JJ Redick: “Players from the 50s, 60s, 70s could not play in today’s NBA”

mowcrowbar · Post #61 » by **mowcrowbar** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 1:33 am

What he says is pretty obvious.

MrBigShot · Post #62 » by **MrBigShot** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 1:38 am

A lot of bench players certainly couldn't, but there are quite a few players from every era that would be stars.

CptCrunch · Post #63 » by **CptCrunch** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 1:39 am

Anyone who disagrees with JJ has no understanding of basketball whatsoever. You can safely add 80's and 90's here also.

dabonett · Post #64 » by **dabonett** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 1:43 am

The narrative of super freak athletes now vs then is false. Hines at 1968 Olympic Games set the world 100 mt record at 9.95. This year with all the tech improvements in training shoes and tracks the Olympic game winner ( Italian Jacobs) closed at 9.80.
The game changed but good and great players could and can adapt

Bobbymcgee · Post #65 » by **Bobbymcgee** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 1:49 am

Wilt Chamberlain wouldn't be able to play in today's NBA? Hmm...

OfficialRef · Post #66 » by **OfficialRef** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 1:57 am

JJ is a smart man. He is calling it how it is.

HotRocks34 · Post #67 » by **HotRocks34** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 1:58 am

Bad take. First, you leave out obvious guys like Wilt who was as good an athlete as anyone in today's game.

Second, as seen in players like Jokic and Doncic, guys like Bird could not only play in today's game but feast. Bird would dominate the league today.

Expect better from JJ, who is a smart guy.

EDIT: My bad, he did not include the 1980's. This takes away my Bird discussion. For the other decades, he may be mostly correct but for some exceptions (Wilt, etc). I don't know because I have not seen and have not studied many players from that era. But guys like Wilt, Oscar, Russell, etc could for sure compete today. And, of course, Kareem.

Currygoat · Post #68 » by **Currygoat** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 1:59 am

He is right. I wonder why he didn’t say 80s and 90s. Probably to defend Jordan fanboys. Imagine a 6,5 Rodman in today’s league lmaooooo

payton2kemp · Post #69 » by **payton2kemp** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 2:03 am

CptCrunch wrote:Anyone who disagrees with JJ has no understanding of basketball whatsoever. You can safely add 80's and 90's here also.

Yea. If people listen to his actual podcast he said he won't be able to play with guys who are playing in 2050 or something. He's just talking about old heads complaining about todays players. Thats who he was telling to STFU.

CIN-C-STAR · Post #70 » by **CIN-C-STAR** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 2:08 am

Players from the 2010s wouldn't even be able to hack it in the league today.
Just look at JJ Reddick :lol:

dmakk · Post #71 » by **dmakk** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 2:12 am

These comments are always annoying, in both directions. Current players are the beneficiaries of years of experience in sport and science. They better dominate if you drop them off 30 years ago. You're also crazy if you don't think that given the benefits of athletes today, great players from the past couldn't compete today. That's why I never compare eras against each other. If you dominated your era, you'll always be one of the best to ever play.

dabonett · Post #72 » by **dabonett** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 2:27 am

Currygoat wrote:He is right. I wonder why he didn’t say 80s and 90s. Probably to defend Jordan fanboys. Imagine a 6,5 Rodman in today’s league lmaooooo

Draymond Green says hi ( Dennis was one inch taller btw)

Currygoat · Post #73 » by **Currygoat** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 2:36 am

dabonett wrote:
Currygoat wrote:He is right. I wonder why he didn’t say 80s and 90s. Probably to defend Jordan fanboys. Imagine a 6,5 Rodman in today’s league lmaooooo

Draymond Green says hi ( Dennis was one inch taller btw)

Green can actually handle the ball and effect a game on offense by his passing. What can Rodman do on offense except rebound lmaooooo

dabonett · Post #74 » by **dabonett** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 2:47 am

Currygoat wrote:
dabonett wrote:
Currygoat wrote:He is right. I wonder why he didn’t say 80s and 90s. Probably to defend Jordan fanboys. Imagine a 6,5 Rodman in today’s league lmaooooo

Draymond Green says hi ( Dennis was one inch taller btw)

Green can actually handle the ball and effect a game on offense by his passing. What can Rodman do on offense except rebound lmaooooo

Not here to defend Dennis, but he dominated on defense and rebounding. At the “tender “ age of 36 he still averaged 15 rebs per game.
Again the game has changed but good players would have adapted.
JJ takes are more on the game that changed a lot, which is true. Rules changed too.

