Too much love in the current NBA era

visions · Post #1 » by **visions** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 11:55 pm

This is something I have thought about a lot over the last few years...there seems to be way too much love and respect between NBA teams nowadays. What happened to the 80's when things were ultra competitive and teams hated each other?

Seems like in the current era players are almost too scared to call each other out. I am all for good sportsmanship but it's gone too far. How can you psych out your opponents anymore with all the hugging and joking around before and after games?

Eddie Johnson wrote an article about it a few months back which pretty much sums it up:
http://blogs.hoopshype.com/blogs/johnson/2010/03/19/too-much-love/

What do all you fellow Suns fans think?

MaryvalesFinest · Post #2 » by **MaryvalesFinest** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 11:59 pm

It's still there, just depends on the teams playing against eachother.

visions · Post #3 » by **visions** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:14 am

MaryvalesFinest wrote:It's still there, just depends on the teams playing against eachother.

I suppose but then again I think the current love fest is exactly why a situation like Lebron joining up with Wade has happened. It's no wonder MJ and Magic have taken shots at Lebron. In their day you just wanted to be the best and you did that by beating the best, not joining them.

Seems like it used to be all about winning at any cost.
Now it feels like a lot of players are more concerned about not disrespecting each other.

Maybe it's just a by product of society in general becoming more PC.

ma_falaa_50 · Post #4 » by **ma_falaa_50** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 2:26 am

I blame AAU for the wade, lebaby, and bosh.

lespaul89 · Post #5 » by **lespaul89** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 2:31 am

visions wrote:This is something I have thought about a lot over the last few years...there seems to be way too much love and respect between NBA teams nowadays. What happened to the 80's when things were ultra competitive and teams hated each other?

Seems like in the current era players are almost too scared to call each other out. I am all for good sportsmanship but it's gone too far. How can you psych out your opponents anymore with all the hugging and joking around before and after games?

Eddie Johnson wrote an article about it a few months back which pretty much sums it up:
http://blogs.hoopshype.com/blogs/johnson/2010/03/19/too-much-love/

What do all you fellow Suns fans think?

I think it is the bi-product of the officiating. The past 5-6 years have been called extremely strict. I was watching an old Sacramento vs L.A. playoff game (Hedo with his blonde hair :lol:

) and every player would have fouled out if it was played today. It's truly amazing to think that it is the same decade. You can't be that physical anymore and it's a shame.

And yeah I know it was a classic, but it easily was better than any game I saw this year. It's amazing how interesting basketball is to watch when they just let them play.

albasuna · Post #6 » by **albasuna** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 6:00 am

I like to envision a world where love, friendship and respect triumph over over-competitiveness and hatred. </cheese>

It's not like teams aren't trying to beat other teams. You still see a lot of fire and drive in todays competitors. Maybe you don't see many fights, hard-fouls and trash talking... but we are still witnessing some fine basketball.

life > basketball

visions · Post #7 » by **visions** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 6:29 am

albasuna wrote:life > basketball

I totally agree and off the court I could care less if these guys are friends or not but on game days it should be all about the game. As Eddie Johnson said in his article, back in the day they never crossed half court before tip off to chat with the opponents. It was game time...time to forget about friendships and be serious.

I don't think it has anything to do with physical play, refereeing or anything like it either...it's something intangible I can't quite pinpoint.

Really what prompted me to think about all this again was Lebron going to Miami and guys like Magic saying they would never have done that. I also think about it when players use the term "business" all the time...it's like they're saying the business (i.e money, contracts etc) side of their career is more important than just playing the game. I don't remember it being like that even in like the early to mid 90's.

ma_falaa_50 · Post #8 » by **ma_falaa_50** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 6:48 am

I think back in the days players always knew about the business but also loyalty and pride was never given up for money! Lebron did both. I dont think what lebron did was different from La getting gasol and boston getting the big 3.

bimmer_class · Post #9 » by **bimmer_class** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:49 pm

ma_falaa_50 wrote:I think back in the days players always knew about the business but also loyalty and pride was never given up for money! Lebron did both. I dont think what lebron did was different from La getting gasol and boston getting the big 3.

go on..

Frank Lee · Post #10 » by **Frank Lee** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 4:04 pm

And Culburn returns..... he can't help it. Its his 'crack'.

grumpysaddle · Post #11 » by **grumpysaddle** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 5:25 pm

The taming of the game is due to many different things. Partially it's Sterns fault for putting rules and fines on everything. Players can't say the same things they said in the 80s anymore without having to pay $25,000+ fines.

The current CBA is also to blame. Players feel entitlement these days. In the 80s players had to earn their money the hard way. They still made a pretty penny, but nothing at all like the ridiculous contracts given out today. Most of the contracts in the NBA were similar, for all-stars, near all-stars and just good veterans. If you wanted a little more money you had to prove you were better than someone making what you wanted to make. That is another reason the Miami debacle wouldn't have happened. You can't show you're better than someone else by playing WITH them. You prove it by beating them.

American lifestyle is also sort of to blame here. I remember a co-worker talking about her 11 year old daughter's soccer/basketball games and how they didn't even keep score until something like... 3/4 of the way through the seasons. People are so concerned about hurting other people's feelings these days that no one does anything with passion anymore. I mean... the great thing about playing sports when I was a kid was learning to be competitive and learning how winning AND losing feels. That's what life is, sometimes you win, most times you lose. Kids are growing up never knowing what it is to lose.

There's more contributing factors, but my coffee hasn't kicked in enough to keep going on about this... But I'm getting tired of how ticky-tacky fouls are these days (I think some of that has to do with the ridiculous contract sizes and teams worrying about players making $20mil/year being injured. I hope the new CBA kicks player's asses and makes them stop whining about making 1000% more a year than most everyone in the world)