No Decade Comes Even Close To The 80's...

[Showtime80']

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7bWc1qTWnA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD7o6nCv5qw

NO DECADE, had the perfect mix of superstars, super teams, rivalries, physicality, athleticism, personalities, quality of play etc...

Go ahead and find a compilation of anything close to the 1980's! And that was just a taste of what the decade offered!

[StephHamann]

https://media.giphy.com/media/owiooI9tn2hjy/giphy.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_8KR-n2fBQ

[Showtime80']

LeBron, Kobe, Bird, Magic and T-Mac don't seem to think so!

Great song by the way!

And again, waiting for the 2010's NBA compilation that can compete with that!

[Kiddlovesnets]

Its true, 80s is the golden era of NBA, the strongest era ever. The league got progressively weaker after 80s, and now this era is not much stronger than the 60s.

[NBAGOAT]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLRjMYeqMuc

[Showtime80']

I agree NBAGoat, those Spurs had a beautiful Finals series but 4 games does not a decade make my friend! If at least 10 teams would play like that consistently the NBA would be in much better shape.

[NBAGOAT]

I agree NBAGoat, those Spurs had a beautiful Finals series but 4 games does not a decade make my friend! If at least 10 teams would play like that consistently the NBA would be in much better shape.

they played beautiful the whole year and don't act like there were 10 teams who played as beautiful as Celtics or Showtime.

[Showtime80']

NO TEAMS IN HISTORY played as beautiful as the 80's Lakers and Celtics but the 80's had A NUMBER of teams that were full of all-stars and played unselfish, efficient teamwork oriented basketball

Pistons
Sixers
Nuggets
Mavs
Bucks
Cavs
Blazers
Sonics
Suns
late 80's Jazz
mid 80's Rockets

Look at the stacked lineups with all-stars and hall of famers, that's 12 teams in a 23 team league!

The one man show teams like Jordan's Bulls, Wilkins Hawks, Moses Rockets, Sleepy Floyd Kings and Bernard King Knicks didn't win crap in that decade!

[Heilige]

NO TEAMS IN HISTORY played as beautiful as the 80's Lakers and Celtics but the 80's had A NUMBER of teams that were full of all-stars and played unselfish, efficient teamwork oriented basketball

Pistons
Sixers
Nuggets
Mavs
Bucks
Cavs
Blazers
Sonics
Suns
late 80's Jazz
mid 80's Rockets

Look at the stacked lineups with all-stars and hall of famers, that's 12 teams in a 23 team league!

The one man show teams like Jordan's Bulls, Wilkins Hawks, Moses Rockets, Sleepy Floyd Kings and Bernard King Knicks didn't win crap in that decade!



Who do you have in your top 10 GOAT list? Where does Stephen Curry rank thus far on your list?

[Showtime80']

Good question Heilige!

Taking into account accolades, ability, team accomplishments, dominance, longevity, transcendence and my own personal question "Who would you rather have as your top dog in a game 7" this are my top 10:

1. Jordan
2. Russell
3. Kareem
4a.4b.Magic/Bird
6. Shaq
7. Wilt
8. Olajuwon
9. Duncan
10. LeBron/Kobe- A lot depends on the next few years

It's just too soon for Steph Curry man! All those guys in that list were elite/dominant for 10+ years and led different incarnations of their surrounding teams to titles (except for LeBron who can alter his position on that list in the coming years)

Very good two years for Steph, let's wait 5 more years!

[Round Mound]

80s DA GOAT ERA! :bowdown: :applause: :rockon: :pimp: :cheers: :banana:

[Showtime80']

Like I said, still waiting for the 2010's compilation!

[Kvnzhangyay]

Good question Heilige!

Taking into account accolades, ability, team accomplishments, dominance, longevity, transcendence and my own personal question "Who would you rather have as your top dog in a game 7" this are my top 10:

1. Jordan
2. Russell
3. Kareem
4a.4b.Magic/Bird
6. Shaq
7. Wilt
8. Olajuwon
9. Duncan
10. LeBron/Kobe- A lot depends on the next few years

It's just too soon for Steph Curry man! All those guys in that list were elite/dominant for 10+ years and led different incarnations of their surrounding teams to titles (except for LeBron who can alter his position on that list in the coming years)

Very good two years for Steph, let's wait 5 more years!

How do you have Duncan and Lebron/Kobe under Hakeem?

[sundizz]

Teams didn't play very good defense in the 80's. Combine that with increased passing (that is true) and it led to beautiful looking bball. Overall though, the actual talent level has increased significantly.