Currygoat · Post #75 » by **Currygoat** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 2:53 am

dabonett wrote:
Currygoat wrote:
dabonett wrote:Draymond Green says hi ( Dennis was one inch taller btw)

Green can actually handle the ball and effect a game on offense by his passing. What can Rodman do on offense except rebound lmaooooo

Not here to defend Dennis, but he dominated on defense and rebounding. At the “tender “ age of 36 he still averaged 15 rebs per game.
Again the game has changed but good players would have adapted.
JJ takes are more on the game that changed a lot, which is true. Rules changed too.

Watch on YouTube

picko · Post #76 » by **picko** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 3:07 am

It's close enough to being true that it probably shouldn't be controversial.

The modern NBA is a global competition that sources talent from across the globe. Many of the great players are now non-American or black and in earlier generations would never have played in the NBA (foreign) or suffered due to quotas (black).

There were also more white American NBA players in the 1950 and 1960s than there are in the league today. That is despite a smaller number of teams. If you tried to replicate the 1960s league (American-dominated, white-dominated, 8 to 12 teams) today you'd need to source a tonne of white American talent from outside the NBA to have enough players.

Another way of thinking about it is to say if basketball talent identification was global and non-racist in the 1950s and 1960s then a majority of the people who played in the NBA back then wouldn't make the league. So with that in mind, there is no reason to believe that they could make the league today.

To believe that most of the guys from the 1950s and 1960s could play in the NBA - even with the benefits of better training - you need to fundamentally believe that white Americans back then were just fundamentally better at basketball than white Americans today. I think that is probably unlikely.

Now that isn't to say that every player from back then couldn't make the grade. An absolute blanket statement that nobody back then could play today is almost certainly false. But as a general rule of thumb it's close enough to being correct.

FreeThrowLine · Post #77 » by **FreeThrowLine** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 3:51 am

When you see a thread title and know who the author is before even opening it.

Imagine thinking players from the 80’s and 90’s couldn’t play in the current league and expecting anyone to take your basketball opinions seriously

Tottery · Post #78 » by **Tottery** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 3:58 am

Currygoat wrote:
dabonett wrote:
Currygoat wrote:
Green can actually handle the ball and effect a game on offense by his passing. What can Rodman do on offense except rebound lmaooooo

Not here to defend Dennis, but he dominated on defense and rebounding. At the “tender “ age of 36 he still averaged 15 rebs per game.
Again the game has changed but good players would have adapted.
JJ takes are more on the game that changed a lot, which is true. Rules changed too.

Watch on YouTube

What is the definition of "stopping?" Held to 0 points? Of course not. I don't believe anyone could hold someone like James to 0 points, but force him to take difficult shots? Sure, Rodman can do that.

Antinomy · Post #79 » by **Antinomy** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:35 am

Guys like Zeke, KG & Steve Kerr have all said similar things.

And lol at people saying Reddick couldn’t play in previous eras.

Dude’s one of the greatest shooters ever & averaged 15-18ppg multiple times against far more athletic players.

Post #80 » by **og15** » Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:58 am

HotRocks34 wrote:Bad take. First, you leave out obvious guys like Wilt who was as good an athlete as anyone in today's game.

Second, as seen in players like Jokic and Doncic, guys like Bird could not only play in today's game but feast. Bird would dominate the league today.

Expect better from JJ, who is a smart guy.

EDIT: My bad, he did not include the 1980's. This takes away my Bird discussion. For the other decades, he may be mostly correct but for some exceptions (Wilt, etc). I don't know because I have not seen and have not studied many players from that era. But guys like Wilt, Oscar, Russell, etc could for sure compete today. And, of course, Kareem.

The thread title is not a quote. The quote doesn't even say all for either side. He says "most" players not could play in those previous era's (50's, 60's, early 70's), doesn't even say all, and he says "most" players in the 50's, 60's, and "early 70's", didn't even say the whole 70's could not play in this era.

So whether he is right or wrong, if the key words of "most", and the specification of "early" are removed, it causes people to counter with arguments against things that he isn't even saying.

The OP adds that he should have added the 80's and 90's, seems like the OP wanted Redick's statement to be more than what he had said and has a specific agenda in citing it and incorrectly quoting it, because they did put " " in their thread title but didn't actually quote.