NBA Message boards in the 80's

[jkvonny]

Here's what Marc Lee from San Diego wrote about Michael Jordan in January 1985:

Since San Diego basketball fans are now in the dark with respect to
goings-on in the NBA, could someone please tell me how in the world
Jordan is piling up such outrageous stats? All I've seen is box
scores and the occaisional slam-dunk highlight on ESPN, but I don't
even know, for instance, if he's playing point guard, shooting guard,
mostly around the basket, scoring on outside jumpers, or what. From
the few highlights I've seen, it seems he has carte blanche to go
wherever on the court he feels. But what's he got that makes him
special? I don't remember him having a particularly good outside
shot at UNC, and there are plenty of 6'6" players who can jump in
the NBA.

Marc Lee
Burroughs Corp
San Diego

Link

This was Jordan's rookie season IIRC.

Nobody replied.

It’s crazy to think that in 1985 this guy had the internet but didn’t have a way of watching Michael Jordan.

LOL. True. Probably a nerd computer tech at a research center or university or something.

Also. Not many Bulls games were shown nationally on TV (unless you had the WGN Chicago station on cable) at the time, the Bulls were terrible back then. Lottery team.

He probably did catch the UNC games on TV tho. MJ's college team. Or probably didnt even watch much college hoops. So who knows.

[Capn'O]

Here's what Marc Lee from San Diego wrote about Michael Jordan in January 1985:



Link

This was Jordan's rookie season IIRC.

Nobody replied.

It’s crazy to think that in 1985 this guy had the internet but didn’t have a way of watching Michael Jordan.

LOL. True. Probably a nerd computer tech at a research center or university or something.

Also. Not many Bulls games were shown nationally on TV (unless you had the WGN Chicago station on cable) at the time, the Bulls were terrible back then. Lottery team.

He probably did catch the UNC games on TV tho. MJ's college team. Or probably didnt even watch much college hoops. So who knows.

Yeah, it's hard to convey the level of access at that time. I lived in western New York, for example, and we weren't able to get the MSG channel on cable until 1991 or so. So we could only watch national games and there was another local station that had rights to a handful of games. Many nights our only option was AM radio. I remember huddling in the kitchen with my dad trying to get the 660 AM radio station from NYC and we'd get moments of clarity and moments of static. Then readjust the dial ever. so. slightly. and maybe 10 straight minutes with only minor static interruptions. Like we were searching for aliens or something.

Any meaningful video streaming over the net didn't really happen until the mid to late 90s and most of that was porn. Only half kidding as those sites were early adopters while most industries were slower to move online. So I'd wake up early and watch Sportscenter which would show 30 sec to a minute clips of the previous night's games. That was pretty much my access to the rest of the league plus whatever NBA on NBC showed on weekends. Maybe open the paper to scour box scores.

Just saying this makes me feel really old.

[jkvonny]

It’s crazy to think that in 1985 this guy had the internet but didn’t have a way of watching Michael Jordan.

LOL. True. Probably a nerd computer tech at a research center or university or something.

Also. Not many Bulls games were shown nationally on TV (unless you had the WGN Chicago station on cable) at the time, the Bulls were terrible back then. Lottery team.

He probably did catch the UNC games on TV tho. MJ's college team. Or probably didnt even watch much college hoops. So who knows.

Yeah, it's hard to convey the level of access at that time. I lived in western New York, for example, and we weren't able to get the MSG channel on cable until 1991 or so. So we could only watch national games and there was another local station that had rights to a handful of games. So many nights our only option was AM radio. I remember huddling in the kitchen with my dad trying to get the 660 AM radio station from NYC and we'd get moments of clarity and moments of static. Then readjust the dial ever. so. slightly. and maybe 10 straight minutes with only minor static interruptions. Like we were searching for aliens or something.

Any meaningful video streaming over the net didn't really happen until the mid to late 90s and most of that was porn. Only half kidding as those sites were early adopters while most industries were slower to move online.

Just saying this makes me feel really old.

