Sure MJ has 48 points with 25 in the 4th at this point but its under control.

[Kblaze8855]

You have held off his furious late comeback attempt. You are up 1 and putting the ball in to get fouled and try to take the 3 point lead.

It would be shame if somehow you ****ed up the inbounds pass but what are the odds of....







https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SpeedyBewitchedHorse-size_restricted.gif






Well...nevermind.

[FKAri]

Poor writing imo. It was still the early days so I can forgive Stern on that one. But the execution...spectacular. Look at the defenders colliding. Impromptu or choreographed.. I don't care. Impressive regardless. :applause:

[And1AllDay]

Poor writing imo. It was still the early days so I can forgive Stern on that one. But the execution...spectacular. Look at the defenders colliding. Impromptu or choreographed.. I don't care. Impressive regardless. :applause:

The defense was so bad I mean what the. Have they ever defended a fast break in there life before this play?? :oldlol:

[Prometheus]

It must have felt so demoralizing to play against him.

I think Curry has to be the closest I know of in terms of... entire team defenses... showing body language of abject helplessness. Shaq too I suppose. It always seems to deflate when someone gets white hot, but with Curry, the sheer absurdity of the shots he starts taking... and the fact that you start expecting even those to go in... I have watched whole teams look like they don't even care anymore. "What can we do about it?"

I only caught MJ as a young idiot kid in the 90s. I know nothing of young, ferocious, ringless MJ. It must have been awesome. From footage, he seems to have that same effect of being able to just make entire teams feel helpless and checked out.

[Overdrive]

The defense was so bad I mean what the. Have they ever defended a fast break in there life before this play?? :oldlol:

Looks like the kind of defense Lebron would play.

[Spurs m8]

Poor writing imo. It was still the early days so I can forgive Stern on that one. But the execution...spectacular. Look at the defenders colliding. Impromptu or choreographed.. I don't care. Impressive regardless. :applause:

God you are irritating lol

Also, defense colliding?

https://i.giphy.com/media/7Toe9ML7M9aw7Sd3f6/source.gif

[andgar923]

The defense was so bad I mean what the. Have they ever defended a fast break in there life before this play?? :oldlol:

He avoided at least 3 defenders. Not much you can do in a fast break that happened so suddenly.

[Kblaze8855]

The defense was so bad I mean what the. Have they ever defended a fast break in there life before this play?? :oldlol:


Lets see..


They jumped to his strong hand forcing him to change hands on the fly...they stopped the ball forcing him to halt and change direction....and Sikma got a good contest on the resulting pull up.

What were you taught to do defending the break? I was told to stop the ball....not let them have their strong hand if possible....make them take a jumper not a layup. Not much to be done if they go around the back to the other hand....get stopped dead....change direction...and make the contested jumper.

For an "Oh shit!" adrenaline packed situation facing the best transition scorer maybe ever id say it was pretty fundamentally sound.

[FKAri]

It must have felt so demoralizing to play against him.

I think Curry has to be the closest I know of in terms of... entire team defenses... showing body language of abject helplessness. Shaq too I suppose. It always seems to deflate when someone gets white hot, but with Curry, the sheer absurdity of the shots he starts taking... and the fact that you start expecting even those to go in... I have watched whole teams look like they don't even care anymore. "What can we do about it?"

I only caught MJ as a young idiot kid in the 90s. I know nothing of young, ferocious, ringless MJ. It must have been awesome. From footage, he seems to have that same effect of being able to just make entire teams feel helpless and checked out.
People don't talk enough about how much MJ redefined the position. No one thought a guard could dominate a game to that extent when it came to scoring. He was hyped coming into the league but even then the talk was, "He's still just a guard. He's skinny". He attacked the rim like a SF but was lightning fast with otherworldly body control. Impossible combination. The conventional wisdom was that if you were an elite scorer, you needed to be big and strong. I think MJ didn't change the rules but was the exception to them. Because even after all the copycats and rule changes, it is still plain to see that when it gets physical in the playoffs, the elite guards fall off much more so than the elite SFs. Because they are better at playing through contact. MJ never fell off in the playoffs. No matter what Isiah and Magic say about MJ being untouchable after '90, MJ was still raising his level of play in the playoffs in the 80's.

