Why did so many fans hate the NBA during the 2000-2004 period

[Blazers-1977]

Yes you had a team who 3 peated but other than the 2001 Laker team, the Lakers were closer to losing in 2000 and 2002 then the Bulls were in any of their runs. You also had so many great and exciting young stars such as Kobe, Iverson, Vince Carter, T-Mac and even exciting big men like Shaq, KG, and Webber(Duncan was great but was considered boring) . 2002-03 was also a great season as well and while 2003-04 was a pretty bad season you had a cinderella team that won it all but yet ratings tanked .

[Forte IV]

Where are you getting these hate stats from

[Blazers-1977]

Where are you getting these hate stats from

Ratings collapsed during that period and NBA massively decided to change the rules to make the NBA more popular again

[draftnightsuit]

There will always be a contingent of NBA fans that will hate the current NBA (no matter the era) in an effort to prop up the stars of the past. Just like how fans of ‘90s NBA hate on the current league.

I remember being on the ESPN NBA boards in the 2000s and there were tons of fans that HATED the NBA in that era. They were claiming that the league was watered-down, fundamentals were at an all-time low, and nobody plays any defense anymore.

There were even people claiming that NCAA > NBA (similar to how to people are saying FIBA > NBA). Both of those statements are laughable.

There definitely were a lot of legitimate flaws of 2000s NBA: too much iso, low percentage hero ball, lazy defense, slow pace, fake “superstars” like Marbury, Steve Francis, etc...

Overall, the 2000s were a top-heavy era that had all-time greats mixed in with absolute garbage basketball.

[SHAQ32]

These are possible reasons:

- Jordan retired (and all the superstars that were drafted in the early-mid 80's were washed up or retired, too)
- Scoring was down (in part to coaches like Jeff Van Gundy and Larry Brown, among others)
- Older fans didn't like the newer stars, namely Allen Iverson
- Fewer legitimate contenders

There are possible others that I can't think of atm

[Pennebaker]

Yes you had a team who 3 peated but other than the 2001 Laker team, the Lakers were closer to losing in 2000 and 2002 then the Bulls were in any of their runs. You also had so many great and exciting young stars such as Kobe, Iverson, Vince Carter, T-Mac and even exciting big men like Shaq, KG, and Webber(Duncan was great but was considered boring) . 2002-03 was also a great season as well and while 2003-04 was a pretty bad season you had a cinderella team that won it all but yet ratings tanked .

Low quality basketball. Watered down league. The Finals featured poor quality East teams facing Shaq. People that loved MJ didnt like AI or Kobe. No MJ = the pits.

[Blazers-1977]

There is a contingent of NBA fans that will always hate the current NBA (no matter the era) in an effort to prop up the stars of the past. Just like how fans of ‘90s NBA hate on the current league.

I remember being on the ESPN NBA boards in the 2000s and there tons of fans that HATED the NBA in that era. They were claiming that the league was watered-down, fundamentals were at an all-time low, and nobody plays any defense anymore.

There were even people claiming that NCAA > NBA (similar to how to people are saying FIBA > NBA). Both of those statements are laughable.

There definitely were a lot of legitimate flaws of 2000s NBA: too much of iso, low percentage hero ball, lazy defense, slow pace, fake “superstars” like Marbury, Steve Francis, etc...

Overall, the 2000s were a top-heavy era that had all-time greats mixed in with absolute garbage basketball.

How was defense garbage from 2000-2004, just look at how low scoring was during that period and its just not the pace cause even if you adjust per 100 possessions it ranks pretty low


To be fair of people who hated on the current league, the NBA was terrible in 2017(Probably the worst season since the 3 point line was created with the possible exception of the lockout short season in 1999) and was even pretty terrible in 2018 as well. This caused people to not really watch this past season

[RCM88x]

Because it sucked.

[Danny1616]

Worst era in basketball.

Slow pace, pure iso, selfish players etc.

This was the era were everybody was trying to be the next Jordan and tried to mimic him. The problem was that no one could do what Jordan did at the same efficiency.

Thank god for Nash and the Suns changing the NBA in 04-05.

[Showdown]

Jordan's fans just stopped watching after he retired, casual fans don't understand basketball so they hate defense and low scoring because they understand when someone score , dunk or do a crossovers but when the game is more complexed then it shows how little they know about basketball. Parity is always bad for rattings and Spurs that were on of the best teams in that era were from small market and people see them as team that play boring basketball.

Today it is seen like that because both MJ's and Lebron's fans are pushing that narrative.

[bovice]

The NBA finals were really the WCFs those years

[Dominator83]

Jordan's fans just stopped watching after he retired, casual fans don't understand basketball so they hate defense and low scoring because they understand when someone score , dunk or do a crossovers but when the game is more complexed then it shows how little they know about basketball. Parity is always bad for rattings and Spurs that were on of the best teams in that era were from small market and people see them as team that play boring basketball.

Today it is seen like that because both MJ's and Lebron's fans are pushing that narrative.

Yea it kind of makes me wonder what current fans would think of 2010 finals game 7? To me it was probably the greatest non-Bulls game I ever watched. Both teams had to scrap and claw for every basket as the defense was crazy intense on both ends. Fans now would probably think that game was boring lol

[gavran]

Because some of the biggest stars from the 90's, that were supposed to be in their prime during that period, to connect it with the later era were washed out by injuries, alcohol and lack of condom use.