Ha! I feel ya. I'm gettin a lil old too
Funny comment about the porn access BTW lol
Yup, mid-late '90s was when video streaming over the net was accessible to the general public, that had internet. Not everyone had internet. Only a certain demographic folks had access to that prior to the mid '90s (government, military, rich folks, computer geeks, program developers, etc), but then it was very primitive at its stage.

Yup, I grew up in south Texas. Only Bulls games that we could gain access to at the time ('80s) was on cable TV (we'd have cable off and on back then, parents didn't really want it ) on WGN or other stations occasionally or if they have them on national TV ( very are, Bulls stunk) on free antenna TV. Or if some rich neighbor down the street had the satellite TV/Dish (like a 100 channels, mind blowing!) MSG! Cool TV station, NY Yankees heavy station. I remember WWOR (NY station) on cable. We watch some Nets, Knicks games and the NY Mets. New York NHL (Rangers/Islanders) hockey teams too. lol
Or TBS (Atlanta) showing tons of Braves and Hawks games.
Fox Sports tv stations were very regional. In south Texas (Fox Sports Southwest) , we'd catch the SA Spurs, Houston Astros/Texas Rangers games regularly. To see the Spurs on TV were the regional TV stations, playoff games on CBS/NBC, ESPN or listen to AM radio. Pain in the butt during bad weather had to move the radio a certain way. To avoid static and background/feedback noise.
We, living in south Texas, we'd catch a lot of pirate radio stations from Mexico ! Moving the dial a certain way and distance very carefully. Lot of underground American music and regional Mexican music. lol

[Capn'O]

LOL. True. Probably a nerd computer tech at a research center or university or something.

Also. Not many Bulls games were shown nationally on TV (unless you had the WGN Chicago station on cable) at the time, the Bulls were terrible back then. Lottery team.

He probably did catch the UNC games on TV tho. MJ's college team. Or probably didnt even watch much college hoops. So who knows.

Yeah, it's hard to convey the level of access at that time. I lived in western New York, for example, and we weren't able to get the MSG channel on cable until 1991 or so. So we could only watch national games and there was another local station that had rights to a handful of games. So many nights our only option was AM radio. I remember huddling in the kitchen with my dad trying to get the 660 AM radio station from NYC and we'd get moments of clarity and moments of static. Then readjust the dial ever. so. slightly. and maybe 10 straight minutes with only minor static interruptions. Like we were searching for aliens or something.

Any meaningful video streaming over the net didn't really happen until the mid to late 90s and most of that was porn. Only half kidding as those sites were early adopters while most industries were slower to move online.

Just saying this makes me feel really old.

Ha! I feel ya. I'm gettin a lil old too
Funny comment about the porn access BTW lol
Yup, mid-late '90s was when video streaming over the net was accessible to the general public, that had internet. Not everyone had internet. Only a certain demographic folks had access to that prior to the mid '90s (government, military, rich folks, computer geeks, program developers, etc), but then it was very primitive at its stage.

Yup, I grew up in south Texas. Only Bulls games that we could gain access to at the time ('80s) was on cable TV (we'd have cable off and on back then, parents didn't really want it ) on WGN or other stations occasionally or if they have them on national TV ( very are, Bulls stunk) on free antenna TV. Or if some rich neighbor down the street had the satellite TV/Dish (like a 100 channels, mind blowing!) MSG! Cool TV station, NY Yankees heavy station. I remember WWOR (NY station) on cable. We watch some Nets, Knicks games and the NY Mets. New York NHL (Rangers/Islanders) hockey teams too. lol
Or TBS (Atlanta) showing tons of Braves and Hawks games.
Fox Sports tv stations were very regional. In south Texas (Fox Sports Southwest) , we'd catch the SA Spurs, Houston Astros/Texas Rangers games regularly. To see the Spurs on TV were the regional TV stations, playoff games on CBS/NBC, ESPN or listen to AM radio. Pain in the butt during bad weather had to move the radio a certain way. To avoid static and background/feedback noise.
We, living in south Texas, we'd catch a lot of pirate radio stations from Mexico ! Moving the dial a certain way and distance very carefully. Lot of underground American music and regional Mexican music. lol

WWOR! That was the other one I was thinking of.

