mr_sunshine wrote:What can be done though? Fire all the refs and promote the top college officials?

Replace Emperor Stern ... which will never happen because he makes the league a lot of money.
Really, though, the NBA has the best athletes of all time, the best defenses, the best offenses. All it needs to be a Golden Era is less focus on self and more focus on team. I don't think that is quite possible with Stern issuing mandates from his presidential palace in the lower reaches of the New York sewers.
The biggest problem that has occurred because of Sterno is that too many people are brainwashed into watching only the ball and think scoring is the only way to impact the game. There are players who impact games on many different levels who are incredibly valuable to team success but, because they don't score a lot, are only considered "role players".
The thing that astonishes me is that LeBron, Kobe, Melo, etc would be more valuable if they fully subscribed to team play, imo. True stars and superstars are able to impact the game without scoring and, in the process, elevate the play of their teammates. Don't believe the hype. Real "teams" are greater than the sum of their parts. They work together to make each other better.