[Goudelock]

Jordan's fans just stopped watching after he retired, casual fans don't understand basketball so they hate defense and low scoring because they understand when someone score , dunk or do a crossovers but when the game is more complexed then it shows how little they know about basketball. Parity is always bad for rattings and Spurs that were on of the best teams in that era were from small market and people see them as team that play boring basketball.

Today it is seen like that because both MJ's and Lebron's fans are pushing that narrative.

Yea it kind of makes me wonder what current fans would think of 2010 finals game 7? To me it was probably the greatest non-Bulls game I ever watched. Both teams had to scrap and claw for every basket as the defense was crazy intense on both ends. Fans now would probably think that game was boring lol

As someone who was younger when I watched it, I distinctly remember 2 things about that game (other than the Lakers winning it all).

1: The Laker's defense in the fourth quarter is probably the best team defense I've ever seen any team play. Every rotation was perfect and all 5 guys were on the same page.

2: Everyone looked really damn tired on the offensive side of the ball for the entire game. While the defense was magnificent in the final quarter, part of me wondered how much of the low score had to do with the fact that a bunch of older players just didn't have any gas left in the tank at that point.

[HBK_Kliq_33]

Slow paced and big men posting up is not as fun to watch I guess? That was the Shaq\Duncan era.

[Adamski23]

In my opinion, “be like Mike” negatively affected a lot of wing players and the way the game was played. Most wing players with were moulded to mimic Jordan. ISO heavy became the nor because of the emphasis on Jordan’s scoring ability. It’s like people forgot or missed other aspects of Jordan’s game. I’d like to see some of those previous wing players brought up in today’s version of basketball e.g., Jason Richardson.

[dhsilv2]

The league's stars had gotten old or retired and the new generation of stars weren't in the league yet. Benches were awful, depth was pathetic, it was truly a dark era in terms of talent.

[draftnightsuit]

There is a contingent of NBA fans that will always hate the current NBA (no matter the era) in an effort to prop up the stars of the past. Just like how fans of ‘90s NBA hate on the current league.

I remember being on the ESPN NBA boards in the 2000s and there tons of fans that HATED the NBA in that era. They were claiming that the league was watered-down, fundamentals were at an all-time low, and nobody plays any defense anymore.

There were even people claiming that NCAA > NBA (similar to how to people are saying FIBA > NBA). Both of those statements are laughable.

There definitely were a lot of legitimate flaws of 2000s NBA: too much of iso, low percentage hero ball, lazy defense, slow pace, fake “superstars” like Marbury, Steve Francis, etc...

Overall, the 2000s were a top-heavy era that had all-time greats mixed in with absolute garbage basketball.

How was defense garbage from 2000-2004, just look at how low scoring was during that period and its just not the pace cause even if you adjust per 100 possessions it ranks pretty low


To be fair of people who hated on the current league, the NBA was terrible in 2017(Probably the worst season since the 3 point line was created with the possible exception of the lockout short season in 1999) and was even pretty terrible in 2018 as well. This caused people to not really watch this past season

First of all, low scoring =/= good defense and high scoring =/= bad defense. This is basketball 101.

The 2000s had a a lot of lazy, no defense playing chuckers. They also had some of the greatest defenses of all-time like the ‘04 Pistons, ‘08 Celtics, and the Spurs. The defense was top heavy as well, just the rest of that era.

The fact that the league was extremely slow with a lot of iso-ball limited the amount of points to be scored. That style of play will lead to low scoring regardless of the quality of defense.

I remember people claiming that the reason why scores were so low in the 2000s was due to the fact that players had horrible fundamentals. The high-scoring of the ‘80s was due to the fact that the players had better fundamentals. That was the argument at the time.

There’s usually very little logic and objectivity with these debates. NBA fans are going to defend whatever era they like the best regardless of the facts.

[Dominator83]

Jordan's fans just stopped watching after he retired, casual fans don't understand basketball so they hate defense and low scoring because they understand when someone score , dunk or do a crossovers but when the game is more complexed then it shows how little they know about basketball. Parity is always bad for rattings and Spurs that were on of the best teams in that era were from small market and people see them as team that play boring basketball.

Today it is seen like that because both MJ's and Lebron's fans are pushing that narrative.

Yea it kind of makes me wonder what current fans would think of 2010 finals game 7? To me it was probably the greatest non-Bulls game I ever watched. Both teams had to scrap and claw for every basket as the defense was crazy intense on both ends. Fans now would probably think that game was boring lol

As someone who was younger when I watched it, I distinctly remember 2 things about that game (other than the Lakers winning it all).

1: The Laker's defense in the fourth quarter is probably the best team defense I've ever seen any team play. Every rotation was perfect and all 5 guys were on the same page.

2: Everyone looked really damn tired on the offensive side of the ball for the entire game. While the defense was magnificent in the final quarter, part of me wondered how much of the low score had to do with the fact that a bunch of older players just didn't have any gas left in the tank at that point.

I know I'm getting a little OT here, but it still baffles me that Boston managed to blow a 15 PT lead. In that game at the rate the teams were scoring, a 15 PT lead was more like a 25 PT lead

[JeepCSC]

Because we had eyes.