[Showtime80']

Simple:

Olajuwon WAS THE HOUSTON ROCKETS for 14 years, he was an absolute consistent dominant beast and out of all the top ten he won with possibly the worst team surrounding him in 1994 culminating with the evisceration of Patrick Ewing in the Finals. His 1995 playoff run was even more incredible beating 3 60 win teams led by Malone/Stockton, Barkley and MVP David Robinson ending with a sweep in the Finals of the other center that would dominate the next 10 years, Shaq! Give him a couple of brownie points for beating the Showtime Lakers and taking two games off the Celtics in 1986!

I love Tim Duncan, but he was NEVER as dominant as Hakeem either on offense or on defense and he ALWAYS surrounded by better teams and coaches. He had David Robinson (another all time top 50 players) with him for the first two titles which were against the depleted Knicks and New Jersey Nets. Then he won against a pretty good Pistons team in 2005, a historically crappy Cavs team in 2007 and then probably the beast team he ever beat in the 2014 Heat when he wasn't even the best player on the team! Having said all that he's had an almost 20 year career, winning 5 titles and being the winningest player during that time.

Kobe won 3 titles playing second fiddle to Shaq and then winning two when he joined forces with Pau Gasol in his prime and beating a very limited Orlando Magic team in 2009 and then taking 7 games to beat the last gasp of the Garnet-Allen-Pierce era Celtics.

LeBron jumped ship in 2010 to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami and preceding to loose 2 out of 4 Finals against an underdog Mavs team and an old last legs Spurs in 2014.

Like I said, Lebron can alter his top 10 list status in the next few weeks and years. Let's wait and see!

[Showtime80']

Sundizz:

Take a look at the all-star and all-NBA rosters for the late 80's and they BLOW THE PRESENT LEAGUE out of the water!!! Too many all time legends and top 50 players to mention.

This is the AAU era, filled with dumb, fundamentally flawed athletes who are drafted on nothing more than potential and it's a never ending cycle that the NBA is not going to get out off any time soon.

The 1980's was the ONLY DECADE where old school fundamentals and basketball IQ met new age athleticism.

After the 1990's athleticism became the focus and the basic fundamentals and nuances of the game went down the CRAPPER!!!

[Round Mound]

83-93 :bowdown:

[sportjames23]

83-93 :bowdown:

:cheers:

[JBSptfn]

I agree that the 80's were the best. In the 90's, we had to settle for too much Bull dominance due to several factors:

Demise of the Pistons
Magic Johnson having to retire
No Len Bias, and death of Reggie Lewis
Sabonis doesn't come over until 1995
Ron Harper got hurt, and then was traded away from the young, promising Cavs for Danny Ferry
Shaq leaves Orlando after 1995-96 season
The Rodman-Richard Dumas trade was voided (in the fall of 93, Rodman was traded to Phoenix for Richard Dumas, but Dumas got suspended for drugs, cancelling the trade).

[houston]

This era comes close to it.

[3ball]

Take a look at the all-star and all-NBA rosters for the late 80's and they BLOW THE PRESENT LEAGUE out of the water!!! Too many all time legends and top 50 players to mention.

This is the AAU era, filled with dumb, fundamentally flawed athletes who are drafted on nothing more than potential and it's a never ending cycle that the NBA is not going to get out off any time soon.

The 1980's was the ONLY DECADE where old school fundamentals and basketball IQ met new age athleticism.


Today's watered down players and league shouldn't be a surprise: scorers are ranked as "good" because they can make contested shots, not open shots.. 2-pointers are more contested, so eras that shot more 2-pointers produced better players - this is why Shaq was 10th in MVP voting in 1996, compared to Kyle Lowry in 2016 - can you say "watered down"??

Ultimately, the tighter contest on 2-pointers requires refined touch from midrange (http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showpost.php?p=12367120&postcount=12), and the lack of spacing created by 2-point shooting required thread-needle (https://media.giphy.com/media/14dxFSxmv135bG/giphy.gif) passing, quicker instincts (https://media.giphy.com/media/WaFRus5AZcR8c/giphy.gif) and decision-making (https://media.giphy.com/media/xVCegX3kISST6/giphy.gif), and also more sophisticated (https://media.giphy.com/media/xT4uQoN51xmHONisr6/giphy.gif) moves besides ball-domination (such as post (https://media.giphy.com/media/sMEYKXY5vSezK/giphy.gif), triple-threat (https://media.giphy.com/media/xT4uQwXCdJnRJ1PGrS/giphy.gif)).

Otoh, today's players master a much narrower skillset that requires less sophistication - specifically, they master the skills needed to execute screen-roll/drive-and-kick, since that's the preferred method of generating mass volume of 3-point shooting.
.

[Lebron23]

How old are you OP?