I was just reminiscing with some buddies about fishing for music on random regional radio stations... how I just don't have the time or patience to just sit and listen to crappy music for an hour to find one or two songs that I really like. The easy access changed everything. Mostly for the better but a few things like that went to the wayside.

That said, get a good curated playlist today and I'm finding consistently good new music for hours on end. There's just so much more to parse before you find something excellent.

I added a bit on Sportscenter highlights above. Another relic of that era that will never come back but was fun while it lasted.

[jkvonny]

Yeah, it's hard to convey the level of access at that time. I lived in western New York, for example, and we weren't able to get the MSG channel on cable until 1991 or so. So we could only watch national games and there was another local station that had rights to a handful of games. So many nights our only option was AM radio. I remember huddling in the kitchen with my dad trying to get the 660 AM radio station from NYC and we'd get moments of clarity and moments of static. Then readjust the dial ever. so. slightly. and maybe 10 straight minutes with only minor static interruptions. Like we were searching for aliens or something.

Any meaningful video streaming over the net didn't really happen until the mid to late 90s and most of that was porn. Only half kidding as those sites were early adopters while most industries were slower to move online.

Just saying this makes me feel really old.

Ha! I feel ya. I'm gettin a lil old too
Funny comment about the porn access BTW lol
Yup, mid-late '90s was when video streaming over the net was accessible to the general public, that had internet. Not everyone had internet. Only a certain demographic folks had access to that prior to the mid '90s (government, military, rich folks, computer geeks, program developers, etc), but then it was very primitive at its stage.

Yup, I grew up in south Texas. Only Bulls games that we could gain access to at the time ('80s) was on cable TV (we'd have cable off and on back then, parents didn't really want it ) on WGN or other stations occasionally or if they have them on national TV ( very are, Bulls stunk) on free antenna TV. Or if some rich neighbor down the street had the satellite TV/Dish (like a 100 channels, mind blowing!) MSG! Cool TV station, NY Yankees heavy station. I remember WWOR (NY station) on cable. We watch some Nets, Knicks games and the NY Mets. New York NHL (Rangers/Islanders) hockey teams too. lol
Or TBS (Atlanta) showing tons of Braves and Hawks games.
Fox Sports tv stations were very regional. In south Texas (Fox Sports Southwest) , we'd catch the SA Spurs, Houston Astros/Texas Rangers games regularly. To see the Spurs on TV were the regional TV stations, playoff games on CBS/NBC, ESPN or listen to AM radio. Pain in the butt during bad weather had to move the radio a certain way. To avoid static and background/feedback noise.
We, living in south Texas, we'd catch a lot of pirate radio stations from Mexico ! Moving the dial a certain way and distance very carefully. Lot of underground American music and regional Mexican music. lol

WWOR! That was the other one I was thinking of.

I was just reminiscing with some buddies about fishing for music on random regional radio stations... how I just don't have the time or patience to just sit and listen to crappy music for an hour to find one or two songs that I really like. The easy access changed everything. Mostly for the better but a few things like that went to the wayside.

That said, get a good curated playlist today and I'm finding consistently good new music for hours on end. There's just so much more to parse before you find something excellent.

I added a bit on Sportscenter highlights above. Another relic of that era that will never come back but was fun while it lasted.

Forgot to add. We'd catch some Astros/Texas rangers game on AM radio too. And the WGN TV station had tons of Cubs games and sometimes the White Sox. NHL Blackhawks, too.

Yup, WWOR! lol

Also, the rest of your post, awesome! lol And true.

[Rust_Cohle]

Pretty funny here.

Even 40 years ago, some folks were still complaining.

https://groups.google.com/g/net.sport.hoops/c/_i748SYWaf8

Dude complaining about 3 point shots. I winder if he is still alive to see what the game has become.

Sadly he couldn’t take it anymore after seeing Antoine Walker

[jkvonny]

Pretty funny here.

Even 40 years ago, some folks were still complaining.

https://groups.google.com/g/net.sport.hoops/c/_i748SYWaf8

Dude complaining about 3 point shots. I winder if he is still alive to see what the game has become.

