Where does the myth of physical 90s NBA basketball come from?

[fanofthegreats]

It’s all Jordan propoganda- 90s was a subpar era to anyone who understands gameplay.

Please explain why the nba was subpar from 1990-1999….looking forward to your reply

Don't take him seriously. He's upset from the days I was on the PC forum and put down
all of his ridiculous Lebron debates with stats. ... to this day, he's posting nonsense in retaliation.

In all fairness, my sig probably doesn't help the case.

He's posting with emotion, not logic.

In my experience, as their hero approaches the end of their career, that's when the flair ups get worse
because there's no case left and wasn't to begin with. That's frustrating when your opinion is on that side.
(Lebron now, but same with Kobe days, literally identical)

Werent you the clown banned from the pc forum because you couldn’t form coherent arguments and resorted to trolling? Yeah that’s right. Now you have a bone to pick with the entire forum cause your YouTube comment level analysis got ripped apart.

Annnd here's another strike for another personal attack. -b

[fanofthegreats]

It’s all Jordan propoganda- 90s was a subpar era to anyone who understands gameplay.

Please explain why the nba was subpar from 1990-1999….looking forward to your reply

I think you and “bledredwine” should reunite on his “90s basketball thread” and relive your childhoods.

[bledredwine]

It’s all Jordan propoganda- 90s was a subpar era to anyone who understands gameplay.

Please explain why the nba was subpar from 1990-1999….looking forward to your reply

I think you and “bledredwine” should reunite on his “90s basketball thread” and relive your childhoods.

You’ve now made about ten posts without a single stat or anything of substance.

Pure emotion. You’ll be one of the posters I simply ignore because they dig their own grave, metaphorically speaking. Your trolling doesn’t do anything for you.

[Iwasawitness]

It’s all Jordan propoganda- 90s was a subpar era to anyone who understands gameplay.

Please explain why the nba was subpar from 1990-1999….looking forward to your reply

Don't take him seriously. He's upset from the days I was on the PC forum and put down
all of his ridiculous Lebron debates with stats. ... to this day, he's posting nonsense in retaliation.

In all fairness, my sig probably doesn't help the case.

He's posting with emotion, not logic.

In my experience, as their hero approaches the end of their career, that's when the flair ups get worse
because there's no case left and wasn't to begin with. That's frustrating when your opinion is on that side.
(Lebron now, but same with Kobe days, literally identical)

Weren’t you same guy who got banned from the PC forum because your posts were so laughably bad that they said **** it and just got rid of you?

[One Last Shot]

It’s all Jordan propoganda- 90s was a subpar era to anyone who understands gameplay.

Please explain why the nba was subpar from 1990-1999….looking forward to your reply

Don't take him seriously. He's upset from the days I was on the PC forum and put down
all of his ridiculous Lebron debates with stats. ... to this day, he's posting nonsense in retaliation.

In all fairness, my sig probably doesn't help the case.

He's posting with emotion, not logic.

In my experience, as their hero approaches the end of their career, that's when the flair ups get worse
because there's no case left and wasn't to begin with. That's frustrating when your opinion is on that side.
(Lebron now, but same with Kobe days, literally identical)

Your signature is a lie. It said 1/29 FG in clutch situations with 5 seconds or less, here's 4 clutch shots with 5 secs or less in the game by LeBron in Lakers uniform. Care to explain why you feel the need to lie just to put a man down? Do you normally do that when you try to argue your case? You do know there's a lot of logical narrative you can use against LeBron that you don't need to lie right?

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

[Bergmaniac]

I rewatched this classic game from the 2003 playoffs a week ago -

Watch on YouTube

Great game, but I didn't see any noticeable physicality at all and the defence is pretty bad compared to the current NBA a lot of the time. Yes, I know these were two of the most "offense first" teams back then (though the Kings had the second best defence in the regular season), but it's an example that even in 2003, during the peak of the defence first, slow it down, increase physicality era, there were some playoff games which weren't all that physical and the defence was mediocre at best.

