d be 3P%.

[wojoaderge]

Skill level in sports is just through the roof and it's not fair to compare the eras just appreciate them on their own merits.

That's exactly what i'm saying

[_txchilibowl_]

You can't breathe on a player in today's game much less put a body on them...

[kodo]

The part about dribbling was definitely accurate.


A big reason why the older eras look bad is because they had to abide by the actual rules, which mean the hand couldn't be anywhere except the top of the basketball. Try making complex moves to the rim while only tapping the ball downwards only. It severely restricted any on-ball movement, and it forced real ball movement to happen via passing. Currently players commonly dribble with the hand underneath or on the side all the time, and pause with the ball mid dribble all the time.

The other very true part he noted was the rule never changed, what's only changed is whether refs call it or not. Much like illegal defense in the 90s or travel today, it doesn't really matter what the NBA rules are if the refs don't call it.

[kodo]

You can't breathe on a player in today's game much less put a body on them...

Watch on YouTube

[suursahuri]

I played in a game in the 00's where the opposing team's players were former national team players from late 70's and 80's. By the 00's everybody was able to dunk and dribble with their weaker hand. These old timers not so much. They did a lot of overhead passing and dribbled almost exclusively with the dominant hand. For us it not only looked outdated but borderline ridiculous! Of course we ended up losing by 30 points. They kicked our butts with their smarts, timing and teamwork. At the time their youngest players were in their 40's and the oldest just might have been close to 60. Our players were in their 20's.

This might not be the case with the NBA, but I think it's easy to underestimate the level of play from different era just because it looks so different.

[GrowingHorns]

I liked most the very oldest clips. I don't know if it's the lack of color in the film, but old films just makes me go "aww". More chaotic too!

[SalmonsSuperfan]

the level of talent that now exists in the nba has essentially broken the sport of basketball. i think the style of play in europe and previous generations of the NBA is more entertaining and it probably has to do with physical or talent limitations of the players. i'll reiterate the point that the fix is to probably change the point values. 4s and 3s maybe. free throws are still 1. maybe the dimensions of the court need to be larger, the three point line should be around the logo.
or de-juice the ball somehow. install industrial grade fans above the rim. actually, that guy was onto something years ago talking about playing outdoors. it doesn't have to be on assfault, dogs are still not allowed, but the elements could really add another dimension to the sport.