Jerry West: Today's players have it easy

[Clippersfan86]

https://youtu.be/017nT9iS6jo

Around 10:15 mark if you don't wanna watch the stuff before for the talk of differences. The part about how players in his era had to work all summer was somewhere between 8-9 minutes I believe.

I think he's right for the most part. Basically says players today are more skilled, but it's due to the built in advantages of today. Players in earlier eras didn't make this kind of money, so they worked full time jobs in the summer, not allowing them to train all summer. Also talks about how Jordan's era was more physical and now you can't touch a player without a call. Players are allowed to go wherever they want without resistance and carry the ball constantly.

Found this interesting because usually West is the ultimate neutral party, but he had pretty strong views on the era comparisons.

I do believe the league needs to allow more defensive freedom/physicality. It's not fun watching guys flail at the slightest contact and shoot a bunch of FT. Or nonstop reach in fouls, but never offensive fouls for jumping into defenders.

[Phoenix]

I'm just here for the 'who cares about Jerry West's opinion' pushback.

[Lion's pride]

The players today may have it easy, but easy to me is having only 13 teams in a league and playoff series being best 2 out of 3 until the championship rd..

win 8 playoff games and you are champ..

[Soundwave]

He's not wrong, but at the same time I think 60s basketball needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt too.

If you were a player in the 60s, that meant you grew up in the 40s/50s and really what level of basketball training was there back then? How many elite coaches and trainers with high end facilities?

Basketball was kind of a niche sport really, it was fairly new in the 40s.

Not to mention the whole issue of segregation and the level of poverty and lack of opportunity afforded to African Americans at that time ... who knows maybe there was another Bill Russell or two around that time who never got that chance because of the way society was then.

[light]

Also talks about how Jordan's era was more physical and now you can't touch a player without a call.

This is funny because players complained about that exact thing at the time in Jordan's era i.e. how you couldn't touch Jordan. Magic had that famous joke from 1992 about how you couldn't even breath on Jordan or else you'd get a whistle. Then it became worse after 1994 when they banned hand-checking the first time (where it then turned into forearm checking) - after that we had guys like Gary Payton and Pat Riley complaining about not being able to touch anybody in the late 90's.

But West is not wrong about the offseason. Players of his era just couldn't focus on their craft like modern players can, and that extended somewhat into the 80's before the salary boom.

[Lebron23]

The players today may have it easy, but easy to me is having only 13 teams in a league and playoff series being best 2 out of 3 until the championship rd..

win 8 playoff games and you are champ..

True. And I've watched some games from the 1960's while being colorized. Only a few player from that era could play in today's game. Basketball definitely evolved. And the stats from that era was also inflated due to pace.

[AlternativeAcc.]

Players today have it harder because there's more competition and pressure.

You can frame it however you want and this kind of talk is low level and pointless.

[baudkarma]

Players today have it different than players of earlier eras. Not necessarily easier. Yes, players back then had to work during the offseason, but almost all of them did. The advantage went to the guys who worked harder on their game when they had a chance. Players today don't have to worry about putting bread on the table or paying the mortgage, but given equal talent levels, the advantage still tends to go to the guy who works harder.

Seriously, this is almost a cliche'... isn't it? The older retired player talking about how much softer the game has become, how easy the current players have it. 30 years from now we'll be hearing the same thing from LeBron and KD, telling us how much harder the game was in the 2020's. And I doubt we'll ever hear an older player talking about how much easier the game was when he was active, and marveling at how tough the current generation of players has it.

[Axe]

He's not wrong, but at the same time I think 60s basketball needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt too.

If you were a player in the 60s, that meant you grew up in the 40s/50s and really what level of basketball training was there back then? How many elite coaches and trainers with high end facilities?

Basketball was kind of a niche sport really, it was fairly new in the 40s.

Not to mention the whole issue of segregation and the level of poverty and lack of opportunity afforded to African Americans at that time ... who knows maybe there was another Bill Russell or two around that time who never got that chance because of the way society was then.
Red auerbach was surely an exceptional basketball head coach during the celtics reign in the 60s.

