Not So Fast on Basketball Players

Honestly I don't necessarily think that basketball players are better today. Give me Bill Russell, Jerry West, Walt Frazier, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem, Kevin McHale(ok their hayday was "only" 15 years ago arguably Kareem farther back), Doctor J, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, John Havlichek, Rick Barry, Willis Reed, Wilt Chamberlin, Nate Thurmond, Bill Walton (often injured though), along with many others and I like my chances against todays crop of top players. First of all in the NBA (don't get me started on college basketball) playing center is a lost art and accomplished pivot men seem to be a dying breed. Second of all I think that players aren't as fundamentally sound offensively. It's astonishing to me, to watch players miss so many EASY jump shots from from 20 feet on in. It also seems to me that one on one skills aka as driving to the basket are not praciticed that well in todays game. Yeah there's some spectacular dunking and players are taller and jump higher but I'm not sold that today's crop of NBA players is better than what I've seen many moons ago.

Bird/Johnson are IMO clearly part of the modern era of basketball. In fact, one might argue that they started it.

An important factor...which referees will call the game? Their is a huge difference between the amount of contact that is allowed today and what was allowed in the past. Players from the past wouldn't know how to play today's game, and vice versa.


I'd still have to go with today's players, though. In terms of knowledge of the game and mastery of fundamentals, past players are probably superior. In terms of athletic ability, however, I think there's no question that today's players are far better. Against a team of talented rookies, perhaps Jerry West and others would be able to win...but against Jason Kidd/Kobe Bryant/Shaq/Tim Duncan etc.? Not a chance.

We could argue all day about what the "modern era" is for basketball but Bird and Magic basically were through over a decade ago (Magic made a bried comeback in 94-95 season) In my mind they are clearly not contemporary players (we could probably could argue about what that means too). I really believe that the NBA changed a lot when the "Bad Boy" Pistons won their title back to back titles.

Good point about the physical play in today's game. I'll even grant you that in general today's basketball player has more athletic prowess. I'll definitely argue the point that is clear that today's players are far superior. Like I posted I'd gladly put up a team of the players in my post against today's superstars. There's even more that I left out that I would gladly have.


Jason Kidd isn't even in the same class as the players I mentioned.


Kobe is a great player and I feel will be one of the all time greats. However, I believe many of the players I mentioned would matchup well against Kobe and score their fair share of points against him and challenge him defensively.


Duncan is an excellent player but I don't think he's way out classed by players such as McHale,

Bird, Russell, Elvin Hayes etc.


Shaq is a great player but he is not challenged by his contempories. I'll take Kareen any day over Shaq.

Then we have to agree to disagree. You want to have the entire history of NBA players to chose from vs like 6-7 years worth for your definition of modern.


The game's popularity fundamentally changed when Magic and Larry came into the league. It went from a 2nd tier sport to the major powerhouse that it is today. Are you saying that "contenporary" by definition must always mean "within the last 5 or 6 years"? If so, then its a bogus arguement because ANY sport where you can choose from a universe of 40 years of players vs 5 years of players is going to be a no brainer.


I mean, lets look at some of the players that your "old time" basketball team would have:


Majic, Bird, Isaiah, Barkley, Hakeem. Heck, you practically claim Jordan. He did spank Magic after all.


To me at least, thats ridiculous. All of the above should/would be on the "modern" team. If you are trying to say than you can create an "all time great team" that is better than the 2002 all-star team: congradulations. You are correct. But any rational definition of modern players leaves you with a slow undersized team that gets dominated.

Kareem wouldn't have a prayer of stopping Shaq...true, Shaq couldn't stop Kareem's skyhook, but then nobody could do that, in any era.


I grew up rooting for Kareem and the Lakers, and he remains one of my favorite players, but he can't compare to Shaq, in my opinion.


In any case, though, I think we're talking about two different things. I consider players like Kareem, Bird, McHale, Magic, etc. to be part of the modern era of players...when I say that today's players are superior, I am comparing them to players that came before the names I just listed.