Sadly he couldn’t take it anymore after seeing Antoine Walker

lol

[Beethoven]

Wow this is perhaps the most enthralling thread I have ever read.


Crazy and surreal to read these; almost makes the 80s feel like they just got transported to us in a time machine or something akin to looking at a distant planet that is millions of light years away through a powerful telescope, only to find a Starbucks on that planet. I can't explain what I'm feeling can't seem to articulate how amazing these message boards are reading them today.


--
The 80s in terms of sports coverage, was so ancient to me personally back then. All we had (or I had as a teen) was the game and news on the boob tube, radio, and the newspaper sports page next day.
I had no idea we had a version of public internet back then while magic and bird were playing. It is almost as if someone pulled out message boards talking about Bill Russell and wilt and Mikan....

[Goudelock]

Maybe open the paper to scour box scores.

Just saying this makes me feel really old.

The idea of having to wait until you got the newspaper in the morning to know the stats for games out of your region seems.........so strange to me.

Sounds kind of cool though.

[The Laker Kid]

They talk about the same ol stuff that people talk about today

"How does Kareem going to the Lakers affect his legacy?"

"If you're starting a new 'chise, would you pick Larry Bird or Magic?"

"Should they allow pets in the new Palace of Auburn Hills?"

[jkvonny]

Maybe open the paper to scour box scores.

Just saying this makes me feel really old.

The idea of having to wait until you got the newspaper in the morning to know the stats for games out of your region seems.........so strange to me.

Sounds kind of cool though.

You must be quite young!

I remember those days (Texas), Especially scores from the west coast/Hawaii, overseas (Asian countries like Japan, China, etc) or smaller schools (college), minor leagues. Unless you stayed up late watching CNN News (if you had cable TV), listened to overnite news radio, or ESPN overnite updates or watched the very late games.
News traveled kind of slow compared to modern times.

Lots of time here in Texas, we found out about final scores of PAC 10, WAC, Big West, etc college sport games the next morning . lol Sometimes the boxscores for the west coast games said "game in progress" or incomplete stats like it was cut off, something like "Lakers 109 Nuggets 104 3rd Quarter (Late, incomplete, Pacific Standard Time)" the next morning (newspapers printed out usually prior to midnight). So those scores, we'd see the final tally retroactively a day or 2 later.

[Beethoven]

This is so funny the way they discuss and talk it's like almost contemporary (didn't know the colloquial term "hater" even existed back then)..

This years Lakers the GREATEST?
338 views
Mark L. Tompkins's profile photo
Mark L. Tompkins
unread,
1/20/86
to
Both major Detroit papers carried articles in Sunday's editions comparing
the 85-86 Lakers with the greatest teams of all time ( the 71-72 Lakers,
the 72-73 Bucks, the 64-65 Celtics, the 70-71 Knicks, and the 66-67 Warriors ).
After all, the mighty Lakers were coming to town to play the Pistons, losers
of 15 of their last 20, on national TV.

Final score: Pistons 118, Lakers 115.

So much for the "greatest team of all time" ( although I will admit they do
have a decent shot at winning 70 games this season, but if they can't beat a
struggling Detroit team, who knows... )


-- Mark
Pete Williamson's profile photo
Pete Williamson
unread,
1/21/86
to
>Both major Detroit papers carried articles in Sunday's editions comparing
>the 85-86 Lakers with the greatest teams of all time ( the 71-72 Lakers,
>the 72-73 Bucks, the 64-65 Celtics, the 70-71 Knicks, and the 66-67 Warriors ).
They must have meant the 1957-1965 Celtics !!

This year's edition of the Lakers could indeed win 70 games; they are
playing in the Western Conference. This year's Celtics are not too
shabby either.

--
Pete Williamson
"By hook or by crook, we will !!" ... #2

l...@ucla-cs.uucp's profile photo
l...@ucla-cs.uucp
unread,
1/22/86
to
How can this Laker team be considered the greatest if it
fails to win the championship? All talks about their greatness
are baloney right now!
I am afraid all the Laker hype, like the CBS's half-time feature
(Dynasty II?) last Sunday, will just irritate and fire up the Celtics.
I hope I won't see Auerbach saying this in June: "This Celtic team
is the greatest of all time!"