[MavsDirk41]

It’s all Jordan propoganda- 90s was a subpar era to anyone who understands gameplay.

Please explain why the nba was subpar from 1990-1999….looking forward to your reply

I think you and “bledredwine” should reunite on his “90s basketball thread” and relive your childhoods.

Couple things:

- i asked you a simple question and by no surprise you cant answer it
- can you respond on here without attacking people?
- why are you only “fan of the greats” from this century only?

[MavsDirk41]

I rewatched this classic game from the 2003 playoffs a week ago -

Watch on YouTube

Great game, but I didn't see any noticeable physicality at all and the defence is pretty bad compared to the current NBA a lot of the time. Yes, I know these were two of the most "offense first" teams back then (though the Kings had the second best defence in the regular season), but it's an example that even in 2003, during the peak of the defence first, slow it down, increase physicality era, there were some playoff games which weren't all that physical and the defence was mediocre at best.

There is some really bad defense in todays nba as well. Didnt OKC give up 143 to Minnesota last night? Yikes

[Invictus88]

It was common in the 80's and 90's to send messages with extremely hard fouls to basically say the paint was off limits. These fouls were treated as normal fouls. There was no review process. Tech's weren't really issued for them. Flagrant fouls were pretty much not a thing. The only thing folks were thrown out for were punches.

Now contrast that with how things are officiated today.

You tell me if there is a difference.

[Ballings7]

Its no myth. It was noticably more physical game... all the way up until 2005 or so, then it began to drift off from there gradually, on BOTH ends of the floor.

Scrutiny for fouls was much less an issue.

"Henchmen" off the bench.

More paint oriented, inside-out game = more physical because the areas of the court had players closer together. Different rules.

I saw more than enough of it make the comparison through other eras after 2005. Its undeniable.. one who did not see much or actually followed the league, has to put in respectable time and footage-sitting to actually come to this realization.

Most people in the last decade don't have the time, attention span, or dedication to pick up the patterns from actual game footage... for the sake of understanding something like this, and are comfortable with their sampler knowledge sets and info feeds from media sources.

[Eric Millegan]

For years, it was such that the East was physical and the West was run and gun. This stopped being so after the Malice at the Palace.

[KGtabake]

Every decade has been more physical than the previous one starting from the '80s.
Then, the NBA shifted into a players league.
The offensive superstar players year after year(and especially after MJ) started complaining about the physicality and the potential injuries.
The league wanted to protect these guys and the "product" in general and the rules became soft.
Which lead us to where we are today.

[bledredwine]

Please explain why the nba was subpar from 1990-1999….looking forward to your reply

Don't take him seriously. He's upset from the days I was on the PC forum and put down
all of his ridiculous Lebron debates with stats. ... to this day, he's posting nonsense in retaliation.

In all fairness, my sig probably doesn't help the case.

He's posting with emotion, not logic.

In my experience, as their hero approaches the end of their career, that's when the flair ups get worse
because there's no case left and wasn't to begin with. That's frustrating when your opinion is on that side.
(Lebron now, but same with Kobe days, literally identical)

Your signature is a lie. It said 1/29 FG in clutch situations with 5 seconds or less, here's 4 clutch shots with 5 secs or less in the game by LeBron in Lakers uniform. Care to explain why you feel the need to lie just to put a man down? Do you normally do that when you try to argue your case? You do know there's a lot of logical narrative you can use against LeBron that you don't need to lie right?

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

What’s not a lie is his god awful career clutch shooting (5 seconds or less on the clock to tie or win)

I had that stat but somehow, my sig was erased. I’ll have to update it.

[Rust_Cohle]

The answer is simple and obvious: Michael Jordan.

No athlete had ever achieved the fame that Jordan did. On top of that, you had the PERFECT amount of exposition - games were on TV, and there was some media coverage. Sportscenter was an actual thing back then and really came into its own as well. The shoes, the dream team, playing baseball and then coming back - we have never seen anything like that and likely never will again. But there was no social media, and while the internet was becoming a thing, it wasn't close to what it is today.

