Was it like this when Magic and Larry were in the league?

[KyrieTheFuture]

Were there stans of one or the other doing everything in their power to tear down the other so their guy looked like he was just clearly the best? Did writers and fans alike have horrendous agendas? Would ISH have sucked as much back then? Or were fans more mature back then and embraced the currently foreign concept of acknowledging more than one player in the league is allowed to be good? This is just getting ridiculous and unenjoyable. I love a good troll as much as the next guy but at this point it's more than that.

Did NBA fans always suck this much?

[Nuff Said]

Prolly was even like that with wilt and Russell.

[1987_Lakers]

There was no internet or media trying to look for drama in every single little thing.

[GreatHILL]

90s babys killed the nba

[navy]

There was no internet or media trying to look for drama in every single little thing.
This.

[KyrieTheFuture]

Would it be accurate to say that people cherished the rivalry they had and said look how great THEY are instead of which one was better?

[Keno]

not even close. i was on the old nba message board back in '86 when bird nearly averaged a triple double en route to the championship.

magic stans were giving their props to bird and appreciating what he did for the win. even hakeem stans were saying good game, respect, props, etc.

[kennethgriffin]

lol stupid kids... there was no internet available to the public back then

only person they had to argue with was their friends.

[Keno]

the social media is what happened, mostly twitter. it's the worst thing to happen to mankind since the apocalypse.

[moe94]

Bird was clearly better than Magic. Magic was barely starter level. He got HIV, but Bird broke his back. Go figure.

[KyrieTheFuture]

not even close. i was on the old nba message board back in '86 when bird nearly averaged a triple double en route to the championship.

magic stans were giving their props to bird and appreciating what he did for the win. even hakeem stans were saying good game, respect, props, etc.
:coleman:

Stop trolling here

[LeGOAT]

I'm sure there were plenty of Magic or Bird stans, except people actually debated in real life at barber shops and shit instead of on the internet posting shitty gifs and photo shopped images and ridiculous trolling.

[inclinerator]

they were always on their phone texting about who was better russell or wilt, reading articles online and bashing them on the forums

[NumberSix]

It was MUCH worse when Bird and Magic were playing......... For obvious reasons.

[All Net]

No it's only on here where people have idiotic agendas.

[KyrieTheFuture]

No it's only on here where people have idiotic agendas.
Obviously it's the worst on here, but are you implying ESPN has no agenda?

[All Net]

Obviously it's the worst on here, but are you implying ESPN has no agenda?

They do but they do it in a different way. Here it'd just people doing it just to wind people up.

[Smook A.]

We don't know because the internet barely existed in the 80s and the media wasn't as good as it is today

[outbreak]

It was easier to respect both Magic and Bird. Sure people hated the other guy but they still had respect for him because both were true legends.

[RedBlackAttack]

:coleman:

Stop trolling here
I'm not saying he posted there, but the boards did exist back then. Someone posted a link a couple years ago with posts dating back to the early-mid 80s.

Looks like the link isn't working anymore, but here is the thread...

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=227563

[MVBallin2K]

If they were around today, they'd be in the same exact spot as other players today. Essentially, they'd be like KD and Lebron right now where two sides are arguing which one is better and refuse to accept what the other does :oldlol: .

[gts]

No it's only on here where people have idiotic agendas.

pretty much this...

And no it wasn't as bad, the rivalry was healthy.. we appreciated greatness no matter what it's name was or what color the uniform was.. you hoped they lost when they played your team but you hoped they won the other games so you could see them in the finals. not like today's idiot fans that cheer for injuries or hope the other team fails so their guy can have an easy trip to the title

We used to want (I still do) our team and it's players to go through the best to be the best

ISH is by far the worst when it comes to agendas if you discount team based sites.

It's gotten so bad here that not one topic can go by without being infected by pure nonsense.. With ESPN going down and hoops world closing up shop I keep hoping Jeff will final put his foot down and get this place back on track because ISH really does have the opportunity to become awesome again but instead it seems he only embraces the nonsense... Maybe it's gone to far to turn it around or maybe he just doesn't care

Fact is he bans the trolls and they're back with a new account spouting off the same nonsense they were spouting before...

[GrapeApe]

Back then they were called Lakers and Celtics fans. There were plenty of bandwagoners, but they were fans of the team more than the player. The only player-first fans were usually under the age of 12, though that likely still holds true today.

[HomieWeMajor]

It was MUCH worse when Bird and Magic were playing......... For obvious reasons.
For real
David Stern was clever to exploit the race relations in the US back in the 80s to manufacture this rivalry. He made millions off black and white people killing each other.

[Pushxx]

Do people even remember the OJ Simpson trial?

[LAZERUSS]

Funny thing about the arrival of Magic and Bird...