--
Eddy Lor
...!(ihnp4,ucbvax)!ucla-cs!lor
l...@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
Computer Science Department, UCLA

mich...@ism780.uucp's profile photo
mich...@ism780.uucp
unread,
1/24/86
to

The 1985-86 Celtics just beat them by 15 points.
Celtic haters beware...........
.
.
.
.
.
.
Larry is back.

Advanced Studies Project's profile photo
Advanced Studies Project
unread,
1/26/86
to
> In article <4...@mb2c.UUCP> m...@mb2c.UUCP (Mark L. Tompkins) writes:
> >Both major Detroit papers carried articles in Sunday's editions comparing
> >the 85-86 Lakers with the greatest teams of all time ( the 71-72 Lakers,
> >the 72-73 Bucks, the 64-65 Celtics, the 70-71 Knicks, and the 66-67 Warriors ).
> >Final score: Pistons 118, Lakers 115.
> >
> >So much for the "greatest team of all time" ( although I will admit they do
> >have a decent shot at winning 70 games this season, but if they can't beat a
> >struggling Detroit team, who knows... )
> >
> >
> > -- Mark
>
> How can this Laker team be considered the greatest if it
> fails to win the championship? All talks about their greatness
> are baloney right now!
> Eddy Lor
Agreed. Having lost 4 or their last 5 games, the Lakers no longer
have a decent shot at winning 70 games, and they no longer have the best
record in the NBA this season. It amazes me how people can start calling
a team one of the greatest of all time (or Dynasty II) in the first half
of the season, long before they've had a chance to defend their title.
The season is only half over -- a lot could happen. Right now the Celtics
are playing the best ball in the NBA.

allegra!nbires
ucbvax!hplabs \ Chuck D'Ambra
\ \ Advanced Study Program
mcvax!seismo - hao!asp National Center for Atmospheric Research
/ P.O. Box 3000
{decvax|ihnp4}!noao Boulder, CO 80307

Al Gates's profile photo
Al Gates
unread,
1/26/86
to
If this years Lakers are the greatest, and the Nuggets have won three out
of four games against them (which they have), does this make
THE NUGGETS EVEN BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

--

[jkvonny]

This is so funny the way they discuss and talk it's like almost contemporary (didn't know the colloquial term "hater" even existed back then)..

This years Lakers the GREATEST?
338 views
Mark L. Tompkins's profile photo
Mark L. Tompkins
unread,
1/20/86
to
Both major Detroit papers carried articles in Sunday's editions comparing
the 85-86 Lakers with the greatest teams of all time ( the 71-72 Lakers,
the 72-73 Bucks, the 64-65 Celtics, the 70-71 Knicks, and the 66-67 Warriors ).
After all, the mighty Lakers were coming to town to play the Pistons, losers
of 15 of their last 20, on national TV.

Final score: Pistons 118, Lakers 115.

So much for the "greatest team of all time" ( although I will admit they do
have a decent shot at winning 70 games this season, but if they can't beat a
struggling Detroit team, who knows... )


-- Mark
Pete Williamson's profile photo
Pete Williamson
unread,
1/21/86
to
>Both major Detroit papers carried articles in Sunday's editions comparing
>the 85-86 Lakers with the greatest teams of all time ( the 71-72 Lakers,
>the 72-73 Bucks, the 64-65 Celtics, the 70-71 Knicks, and the 66-67 Warriors ).
They must have meant the 1957-1965 Celtics !!

This year's edition of the Lakers could indeed win 70 games; they are
playing in the Western Conference. This year's Celtics are not too
shabby either.

--
Pete Williamson
"By hook or by crook, we will !!" ... #2

l...@ucla-cs.uucp's profile photo
l...@ucla-cs.uucp
unread,
1/22/86
to
How can this Laker team be considered the greatest if it
fails to win the championship? All talks about their greatness
are baloney right now!
I am afraid all the Laker hype, like the CBS's half-time feature
(Dynasty II?) last Sunday, will just irritate and fire up the Celtics.
I hope I won't see Auerbach saying this in June: "This Celtic team
is the greatest of all time!"



