Gilbert Arenas and Lou Williams with shots fired on 90's and 70's eras

[Q C]

Shaquille O'Neal was a 215lb twig that couldnt not stop the 2019 modern freight train that is Luka Doncic from complete posterization

imagine slow dopey prehistoric Allen Iverson trying his plodding crossover on the likes of a sleek modern athletic machine like Markelle Fultz. Could he even make it past half court?

[LKN]

Rodman guarded Shaq and Karl Malone...dude was an insane athlete and very strong. He did that when he was well into his 30s and Shaq was in his 20s.

[IAMZOOTED2]

Lemonade was a popular drink and it still is.... Pip is in the top 10-15 all time. Hibachi n Lou just on that dust wilin' out. They don't really even know what they're saying

[LKN]

The 70s/80s/90s weren't more physical than the NBA today.

Bruh...

They werent. There are countless videos of Jordan waltzing to the rim untouched in the 80s and 90s. People are relying on 30 year old memories when they make these claims. The whole "things were better back in my day, young kids don't understand" stance that older folks always take.

Eh, I think that's possibly true of the regular season... but the playoffs were really damn physical (esp in the east). To be fair some of it was straight up thuggery that had no business in the NBA. I actually am ok with getting rid of some of that physicality. David Stern is damn lucky that MJ didn't have his career ended by Detroit or the NYK.

[LKN]

Baseball is the only sport (and that is still questionable that teams from back in the 70's could have competed with today's player)

I really don't think some of you quite understand just how much better athletes are today.

I really don't think you understand high school biology. Humans have not become anymore athletic over a few decades (in fact the idea of that is simply laughable).

The main differences are nutrition, training. equipment and medical care. All of those things are better now. Take any top athlete from past eras and give him modern training, equipment and nutrition and he'll be just as "athletic" as guys now.

The one thing possibly allowing the NBA to find more good athletes is better scouting.


They've done studies where they have modern elite sprinters run using the same shoes as Jesse Owens and on the same track surface and guess what? They couldn't match his times.

[SkyBill40]

Everyone who entered the NBA before 2000 was a 5'11 unathletic milk man.

Vince Carter is an interesting case in that he grew eight inches and was then able to quit his day job shortly after the turn of the century, hence why he manages to play in this era.

That's so pathetically laughable it's almost not worth the comment... unless you're truly being sarcastic... which rarely, if ever, translates well across plain text.

Did you quote someone and forget to make it shown as such? Or is this an original statement?

Kiki Vandeweghe and Jerome Kersey actually used to deliver milk to my dad when he was living in Portland in the 80s. And an uncle of mine near Milwaukee was on Marques Johnson's paper route. He apparently was kind of clumsy and uncoordinated so he would crash his bike a lot.

Frame of reference noted. Thanks for the clarification.

[C3H6N6O6]

It is a dumb take.
It is the same thing old players do when they say that Jordan would average 50 in today's NBA and no player in today's NBA could deal with physicality of 80s and 90s.

The roaming defender is the hardest thing a player like LeBron has to deal with. He has been an elite passer and a freak athlete, the roaming help defender is the hardest thing he has to deal with. You take that out and no matter how physical you are, he'd keep destroying you by scoring or by passing.

Lebron wouldn't have had to shoot a single 3 to be the best player till Jordan came into the league.
Lebron needs the spacing now because of the help defense NBA allows now. You had to send hard double or stick to your man in the 80s and 90s.

If you roamed like Draymond Green regularly does now, you'd be hit with techs. LeBron James is one active player who would defenitely benefit playing under the old rules.

No matter how players in the 80s/90s defended LeBron, he would would either see a good increase in his scoring or his assists. The guy was made to play in a no roaming defender allowed era.

the difference is that I still have Jordan as the GOAT unlike old players and fans who claim that LeBron wouldn't dominate previous eras.

[JayMKE]

Lebron would be great in any era I'm not sure his body holds up the same way with the physicality and 70s sports medicine/training. Saying Pippen and Rodman would be small guards is just dumb as hell tho.

[GameOver25]

Always love seeing these threads. Basketball talent is better today. Its absolutely ridiculous that some people think otherwise.

Literally no other industry thinks to themselves they were better in the pre-analytical era

Just curious why do you keep saying this? Is this based off of stats, because better stats doesn't mean the talent is better.

[LakerLegend]

Watch on YouTube

[bdp31770]

lmao. He's not wrong. Pippen opens himself up to this when he says he could shut down anybody in today's game. Bruh was a buck-90 back then; that aint guarding Lebron today

In his prime he was almost the exact same size as Kawhi Leonard, this quote is sig worthy.

[OfficialRef]

arenas is usually a dumbass but hes spot on. The truth is most viewers know this, ball players, analysts, but choose not to say this for fear of being trashed on by older players.

[Dominator83]

LOL at the thought Lebron wouldn't dominate any era of basketball ever.

He wouldn't. Lebron couldnt' even dominate the Western Conference of his era, or internaitonal competition. In the 70's, Lebron would have been knocked down 30 tiems a game driving to the hoop. Don't get me wrong, he would still be great, but the whole 15 titles thing speaks to how delusion the current generation is. Despite the talent increase, there's been a serious drop in mental toughness in sports. Guys back then were from a different generation

Watch on YouTube

Here is your baddest of the bad talking about Lebron. and listen to what Larry bird just said. I don't think it's this generation that's delusional.

Every generation is delusional. 25 years from now we'll be on this very site be defending guys like Lebron, KD, Steph, etc against all the punk kids of the new generation talking crap how much better the players are in 2044 and the stars of the 2010's can't hang in that 2040's NBA and our role players like Trevor Ariza would be G- league quality

[RiseOfTheEmpire]

Jason Terry and Jason Kidd guarded him, and the GOAT of this generation scored 17 ppg on his stacked team, in a Finals loss.

Ray Allen saved him with one shot, then that same team ran it back and a French doughboy was giving him fits on offense, and they washed them up like they were a D-League squad, but he would have 15 championships lmao.

The world is better with morons, makes things lighter.

[Sprewell4Three]

The NBA has so much more talent today than it did 25+ years ago. Of course superstars of today would excel in previous eras. LeBron would be playing part-time janitors and fry cooks in the 70s.

There's alot of all-stars , just not alot of Superstars , theres a difference. Back then you had Superstars that would carry team.

[Roronoa]

Lebron would easily win 10 straight in the 70's and 80's. Anyone who says otherwise is plain wrong.

[Sprewell4Three]

Lebron would easily win 10 straight in the 70's and 80's. Anyone who says otherwise is plain wrong.

No you are wrong because the most dominant player back then Wilt couldn't muster up more then 3. Lebron is Wilt 2.0.

[Q C]

Lebron would easily win 10 straight in the 70's and 80's. Anyone who says otherwise is plain wrong.

maybe once he recruited Bird and Magic to his team

[thebigbird]

The NBA has so much more talent today than it did 25+ years ago. Of course superstars of today would excel in previous eras. LeBron would be playing part-time janitors and fry cooks in the 70s.

There's alot of all-stars , just not alot of Superstars , theres a difference. Back then you had Superstars that would carry team.

How so? The Lakers and Celtics won 8 of the 10 championships in the 80s. LA had 2 of the 10 best players ever. The Celtics had a top 10 player of all time and multiple other hall of famers. Philly with Julius Irving and Moses Malone won 1 of the other 2. Detroit won the other with multiple hall of famers. Very rarely has one player ever carried a team to a ring.

[DaPessimist]

These guys are morons. Rodman would lead the league in rebounding and Pippen would be a perennial DPOY candidate.