Most fans here honestly believe that when those two arrived, that they just completely dominated "the Old Guard" of the 70's.

However, it took several seasons before they were even considered the best players in the league (although Magic was winning FMVPs almost immediately.)

[mr.big35]

there were no espn back then to create bogus storylines

[LeGOAT]

Do people even remember the OJ Simpson trial?
I'm 13, what iz this

[NumberSix]

For real
David Stern was clever to exploit the race relations in the US back in the 80s to manufacture this rivalry. He made millions off black and white people killing each other.
Marketing/race baiting in the media. Typical tactic.

[Mr.Kite]

Before 2010, people were fans of teams.

[J Shuttlesworth]

No it's only on here where people have idiotic agendas.
It's honestly everywhere. I see some people on my facebook who are religious stans :lol It's crazy

[pauk]

Yes it was, but at the same time not exactly... i mean there was no computers to hind behind while you expressed your opinions so you had to be careful, be rational in your approach & so anybody who dared to troll didnt get banned, but KO'ed which made you think twice about doing it again (alt-account).

It isnt the same situation though, there is no 2 best players in the league winning championships back n forth having an epic rivalry.... there is just 1 guy doing that...

[Shade8780]

Anyone remember MikanGOAT or MinLaker back in the original ISH days? So many Minneapolis Lakers bandwagoners back then.

[Pointguard]

I'm not saying he posted there, but the boards did exist back then. Someone posted a link a couple years ago with posts dating back to the early-mid 80s.

Looks like the link isn't working anymore, but here is the thread...

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=227563
I was on the internet before there were .com sites and there were almost all .edu and library sites that I could recall and that was 1989/90. I could imagine that it was possible to do a message group but it would be more like a chat room. People loved to chat in the beginning.

During the 80's when Magic and Bird were active I travelled across the US and the bars were hyped with the argument. You would here that fights broke out in bars more often then and the code words were "over basketball" The nation was still a bit racist as Kareem wrote about it in "Giant Steps" as if he didn't crush Walton then he knew who they would say was better. The intensity of Bird/Magic had more explosive ingredients than Kobe/Bron.

[Pointguard]

And all the sites were just text with mostly just black background.

[La Frescobaldi]

And all the sites were just text with mostly just black background.

black, or green which drove me nuts. maybe that's when I started bricking nerf balls, I used to make em from anywhere on the floor

[Micku]

I'm not saying he posted there, but the boards did exist back then. Someone posted a link a couple years ago with posts dating back to the early-mid 80s.

Looks like the link isn't working anymore, but here is the thread...

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=227563

Yeah. You can find posts that would give their reasoning why Bird is better over Magic or vice versa. They were trolls back then too, but much less.

This was in the thread:



Newsgroups: net.sport.hoops
From: michaelf@ism780
Date: Thu, 20-Feb-86 13:30:00 EST

I know all of you out there were waiting for further
accolades on Larry Bird so here they are. The man is simply
a genius when it comes to the game. He is the Mozart of hoops.
Pure basketball can be desribed as physical chess. Moving your
pieces in a way which best utilizes their strengths and attacking
with the right one at the right time is what it's all about.
Last night against Golden State, Bird had 36 points
12 rebounds and 11 assists. Now THAT, is a triple double. Not
like Magic's triple doubles which usually have 15 or so assists
but also only about 15 points. Last week Larry had a triple
double and scored 48 points. That includes the buzzer-beater
that won the game.
After talking up Alvin Robertson last week, he gets
a quadruple double. He had something like 22 points, 11 rebounds
10 assists and 10 steals. Last year Larry had a chance at a QuadDub
but he pulled himself in the third quarter after the Celts
had the game in the bag. At that point he had a TripDub with
9 steals. Ouch.
You will always read about the Alex English and Adrian
Dantley types scoring like madmen but they never have the
boards and assists. ...


When McHale comes back, will K.C. put Parish, McHale
and Walton in the forecourt and move Bird to guard alongside DJ?
DJ will stay play point and Bird will be a 6' 10 shooting guard.
I say it would be unstoppable. Comments?

[Marchesk]

From the wikipedia entry, the internet goes back to about 1982, based on prior networking which goes back to the 60s. In 1968, there was the Mother of All Demos in San Fran where the mouse, hypertext, word processing, document collaboration (think google docs) and video conferencing were all demonstrated decades ahead of their time (this is akin to Wilt being a time traveler from the modern era).

[LAZERUSS]

From the wikipedia entry, the internet goes back to about 1982, based on prior networking which goes back to the 60s. In 1968, there was the Mother of All Demos in San Fran where the mouse, hypertext, word processing, document collaboration (think google docs) and video conferencing were all demonstrated decades ahead of their time (this is akin to Wilt being a time traveler from the modern era).

Welcome back. Where have you been?