[brownmamba00]

Bring back hand checking. Yall can have the 3 sec call in the paint no one cares at this point.

Also get rid of the flagrant 2 call. I think if you get 2 flagrant calls you should get tossed. They got everybody scared to take hard fouls nowadays it's boring to see soft bigs shying away from protecting the tin.

[Whoah10115]

Cliché...

You would think that he didn't go into detail and say something accurate.

The lane is wide open. Players on the perimeter don't get into each other as much. Guys take games off.

He says a lot of things, but he never goes the route of "In my day".

[Rico2016]

Cliché...

You would think that he didn't go into detail and say something accurate.

The lane is wide open. Players on the perimeter don't get into each other as much. Guys take games off.

He says a lot of things, but he never goes the route of "In my day".

Players can shoot now. They need to be respected as such. 90s ball paint looked like a jumbled up packed night club in Miami. If more players found out how to shoot from range sooner...

[Monta Ellis MVP]

Jerry West thinks it’s easy. LeBron thought it was going to be easy too. It’s easy to say it’s easy. LeBron is the GOAT.

[Bronbron23]

The players today may have it easy, but easy to me is having only 13 teams in a league and playoff series being best 2 out of 3 until the championship rd..

win 8 playoff games and you are champ..

I always thought this was a weak argument. Theres usually only 3 or 4 teams that have a legit chance anyway so what does ot matter that theres more teams in the league now than back then? Best 2 out of 3 is a good point though

[Bronbron23]

Players can shoot now. They need to be respected as such. 90s ball paint looked like a jumbled up packed night club in Miami. If more players found out how to shoot from range sooner...

its not that they couldn't shoot it was a different game then now so they didnt because everything went through the big man. Theres plenty players back then that would thrive in this era with these rules. Thats the part your missing. Back then you could gaurd the perimeter almost as physical as you could defend the post so it made sense to score closer to the rim because its extremely hard hitting 20 foot shots while someone is defending you physically. Now you cant touch the guys on perimeter but you can still defend physically in the paint so it makes more sense to shoot a more open shot on the perimeter than shoot a heavily contested shot closer to the rim. Especially when that more open shot is worth more.

Bring back physical defense on the perimeter and watch how these guards efficiency drops. And watch how the big man comes more into play once teams realize it makes more sense to shoot closer to the rim

[Gimmedarock]

I like defense the way it’s played today. It’s all about quickness and footwork. I hate seeing the physical tackling guys used to do. I’ve tried to watch some older games with all the Jordan talk and I always get turned off seeing the pain so crowded. Having a bunch of 7 foot players sitting in the paint sucking up space isn’t entertaining to me. Playing defense just requires more effort and different skills today but there’s nothing wrong with it. I wouldn’t change anything about the game right now.

[oldtimer28]

He's not wrong, but at the same time I think 60s basketball needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt too.

If you were a player in the 60s, that meant you grew up in the 40s/50s and really what level of basketball training was there back then? How many elite coaches and trainers with high end facilities?

Basketball was kind of a niche sport really, it was fairly new in the 40s.

Not to mention the whole issue of segregation and the level of poverty and lack of opportunity afforded to African Americans at that time ... who knows maybe there was another Bill Russell or two around that time who never got that chance because of the way society was then.

Great points

[Bronbron23]

I like defense the way it’s played today. It’s all about quickness and footwork. I hate seeing the physical tackling guys used to do. I’ve tried to watch some older games with all the Jordan talk and I always get turned off seeing the pain so crowded. Having a bunch of 7 foot players sitting in the paint sucking up space isn’t entertaining to me. Playing defense just requires more effort and different skills today but there’s nothing wrong with it. I wouldn’t change anything about the game right now.

each to their own but id much rather the physical play. They still had to move their feet they were just allowed to check, bang and hold a bit more. I think it made the game better and made for better rivalries. I hate the offensive driven game now. Its to easy in my opinion. Relatively speaking of course