countryboy667 wrote:A nice, thoughtful post...I sometimes wonder if Bastillon is an older guy like me and maybe Wilt stole a girlfriend from him or something...no disrespect...just my feeble attempt at humor.
Very interesting interview with Rick Barry on Fox Sports talk show tonight...Barry is full of opinions, but he's also a straight shooter (no pun intended.) When asked if he would be a star in today's NBA in his prime, he stated he would actually be better today than back in his era, with the clear implication that many of the other stars of his era would be as well, given the advantages in training, medicine, nutrition, travel, and equipment players enjoy today. He also said that players today depend far too much on athleticism that they often don't temper with solid fundamentals and don't emphasize the fundamentals and philosophy of team ball.
Assuming Barry is correct...and he's a pretty sharp and perceptive guy with no obvious axes to grind in his analysis, you have to wonder just how good a prime Wilt would be in today's game where the money is absolutely insane.
One point Barry made, although obliquely, is one of my own pet peeves that is seldom mentioned here on RealGM and by today's fans—what absolutely putrid free-throw shooters all too many of today's players are. There is absolutely no excuse for a professional player shooting less than 70% from the line, and yes, that's a legitimate criticism of Wilt, unlike some of the others I've seen posted here.
To be honest, my first thought when an old timer says he'd do better at X today, or that guys back then were better, is that this is a person who is not objective. I've seen guys do this with every type of sport, with all sorts of business, with all sorts of art, etc. Someone from yesteryear who is not truly inspired by the new things that have come about today is typically approaching everything from a lens where the priority is their own ego.
With that said, I think Rick Barry might have been better today. He's an interesting situation where there's clear evidence of a sky high BBIQ and a willingness/ability to transition away from volume scoring, but who often had terrible efficiency when he played in an era where efficiency wasn't well quantified. If I were to group player in 3 categories along these lines then it would be:
1) The guys who get everything instinctively.
2) The guys who seem to learn quickly and permanently when something new is presented to them.
3) Guys who struggle at learning or changing, and often seem to resist it outright.
Of the 3 groups, it's the middle one that could be argued to benefit the most from playing in a smarter era, and I don't know if there's any better archetype for that middle group than Barry.
Also, this isn't to say the other groups wouldn't have individuals who were more effective today.
In group (1) you've got a guy like Oscar who above all else was an incredible decision maker. Decision making is more valuable today than it was back then, so he may be more valuable.
In group (3) you've got a guy like Wilt who actually was pretty good at learning things that were well quantified. His issue was in understanding the intangible stuff. In an era where more things were tangible, his unique brain may well become a clear asset.
And of course, all that's before we get into the impact of 3-point shooting. It's conceivable that Jerry West would be scary, scary good today.
Re: free throws & Barry. I'm with him and you here. It's unforgivable that no bad shooter after Barry is willing to do the underhanded free throw. It is basically a given that anyone shooting under 70% is actively hurting their team on that front every single game for no reason other than pride.
And this is one of the interesting things this year:
I'm among the group who thinks that Steph Curry may indeed be having the greatest season of all time this year...
but if Shaq had shot underhanded free throws, he may well have been well beyond Curry or anyone else.