--
Eddy Lor
...!(ihnp4,ucbvax)!ucla-cs!lor
l...@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
Computer Science Department, UCLA

mich...@ism780.uucp's profile photo
mich...@ism780.uucp
unread,
1/24/86
to

The 1985-86 Celtics just beat them by 15 points.
Celtic haters beware...........
.
.
.
.
.
.
Larry is back.

Advanced Studies Project's profile photo
Advanced Studies Project
unread,
1/26/86
to
> In article <4...@mb2c.UUCP> m...@mb2c.UUCP (Mark L. Tompkins) writes:
> >Both major Detroit papers carried articles in Sunday's editions comparing
> >the 85-86 Lakers with the greatest teams of all time ( the 71-72 Lakers,
> >the 72-73 Bucks, the 64-65 Celtics, the 70-71 Knicks, and the 66-67 Warriors ).
> >Final score: Pistons 118, Lakers 115.
> >
> >So much for the "greatest team of all time" ( although I will admit they do
> >have a decent shot at winning 70 games this season, but if they can't beat a
> >struggling Detroit team, who knows... )
> >
> >
> > -- Mark
>
> How can this Laker team be considered the greatest if it
> fails to win the championship? All talks about their greatness
> are baloney right now!
> Eddy Lor
Agreed. Having lost 4 or their last 5 games, the Lakers no longer
have a decent shot at winning 70 games, and they no longer have the best
record in the NBA this season. It amazes me how people can start calling
a team one of the greatest of all time (or Dynasty II) in the first half
of the season, long before they've had a chance to defend their title.
The season is only half over -- a lot could happen. Right now the Celtics
are playing the best ball in the NBA.

allegra!nbires
ucbvax!hplabs \ Chuck D'Ambra
\ \ Advanced Study Program
mcvax!seismo - hao!asp National Center for Atmospheric Research
/ P.O. Box 3000
{decvax|ihnp4}!noao Boulder, CO 80307

Al Gates's profile photo
Al Gates
unread,
1/26/86
to
If this years Lakers are the greatest, and the Nuggets have won three out
of four games against them (which they have), does this make
THE NUGGETS EVEN BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

--

Wow, nice! lol

I remember first hearing the slang "hater" back in the '90s. It was mostly a west coast street slang at the time for "player hater". Meaning not liking a successful person, hustler or a dude that gets all the chicks (player). Hate for the game/player Used a lot back then on songs from rappers in California, west coast and Texas and the south.
Used in the '80s? Interesting!

EDIT: Ha! BTW, just found this on youtube. Def west coast origin. Check it out.

Watch on YouTube

[dhsilv2]

Here's what Marc Lee from San Diego wrote about Michael Jordan in January 1985:



Link

This was Jordan's rookie season IIRC.

Nobody replied.

It’s crazy to think that in 1985 this guy had the internet but didn’t have a way of watching Michael Jordan.

LOL. True. Probably a nerd computer tech at a research center or university or something.

Also. Not many Bulls games were shown nationally on TV (unless you had the WGN Chicago station on cable) at the time, the Bulls were terrible back then. Lottery team.

He probably did catch the UNC games on TV tho. MJ's college team. Or probably didnt even watch much college hoops. So who knows.

I was in Kentucky about 6-8 hours from chicago and didn't get WGN until like 97. Even UPN which got some games (or at least I thought they did) wasn't available.

[dhsilv2]

LOL. True. Probably a nerd computer tech at a research center or university or something.

Also. Not many Bulls games were shown nationally on TV (unless you had the WGN Chicago station on cable) at the time, the Bulls were terrible back then. Lottery team.

He probably did catch the UNC games on TV tho. MJ's college team. Or probably didnt even watch much college hoops. So who knows.

Yeah, it's hard to convey the level of access at that time. I lived in western New York, for example, and we weren't able to get the MSG channel on cable until 1991 or so. So we could only watch national games and there was another local station that had rights to a handful of games. So many nights our only option was AM radio. I remember huddling in the kitchen with my dad trying to get the 660 AM radio station from NYC and we'd get moments of clarity and moments of static. Then readjust the dial ever. so. slightly. and maybe 10 straight minutes with only minor static interruptions. Like we were searching for aliens or something.

