End of the Greatest ERA of the NBA?

[Moose10Fan]

NBA reset when the Lakers broke up,

Detroit will take credit for that


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[magnumt]

Mid 80's to mid 90's was probably the greatest era:

• MJ & the Bulls
• Dream & Rockets
• Isaiah's Bad Boy Pistons
• Ewing's No Layup Rule Knicks
• The Sonics
• Pick N Roll Heaven Jazz
• Barley's Suns

So many championship caliber teams with so many HOF players.

--Mags

Maybe it's because I started watching the NBA while all these guys were around but I have to agree with you. Also let's not forget Reggie and his Pacers, Shaq's Magic, Drexler's TrailBlazers,... This era brought something new to the table. We had All time greats like Michael and Hakeem, eccentrics like Rodman, psysically unusual Basketball players like Muggsy or Reggie, the first Euros, 4 expasion teams,... it was really fun watching the NBA these days.

Damn, can't believe I forgot about Reggie's Pacers of all teams (after the battles we faced with them)! Great point on the Blazers too, forgot about then as well.

Indeed, I used to love NBA on NBC's broadcasts!

--Mags

[ShazamDaShiznt]

All these greatest era things are very personal. Most of the posters in here I am sure grew up on watching 00s superstars doing their thing so naturally in their nostalgic opinion that era must be the greatest.

In ranking eras you have to look at the average level of nba player instead of looking at superstar roster of each decade. The 00s had some really terrible role players, in fact a lot of superstars had that one man show team thing going on. The early 00s and late 90s were a really washed up era with stagnant offense. It's painful watching nba teams playing 48 minutes and sometimes collecting 70-80 points. Definitely a downside of the 00s. While the peak in my opinion being the 07-08 season, whole west finishing with 50+ wins and east being definitely competitive as well.

[NuggetsWY]

I believe their era has to be regarded as the best or second best era. Why? It contained the best generation of PF's and SG's the NBA has ever seen. It was a joy to witness such great talents from these two posititions:

PF- Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Webber, Elton Brand, Jermaine O'Neal, Pau Gasol, Rasheed Wallace, Amare Stoudemire, Antonio McDyess..and afterwards Chris Bosh and Lamarcus Aldridge.

SG - Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Vince Carter, Ray Allen, Manu Ginobili, Michael Finley, Gilbert
Arenas, Jerry Stackhouse, Michael Redd, Eddie Jones....and of course Dwyane Wade later on before elite SG's became rare.

Name any era that had the two best positions ever? There were so many stars drafted from 1995-early 2000's and they helped take the NBA to greater heights!

Lots of players does not always mean lots of greatness - some of those players named seem to have been added to have more numbers --- they were all very good but many do not even rank in the top 10 at their position --- SG alone might need to consider Frazier & Monroe from the Knicks days as significantly better than some of your suggestions, along with Philadelphia's Toney and Portland's Drexler and then there was the very famous Iceman --- let's just consider a few players that modern fans have forgotten about

C - George Mikan was called "Mr. Basketball" - dominant rebounder, dominant shot-blocker, proficient hook shot with either hand, seven championships with NBL, BAA, NBA with many individual records, awards, etc. --- Goal tending rule introduced because of his play - increasing the width of the paint was called The Mikan Rule - it is even said that the shot-clock was created because of his dominance - he was one of the founders of the ABA - in 1996, he was listed as one of the 50 greatest players of all time (and consider that many people have even forgotten who he was and what he had done --- oh yeah, he was a primary force in creating a reasonable pension plan for former players

PG - Bob Cousey was considered the first truly great PG and the protype of the modern PG position

SG - Mr. Logo - enough said

PF - Baylor & Hayes

I'd say that many eras have had greatness - modern players might seem to have more greatness because there are more players to choose from (those big salaries attract young players to prepare for a career) plus there are a great many more players today than there were "back then" so it seems like the modern players are greater --- comparing different eras can be difficult, deceiving, and in this forum, probably dangerous