NBA Historian Explains: Why 1960s & 1970s NBA Players Were Extremely Skilled

[D.Brasco]

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"Players back then were playing a handcuffed version of basketball"

[ImmortalD24]

Good video. Just looking at what players are able to do now and the different tricks players are able to add into their game year in and year out gives offenses a huge advantage. Something like the "pinoy step" would be called a travel all day long by a Joey Crawford etc 10 years ago as it would look unnatural to them.

[Dr Aki]

Good video. Just looking at what players are able to do now and the different tricks players are able to add into their game year in and year out gives offenses a huge advantage. Something like the "pinoy step" would be called a travel all day long by a Joey Crawford etc 10 years ago as it would look unnatural to them.

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[ImmortalD24]

Good video. Just looking at what players are able to do now and the different tricks players are able to add into their game year in and year out gives offenses a huge advantage. Something like the "pinoy step" would be called a travel all day long by a Joey Crawford etc 10 years ago as it would look unnatural to them.

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I knew Harden would be right in the thick of things with these new changes. Just from his moves alone he should be on mount rushmore.

[scrabbarista]

He's 100% right. Most people do not appreciate the fact that virtually every play that happens in the NBA today would be considered traveling or palming (or both) if you went back to the early NBA. And that's just one area where the game is drastically different. There are others.

The primary way in which the game has improved is not skill development or physical evolution. It's the size of the player pool. Players were marginally less skilled and marginally less athletic in the 1960's. Marginally. But there was less talent mostly because the number of people playing the game - and the resources committed to developing/discovering them - was so much less.

Or you can say the same about the 1990's, if you prefer.

[The4thHorseman]

These kind of ankle breaking moves brought the house down in the 60's.

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[og15]

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"Players back then were playing a handcuffed version of basketball"

I've seen some of his stuff, fun stuff. Lots of good points, though I don't think I can latch on to him saying guys didn't work on their off hands because you didn't have as many crossover move options. That is not the only reason to be working on your off hand.

Also based on shooting mechanics alone, players certainly have gotten more skilled, there are always going to be some funky mechanics, but there were a higher proportion of pretty bad ones in the past. The skill increase in the NBA though is about expansion of the game and talent pool, that's the man driving factor.

I think it is definitely important to allow for the perspective of what was happening, and he's mentioning rules, but there was a lot of strategy related things too that had impact, which even sometimes we have some of us who were watching in the 90's and 00's thinking that everything was simply because of the rules and there weren't just style of the age that permeated how teams played.