Any meaningful video streaming over the net didn't really happen until the mid to late 90s and most of that was porn. Only half kidding as those sites were early adopters while most industries were slower to move online.

Just saying this makes me feel really old.

Ha! I feel ya. I'm gettin a lil old too
Funny comment about the porn access BTW lol
Yup, mid-late '90s was when video streaming over the net was accessible to the general public, that had internet. Not everyone had internet. Only a certain demographic folks had access to that prior to the mid '90s (government, military, rich folks, computer geeks, program developers, etc), but then it was very primitive at its stage.

Yup, I grew up in south Texas. Only Bulls games that we could gain access to at the time ('80s) was on cable TV (we'd have cable off and on back then, parents didn't really want it ) on WGN or other stations occasionally or if they have them on national TV ( very are, Bulls stunk) on free antenna TV. Or if some rich neighbor down the street had the satellite TV/Dish (like a 100 channels, mind blowing!) MSG! Cool TV station, NY Yankees heavy station. I remember WWOR (NY station) on cable. We watch some Nets, Knicks games and the NY Mets. New York NHL (Rangers/Islanders) hockey teams too. lol
Or TBS (Atlanta) showing tons of Braves and Hawks games.
Fox Sports tv stations were very regional. In south Texas (Fox Sports Southwest) , we'd catch the SA Spurs, Houston Astros/Texas Rangers games regularly. To see the Spurs on TV were the regional TV stations, playoff games on CBS/NBC, ESPN or listen to AM radio. Pain in the butt during bad weather had to move the radio a certain way. To avoid static and background/feedback noise.
We, living in south Texas, we'd catch a lot of pirate radio stations from Mexico ! Moving the dial a certain way and distance very carefully. Lot of underground American music and regional Mexican music. lol

What cracks me up are all the guys saying you had to be there and see it in real time. As if even in the mid 90's we had access to every game, let alone the 80's!

[dhsilv2]

Maybe open the paper to scour box scores.

Just saying this makes me feel really old.

The idea of having to wait until you got the newspaper in the morning to know the stats for games out of your region seems.........so strange to me.

Sounds kind of cool though.

Wait till you find out that if the game went late, you had to wait ANOTHER day for us on the east! You'd often not know the scores of west coast games till the day after.

[SOUL]

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1120433&p=28361056&hilit=Usenet#p28361056

I found it! Some more good quotes in there for people that want to read some more funny/entertaining/enlightening quotes.

I wonder how people are going to look back at us 50 years from now

[tsherkin]

Pretty funny here.

Even 40 years ago, some folks were still complaining.

https://groups.google.com/g/net.sport.hoops/c/_i748SYWaf8

Absolutely.

> 1. Zone defenses are not allowed --> detracts from defense
> 2. 3-to-make-2 free throws --> thwarts comebacks
> 3. Bad shot selection
> 4. One-on-one play
> 5. 3-point shots --> further encourages bad shot selection
> 6. 24-second clock --> encourages bad shot selection and one-on-one play
> 7. No necessity for coaching, therefore there is none -- it's sandlot bball
> 8. Refs don't call charging --> discourages good defense
> 9. Refs don't call traveling (better this year I've heard)
> --> allows for dunks from mid-court
> 10. 20-second timeouts --> to easy to get out of trap situations
> 11. too many playoff teams --> who cares about the regular season anymore

There are whiners in all eras of basketball.

[GSWFan1994]

LOL. True. Probably a nerd computer tech at a research center or university or something.

Also. Not many Bulls games were shown nationally on TV (unless you had the WGN Chicago station on cable) at the time, the Bulls were terrible back then. Lottery team.

He probably did catch the UNC games on TV tho. MJ's college team. Or probably didnt even watch much college hoops. So who knows.

Yeah, it's hard to convey the level of access at that time. I lived in western New York, for example, and we weren't able to get the MSG channel on cable until 1991 or so. So we could only watch national games and there was another local station that had rights to a handful of games. So many nights our only option was AM radio. I remember huddling in the kitchen with my dad trying to get the 660 AM radio station from NYC and we'd get moments of clarity and moments of static. Then readjust the dial ever. so. slightly. and maybe 10 straight minutes with only minor static interruptions. Like we were searching for aliens or something.

