These Are Pretty Good Times, Basketball-Wise
Welcome To The Twelve Postponed Days of Christmas.
Proposed: January is kind of a crap month.
Proposed: Nobody Much Actually Celebrates The True Twelve Days of Christmas Anyway
Proposed: This Bit Could Really Happen Anytime in January
There’s a lot of modern complaining about the NBA, and a lot of modern complaining about nearly everything, honestly. I think most of the NBA complaining is overly nostalgic, or really, simply wrong.
Should old times be forgot? I don’t think so, but I also think it’s important not to over glamorize or romanticize them either. It’s an easy thing to do as one gets older. In my view it’s important to separate your own glory days of being full of youthful energy and enthusiasm, from things as they actually were.
I’m trying to separate ideas of nostalgia about the NBA, and the sense that the modern NBA is a problem that must be fixed. That seems to be a pervasive current attitude about a lot of things beyond the NBA, and I have my suspicions as to why to some extent, but I’m just here to talk basketball.
Let’s consider modern NBA basketball versus the past of NBA basketball.
People love to talk about Michael Jordan, Hakeem, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and so forth. These were all great players, but the thing is, those were the very top players out of a league of several hundred players, most of whom, almost categorically, aren’t as good at basketball (dribble, pass, shoot, defend, rebound) as nearly any modern player. Sure, I believe those greats would be great now, and probably more skilled than they were back then, and almost certainly better conditioned. They’d have to be, or the pace of the modern game would break them.
Look at it this way. Do you like old movies? Cinema, even? Think about the very best Westerns. You can probably think of, oh, five to ten. High Noon. The Searchers. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Jeremiah Johnson, mostly known for that bearded Robert Redford meme. Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns, with their great soundtracks. Films like that.
The thing is, Hollywood has made nearly 3,000 Westerns. You might really want to watch, what, 10, 20 of them? That’s less than one half, of one percent, of all the Westerns ever, even if you go with a number like 2,700 (but I include TV shows, the 1970s onward, etc, too).
The old NBA, and its games are a lot like that. The highs were very high, but a lot of games were, like those Westerns, largely unmemorable. Unwatchable at worst.
Here’s a recent example, that might resonate. The Timberwolves played the Rockets recently. Did you really enjoy watching Zach Randolph operate? I’m not talking about a certain admiration for being one of the few players who plays the way he does. No, I’m talking about did you actually enjoy the experience of his offensive game?
Guess what? Zach Randolph would have been a big star in the 1990s. The slow, methodical, backdown game into a decent close-ish shot? The nice handle for a big? The patient footwork, and ability to shoot a three occasionally, and pass surprisingly well? Yeah, you’d find yourself watching 20+ Zach Randolph attempts per game, in a game with, oh, 30% fewer attempts, at least.
Zach is throwback, and yet all these people who pine for the Old NBA, are they pining for a lot more Zach Randolphs?
I’m guessing they really aren’t.
Yes, they shoot a lot of threes now. There were a lot of tedious backdowns and awkward mid-range shots back then, and a slow pace to go with it.
What I believe is we’re now seeing the best offense, and the best defense, in terms of movement, positioning, non-handchecking, that’s ever been played. It’s not a lack of manliness, or a loss of skill. It’s different skills, to stop better offense, or create higher scoring offense.
Pine for lost youth if you like, Chuck, but leave NBA basketball out of it.