NBA Conundrum: Are We In the Golden Age of the League? Kobe, Jordan Or Magic

I guess I agree with you. People tend to want to hold onto the past, always claiming the 80’s as the Golden Age. However, as you mentioned, if the league is assessed as a whole, top to bottom, these past 10 years are clearly ahead of the pack.

As for the future, with the decline of Kobe Bryant, the league will not maintain its current greatness until another Kobe/Jordan-esque player enters the league and begins dominating anywhere near their level.

I agree that there is more individual talent in the league than ever before. I think that is why Kobe may be nearing Jordan’s status because he has faced better overall competition, both individually and certainly team-wise, with Boston, SA and maybe Sac-town all better than any teams Chicago beat.
 The only thing I would say about the 80’s is though the Lakers and Celtics were the best of that era,all-time great teams in Philly and Detroit as well as a few 1 to 2 year wonders in Milwaukee, Houstan and San Antonio made the league team-wise, the best decade. If the Lakers didn’t have to beat great teams in every final, Magic would be sitting on 8 rings, not 5.

Although you are not 100% wrong you are not 100 right. Every generation of basketball fans believes that the generation they grew up watching was the best. But, it is difficult to comment and judge and especially compare era’s when you have only truly witnessed one.
That is why I can’t compare the 70’s because I was too young to give my opinion about something I never witnessed.

Which is why I disagree with you for the most part. Mainly because of two things that you didn’t mention.

Although a very good argument there wasn’t a single comment about defense. Maybe I missed it but I didn’t see it. In reality, the NBA in the 90"s and 80"s was filled with Ron Artest type players. Players who took more pride in defense. Now the NBA is more about offense and who is more athletic and so on.

Also, the biggest difference in todays era is the loss of fundementals and work ethic. Just look up Dennis Rodman, Jordan, and Karl Malone’s dedication. Today, its mainly Kobe with that old school work ethic mentality. Name me any player in todays era with that work ethic I can probably double that number with players from the 80 and 90.

Even worst about today’s era is that almost no one has a good midrange game. Just think about this, the supposed best player today, according to so called NBA experts is Lebron and then Dwight. Neither one with a midrange game. True Dwight is more athletic but where is his post up game. it is so obvious that he had to get lessons from a Center from the 90’s. And don’t get me started on Lebron. Dominique who was probably the top 5 player in his era had just as much atheleticism as Lebron and yet was a better defender, had a midrange game and dare I say, and even better dunker.

Great article though. Hope you come back.

Also,

I agree with this point, the mid-range game. Every player in the 70-80’s had it, and it started to wain in the 90’s. Thanks ESPN. Teams were fundamentally sound execution-wise and especially in the 80’s there was a sense of real dedication to improvement year to year from many players and teams. They competed with each other for accolades as well as championships.
Defense was good, but watch the films of that era compared to today and I think it is harder today, if for no other reason the size, speed and strength difference. Point guards today would out-weigh Thomas, Archibald, Lever, Cheeks etc by 20-25 pounds. Every position is so much better conditioned, bigger and athletic now than then. They could be more obviously physical at times due to certain rules at that time, but the constent possession by possession physicality of todays game is tougher. Again those decades had some oustanding defensive players ( Coop, Rodman, Pippin, DJ, Bobby Jones, Moncrief, Payton, Hakeem etc) but the 00’s have had quite a few as well, Kobe being as good at least at times as any of those guys. ( Duncan, Garnett, Kidd, Bowen, Wallace Howard, Artest to name a few).
I disagree about the work ethic of todays players. Many work all year to improve and LOL Bynum aside, may be harder working than any players in history. See Kobe, Duncan, Nash, D.Williams, Wade, Rondo, Kidd, Garnett and as much as I cannot stand him, James has worked hard to become great. The first 3 I would put up there with Magic, Jordan and Bird as far as workers. Dominique, Chuck, McHale, Worthy, Isiah, Bernard King, Dr. J. all-time greats, but not necessarily known for great work ethics.
BTW Dom was wayyyyy better than LeQueen, so was Larry Nance, Dr.J, Kemp, maybe even T. Chambers just off the top of my head.

Sorry Scott, I was gonna read the comments but they are way too long, but Golden age is still 90’s.. because Michael changed basketball forever and brought the NBA to a new plateau. The NBA would not be anywhere near what it is today without MJ. Greatest team off all time in the Bulls in the 90’s = Golden Era

on-ball defense without contact, pace of dribble is exceptionally faster nowadays and without the ability to hand check makes it exceptionally harder to stay in front, training techniques have improved decade after decade, shooting ability from behind the arc has become so much a part of the game now that using ts% the league is almost at the league high in ts% and much higher than the 1990s where it steadily went down as time went on, older players don’t stay around as long unless they possess some needed skill, but younger players are seeing more and more playing time

Things that have gotten worse as a result: off-ball defense, post moves out of underdeveloped big men from high school, shooting stroke out of young players that got by mostly on athleticism and ability to dribble because of new hand checking rules. That’s it. Oh and committing mindlessly dumb hard fouls because of a no lay-up rule, which is still enforced by a certain coach in Utah who has never won a title partially because of that tactic. Not saying, there shouldn’t be harder fouls to stop the lay-up, but watching Shaq almost injure people with in air collisions is not how I want careers to end.

Most of the things that supposedly players don’t have, are mainly a result of not having to learn them until later in their careers because of the new rules that are enforced at most levels. So players are more raw when they come in, but those who make it to the end of their basketball prime in the NBA, are usually some of the more skilled players in history. Now, in terms of their judgment on the court and decision making, the older generation has that down pact, but as I said, it is mostly a difference in age and maturity of the players on the floor and the systems they run in college. Magic, Bird, Jordan, Hakeem, Kareem, Wilt, Russell, Moses, Dr. J are all exceptions to the norm of the times, those were the superstars, so to try and take the average players from those guys and apply it to the entire NBA today is unfair, especially when you had a fair amount of busts and unskilled athletes in the NBA even back then, they just weren’t as highlighted because they were usually on those expansion teams the NBA was bringing about at the time. That lack of concentration of good players from expansion, also makes room for more less disciplined players as well. I’m not saying this generation is the golden age, I still think the expansion and rebirth of the NBA in the 1980s is the golden age, followed by the high tv ratings of the 1990s, but I think average athletically and superios skillwise in some ways this generation definitely takes the cake.

the league really grew in overall appeal worldwide, more players started seeing paychecks in the millions, ratings were threw the roof thanks to MJ’s Bulls, and expansion franchises started popping up.

I’d have to say that now is the Golden Age in terms of overall talent, level of play, defense, player size and physique, number of superstars, the high number of good teams, etc.

But I’m still nostalgic for Magic’s Showtime Lakers. Gotta catch some NBA Classics some day.