Any meaningful video streaming over the net didn't really happen until the mid to late 90s and most of that was porn. Only half kidding as those sites were early adopters while most industries were slower to move online.

Just saying this makes me feel really old.

Ha! I feel ya. I'm gettin a lil old too
Funny comment about the porn access BTW lol
Yup, mid-late '90s was when video streaming over the net was accessible to the general public, that had internet. Not everyone had internet. Only a certain demographic folks had access to that prior to the mid '90s (government, military, rich folks, computer geeks, program developers, etc), but then it was very primitive at its stage.

Yup, I grew up in south Texas. Only Bulls games that we could gain access to at the time ('80s) was on cable TV (we'd have cable off and on back then, parents didn't really want it ) on WGN or other stations occasionally or if they have them on national TV ( very are, Bulls stunk) on free antenna TV. Or if some rich neighbor down the street had the satellite TV/Dish (like a 100 channels, mind blowing!) MSG! Cool TV station, NY Yankees heavy station. I remember WWOR (NY station) on cable. We watch some Nets, Knicks games and the NY Mets. New York NHL (Rangers/Islanders) hockey teams too. lol
Or TBS (Atlanta) showing tons of Braves and Hawks games.
Fox Sports tv stations were very regional. In south Texas (Fox Sports Southwest) , we'd catch the SA Spurs, Houston Astros/Texas Rangers games regularly. To see the Spurs on TV were the regional TV stations, playoff games on CBS/NBC, ESPN or listen to AM radio. Pain in the butt during bad weather had to move the radio a certain way. To avoid static and background/feedback noise.
We, living in south Texas, we'd catch a lot of pirate radio stations from Mexico ! Moving the dial a certain way and distance very carefully. Lot of underground American music and regional Mexican music. lol

Hahahaha, your last 2 paragraphs made me laugh a lot... we live thousands of miles apart, still we both had to adjust the radio by milimeters to get the signal,

[GSWFan1994]

Maybe open the paper to scour box scores.

Just saying this makes me feel really old.

The idea of having to wait until you got the newspaper in the morning to know the stats for games out of your region seems.........so strange to me.

Sounds kind of cool though.

Here in Brazil you had to wait 2 days to get the boxes, due to the time zones and the time the presses had to start to work to print next day's newspapers... and they were very simple boxscores, just the points scored by both teams, and some selected star's very basic stats...

For example, you open the newspaper and there it is: "Chicago won against the Lakers, 100 x 92, Jordan scored 32, had 6 rebounds and 4 assists, Pippen contributed with 19 points, 8 rebounds, Magic had 20 points for the Lakers, meanwhile in the other 3 games of the night the scores were so and so", that's it.

You were left imagining what happened.

On Saturdays afternoon we had the NBA Action TV show, a simple, 15 minute show which ended with the "top 10 plays of the week" routine (yep, that existed as far as I've been following the NBA, since 1991).

Sometimes we've had a "special" article on the newspaper, for instance in the weekend of the All-Star weekend they put a half page of the players, some individual article (for example, "here's Chris Webber, probable ROY, let's take a look at what he has done").

Games were broadcasted usually 1 time per week, on a very bad time, like starting at 1 am, 3 am or so. Live games were very rare, usually just the All-Star game, and the Finals. Later on (due to Jordan's and Dream Team's popularity I guess) the weekly game was broadcasted live.

Also, there were NBA magazines, many of them. I used to buy everything I saw, it was very cheap. There was even the Slam Magazine here, somehow it was imported and I bought dozens of them, even manage to subscribe it for a few years. Still got my collection somewhere in the house.

And the videogames, of course. All of us kids collected our knowledge of the NBA by these various sources.

All of this was around 1991/1996, when the internet was in its very infancy. I remember back then, when a neighbour got the internet, I went to his house and took a notebook, then went into NBA.com and wrote down all the rosters, got back home and memorized all those names, lol.

Cheers!