What was your favorite era of nba basketball and why?

[Kobe187]

Late 80’s/early 90’s.

1. Jordan
2. Bird & Magic
3. Laker vs Celtics
4. Old school vs New School
5. Bulls vs Pistons
6. So much swag with the new talent coming into the league. Shorts lower, gold chains, new hip-hop inspired culture, guards driving and scoring much more often, posterizing dunks, creativity clashing with fundamentals, new elements entering into the game that we didn’t see before, fun times!

[Bornstellar]

Pre-2006, before the handcheck was eliminated and rules started trending more toward offense. 2003-2005 was my golden era, but probably because of the Spurs winning twice in three years and I was young, still in high school. So I view that time with a lot of nostalgia

[ILOVEIT]

Showtime Lakers

THIS....by a mile (and I'm a Warriors fan).

Lakers were the fancy show time LA team. Celtics were the hard hat East coast team. Bird vs Magic. Both were capable of taking over the game and hitting any big shot you asked.

Both team were top 10 teams all time. Both had several hall of famers.

Since then there hasn't been that same level of apex teams in the East and West competing every year...and so equally matched.

BTW...both Bird and Magic were magic....two of the best passing all around big boys in history.

[oldncreaky]

Personally, 1985 through 1990 . . . because I went to every Piston play-off game during that period

From an objective point of view, I think the pace-and-space era, starting with the Spurs of the teens, up till last year, roughly 2013-2020. The bubble was the best time watching BB I've ever experienced. However, I think this year the increase in 3Pt shots, and the increase in flopping, bad calls and ref-baiting, have all combined to take it down a notch.

[Max123]

Late 80’s.

1. Jordan
2. Bird & Magic
3. Laker vs Celtics
4. Old school vs New School
5. Bulls vs Pistons
6. So much swag with the new talent coming into the league. Shorts down to the knees, gold chains, new hip-hop inspired culture, guards driving and scoring much more often, posterizing dunks, creativity clashing with fundamentals, new elements entering into the game that we didn’t see before, fun times!

Agree with your pick but weren’t the shorts mostly up though still? At least watching a few 1990 Lakers games lately would suggest so.


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[Myth]

The 90s, and instead of going the route of describing rules or players or anything, I'll just go with a genuine answer of it was my childhood and my love for basketball was more new, exciting, and pure. Like most here, I've grown pretty cynical about certain aspects of the league and I don't think there is any going back because we just know too much about the league. I didn't have rules I hated, and I didn't have players I hated. I pretty much only knew the players as basketball players and I knew very little about them off the court. So I liked all the players, all the teams, and was mostly rooting for good basketball rather than anything more specific. I pretty much had new favorite players every week, based on who did something exciting within the last week. Even in the offseasons before I had the internet, I would be the first awake in my house to get the newspaper and flipped to the sports section to see who was changing teams, and it was always exciting and never upsetting.

[The_Hater]

2019-2019

[Cactus Jack]

90's nostalgia wins out.

I will say that '02-'07 in general was underrated. The league was very competitive & you had your pick of different teams with styles that varied (San Antonio/Sacramento/Detroit/Phoenix).

This "Super team" era is by far my least favorite.

[Buzzard]

It is two era's for me. 1st one started in 1976 when I turned 18 and started going to Hawks games with a few friends. That lasted almost 20 years which included Wilkens being on the team.

[-Sammy-]

I loved the early 1930s. Between prohibition and the Great Depression, the players were only making 42¢ a year and they couldn't drink after the games; that made them play with a real edge. Field goals were worth less then, too, so they really had to work for their scoring averages. Henry 'Crazy Legs' Speltzer is one of the most underrated players of all time.

League Pass was better back, then, too (only 3¢ a season, with discounts for injured factory workers), though RealGM was pretty rough in those early decades; Howard Mass hadn't been prescribed Xanax yet, so he was banning people left and right.

[KyRo23]

Early 2010s as someone who started watching basketball because of LeBron. Those Miami years were so fun.

[lobosloboslobos]

from the day this video came out

Watch on YouTube

to the day this one did

Watch on YouTube

[KembaWalker]

2008-2014 was the best era of basketball from the actual game perspective, the game was pretty well balanced between effectiveness of scoring at all 3 levels. Post guys still had a role, 3pt shooting had a role, mid range catch and shoot and iso had a role. Teams had actual unique identifiable styles. Kobe ISO with the twin towers inside, Celtics and Spurs were magical in ball movement and IQQ, Dwight was a 1 man defense with snipers all around him, the Bulls and Grizzlies had that gritty defensive style.

Every night you could find a game on the schedule and be like "Hmm thats an interesting clash of styles, who knows whats gonna happen, lets see" Now you turn on a game and EVERY team has basically the same style outside, maybe slight variances depending on if they have a good center or not.

whenever youngins now defend the 3pt chucking current era they're like "pff you just wanna go back to boring mid range iso ball, how exciting" and just act like there wasn't an entire era between Iverson/McGrady early 2000 isoball and 2015+ Steph Curry chuckball. we actually had amazingly fun to watch basketball being played in this 2008-2014 era and we'll never see anything like it again without some major rule changes

and I say this as someone who thinks the 90s and early 2000s had way better star personalities than that era, but the basketball was not comparable

[jokeboy86]

90s simply cause of Jordan. You couldnt have wrote a more captivating career for that era. Couldnt get over the hump at first then dominates, than tragedy and retires then comes back and makes history and then wins title 2 more times with epic last Bulls game. Imagine being young and witnessing that game 6 and realizing at a young age that you’re watching one of the greats and wonder will you see that type of success by a player and his team again. It’s like that feeling in the Matrix when Neo stops the bullets and Morpheus says “He’s the one”.

[Kobe187]

Late 80’s.

1. Jordan
2. Bird & Magic
3. Laker vs Celtics
4. Old school vs New School
5. Bulls vs Pistons
6. So much swag with the new talent coming into the league. Shorts down to the knees, gold chains, new hip-hop inspired culture, guards driving and scoring much more often, posterizing dunks, creativity clashing with fundamentals, new elements entering into the game that we didn’t see before, fun times!

Agree with your pick but weren’t the shorts mostly up though still? At least watching a few 1990 Lakers games lately would suggest so.


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Lol probably some rookies breaking into the league in the late 80’s that started the trend, likely didn’t become mainstream till the mid 90’s.

[draftnightsuit]

2008-2016 was the golden age of NBA history.

Late ‘90s/Early 2000s had lots of entertaining individual players, but the league overall was trash.

It started to get a little better by the mid-2000s: Kobe, young Lebron and Wade, Dirk, Nash’s Suns,

[70sFan]

1970s is overall my favorite decade. So many styles, so many unique stars and pure officiating. Not to mention that this decade has three coolest players ever in Dr J, Iceman and Clyde the Glide.

I have no nostalgia for this era by the way, I wasn't alive back then

[Hornet Mania]

I'm going to echo what a lot of other people have said and go with 2008-2014. That to me was the optimal balance, games weren't a defensive grind like the late 90s but the 3pt revolution had not yet turned every game into a 120-115 affair either.

My favorite team era was definitely Showtime Lakers though. Magic and his crew were a joy to watch

[macNcheese3]

Early 2000s to 2010 . A mix 3 point shooting and mid range game and inside game.

This is it for me as well. Spot on.

[Hello Brooklyn]

Right now for obvious reasons.