Jordan's peak level of fame coincided with the 90s and what came with it (the above) - other NBA players? They just benefitted from Jordan being around, and because we all associate Jordan with the 90s and he is unquestionably one of the greatest athletes to walk this planet, there is just a positive association a lot of us have.

The truth is....you can see how Reggie Miller was a good player, but what would he be in todays game? Honestly? Really be honest with yourself about that. I would have to go back and watch highlights of him, but I don't remember him being a great finisher at the rim. I remember him being incredible at coming off screens and being able to knock down jump shots, I remember him putting in serious effort on defense and being a competitor - so are we talking about a very slightly better version of Klay Thompson there? If we are being painfully honest, that could be the case.

Nothing against Reggie - he was ahead of his time back then. But...to me that is an example of how glorify the 90s.

With the spacing players are afforded today Reggie would be incredible, in an era where taking 25-30 3's a game he would absolutely be insanely good.

[prophet_of_rage]

"myth" lmao. See, back then, offensive players weren't allowed to travel, push off, carry and force switches on illegal moving screens. So guys were defended by their counterparts i.e. SF v SF, SG vs SG, etc. It meant there wasn't a huge difference in size and athleticism for the most part. It made it much harder to even get into the paint due to hand-checking but if/once you did, there was a shot-blocking PF and Center waiting for you and often offensive players would get hacked both on the way to and at the rim.

Patrick Ewing's whole move was a travel. The Georgetown turnaround jumper was four steps. Jordan pushed off to win the 98 championship. All these things happened then too.

[LockoutSeason]

Still trying to push the narrative 6’8” 260 lb Lebron wouldn’t survive against 6’3” 180 lb John Starks.

[Capn'O]

The truth is....you can see how Reggie Miller was a good player, but what would he be in todays game? Honestly? Really be honest with yourself about that. I would have to go back and watch highlights of him, but I don't remember him being a great finisher at the rim. I remember him being incredible at coming off screens and being able to knock down jump shots, I remember him putting in serious effort on defense and being a competitor - so are we talking about a very slightly better version of Klay Thompson there? If we are being painfully honest, that could be the case.

Nothing against Reggie - he was ahead of his time back then. But...to me that is an example of how glorify the 90s.

This post is throwing me through a loop because halfway through your paragraph I thought to myself that I should respond by saying "he'd be Klay Thompson, just a little bit better" but I was going to say it as a positive.

Miller's peak wasn't significantly better than Thompson's at the time. His prime lasted substantially longer and he had those incredible heaters at MSG in the playoffs but those are the major points of separation. Klay will be in the Hall of Fame for his accomplishments and like Klay, Miller was ideal in a system where the offense was the first option.

From there though, I'll add that Miller's TS% over 60% was pretty remarkable for that era and Klay has never averaged that.

[Yank3525]

Why can't people get over comparing different eras with markedly different rulesets (which is always ignored). What did your parents do to you?

Because people are massively insecure about their past or current favs.

The game is different. The sport looked different in 2004 then it did in 2008 just four years later. It looked different today then it looked just 10 years ago. It is pointless to compare eras.

[ScrantonBulls]

It's honestly crazy that the guy played 82 games 16 TIMES. That's an all-time iron man. Even more impressive, he was 170 pounds and did it during the brawling, slug it out, MMA 80s and 90s. At his weight, he's lucky his career didn't get ended by one of those teams.

Is this the most impressive record? It's up there with Wilt's most gaudy records in my opinion.

[sp6r=underrated]

It's honestly crazy that the guy played 82 games 16 TIMES. That's an all-time iron man. Even more impressive, he was 170 pounds and did it during the brawling, slug it out, MMA 80s and 90s. At his weight, he's lucky his career didn't get ended by one of those teams.

Is this the most impressive record? It's up there with Wilt's most gaudy records in my opinion.

I love that you think you can fool us by slapping Bulls in your name.