[Spurs m8]

The defense was so bad I mean what the. Have they ever defended a fast break in there life before this play?? :oldlol:

The low IQ is shining again :applause: :applause: :applause:

[Kblaze8855]

People don't talk enough about how much MJ redefined the position. No one thought a guard could dominate a game to that extent when it came to scoring. He was hyped coming into the league but even then the talk was, "He's still just a guard. He's skinny". He attacked the rim like a SF but was lightning fast with otherworldly body control. Impossible combination. The conventional wisdom was that if you were an elite scorer, you needed to be big and strong. I think MJ didn't change the rules but was the exception to them. Because even after all the copycats and rule changes, it is still plain to see that when it gets physical in the playoffs, the elite guards fall off much more so than the elite SFs. Because they are better at playing through contact. MJ never fell off in the playoffs. No matter what Isiah and Magic say about MJ being untouchable after '90, MJ was still raising his level of play in the playoffs in the 80's.


Yea Jordan was a real guard too. Not like.....a short forward. He was slim and quick. David Thompson maybe should have been that guy earlier but cocaine is a hell of a drug.

http://giant.gfycat.com/BigDelectableHoopoe.gif


He had that Jordan like springy explosive style.

[Gus Hemmingway]

80's-90's unathletic traffic cones looking like toddlers trying to play tag blindfolded :roll:


"we were told never to leave the paint"

"we didn't sign up for this when we were recruited"


:yaohappy:

[Ben Simmons 25]

It must have felt so demoralizing to play against him.

I think Curry has to be the closest I know of in terms of... entire team defenses... showing body language of abject helplessness. Shaq too I suppose. It always seems to deflate when someone gets white hot, but with Curry, the sheer absurdity of the shots he starts taking... and the fact that you start expecting even those to go in... I have watched whole teams look like they don't even care anymore. "What can we do about it?"

I only caught MJ as a young idiot kid in the 90s. I know nothing of young, ferocious, ringless MJ. It must have been awesome. From footage, he seems to have that same effect of being able to just make entire teams feel helpless and checked out.

Shaq too? You suppose? What the ****? Did you watch Shaq?

Practically every team in the league signed 7 foot stiffs that had no business being in the league just to throw them at Shaq.

Nobody has signed anyone specifically to try to guard Steph or throw cheap shots at him.

In fact, I'm not sure there's another player in league history that resulted in more NBA players getting jobs that wouldn't be in the league otherwise in a weak ass attempt to defend said individual guy than Shaquille O'Neal.

[Kblaze8855]

Remember that game in the 2000 finals he had something like 40/20 but took around 40 free throws? Fouled out 2 all star bigs and I think another had 5. They just gave up on defense and decided to foul him all game.

Terrible to watch but he made them pretty much not play basketball anymore.

[E_Stamkos]

Lets see..


They jumped to his strong hand forcing him to change hands on the fly...they stopped the ball forcing him to halt and change direction....and Sikma got a good contest on the resulting pull up.

What were you taught to do defending the break? I was told to stop the ball....not let them have their strong hand if possible....make them take a jumper not a layup. Not much to be done if they go around the back to the other hand....get stopped dead....change direction...and make the contested jumper.

For an "Oh shit!" adrenaline packed situation facing the best transition scorer maybe ever id say it was pretty fundamentally sound.

You're a champ Blaze.

Such a compelling/insightful poster. Never die.

[Kblaze8855]

I was just surprised he felt it was played so poorly. Im not sure what else they were supposed to do. Having to change direction, speed, and hands under duress is tricky and it would shake many less composed players. Let me just pull one random example from my archives.....






















https://thumbs.gfycat.com/MintyFaintGermanshorthairedpointer-size_restricted.gif




Jordan makes a lot of things look easier than they are.

[aceman]

Jordan retired years ago - move on already

[eliteballer]

80's-90's unathletic traffic cones looking like toddlers trying to play tag blindfolded :roll:


"we were told never to leave the paint"

"we didn't sign up for this when we were recruited"


:yaohappy:

Jordan retired from the Wizards the year before LeBron entered the league..

[Mr Feeny]

You have held off his furious late comeback attempt. You are up 1 and putting the ball in to get fouled and try to take the 3 point lead.

It would be shame if somehow you ****ed up the inbounds pass but what are the odds of....







https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SpeedyBewitchedHorse-size_restricted.gif


Well...nevermind.

That was on his birthday as well if I'm not mistaken. The game winner to make it 27 4th quarter points to lead the comeback.

[andgar923]

I was just surprised he felt it was played so poorly. Im not sure what else they were supposed to do. Having to change direction, speed, and hands under duress is tricky and it would shake many less composed players. Let me just pull one random example from my archives.....






















https://thumbs.gfycat.com/MintyFaintGermanshorthairedpointer-size_restricted.gif





Jordan makes a lot of things look easier than they are.

This