The athleticism of todays athletes really would be too much for my idols to play.

[plowking]

This was such a common play in the 80's and 90's. Seeing guys stroll down and just shoot and easy midrange or 8 footer. And that was in a league where everyone wasn't a threat to shoot from outside.

[90sgoat]

marching band spacing

almost like a dance routine or marching band, not basketball

today's game isn't a real sport - it's more like a routine like golf or figure skating.. spaced-out, hands-off, beginner format

You can see Wemby, it's like he is surprised someone actually attempts to score.

[Real Men Wear Green]

To be fair athleticism doesn't matter when the players don't try to stop the ball. Teams of the past would have more of a problem dealing with modern teams' threes than players would modern players' athleticism but Pop not bothering to coach while tanking isn't the real proof of that.

[Kblaze8855]

This was such a common play in the 80's and 90's. Seeing guys stroll down and just shoot and easy midrange or 8 footer. And that was in a league where everyone wasn't a threat to shoot from outside.

It’s a common play in every era. Some just like to pretend it isn’t. Athletic ability has never been the only way to do such things. Non athletes have been lighting up jumping jacks for 100 years and driving with no problem. Only now there are considerably fewer obstacles in the way because few teams play two non shooting bigs to be in the paint by default with their defenders next to them.

[Kblaze8855]

To be fair athleticism doesn't matter when the players don't try to stop the ball. Teams of the past would have more of a problem dealing with modern teams' threes than players would modern players' athleticism but Pop not bothering to coach while tanking isn't the real proof of that.

teams of the past would initially be destroyed playing modern basketball under modern rules, because they will be completely out of place and swapping two for three, not built to take advantage of the current rules, and not trained to take advantage of the refs pretending there are no ball handling violations.

On the other hand, if you drop a modern team into 1978, where there is no three-point line their offense would need rebuilding immediately and they would have to get used to incredibly different calling of rules. A ref in 1975 would literally call some of these players for 35 travels carries or double dribbles. Most would foul out thinking the offense gets the whistle on contact they create. Id love to see Trae Young realize he has to defend his man one on one unless there is a dedicated double team too. And that his man can just turn and back him down for 15 seconds if that’s what it takes.

Let them realize they aren’t built to deal with the overwhelming physical play of a Moses Malone and think they will just foul him only to find out he gets 3 free throws to make 2.

Let them realize flagrant fouls didn’t exist and taking your head off was a common foul you can do 5 more times. Hell even when they introduced flagrant fouls, making it count as a technical was at the referees discretion. You might get ejected with two or you might just get a warning and only get your first technical with the third one. There was a brawl in a game involving the Hawks where a guys third flagrant caused it because the ref didn’t think the first flagrant was bad enough to be a tech. It would have been a flagrant 2 today.

No freedom of movement emphasis, most hesis being a discontinued dribble, a 25 footer being a 2 point shot at 38%, strict offensive fouls, refs not letting you move the pivot before the dribble, a “gather” being considered one and a half steps towards the basket….

Playing the same game most of todays stars would have 10-15 turnovers, score 5-6 less points just off no 3s, spend more time being backed down than they have dealt with in their lives, having to deal with it mostly one on one, and getting clotheslined for a common foul if they talk too much and dance around?


Be a shocking transition going both ways I’m sure. Which is why it’s so hard to even go down that path.

They would both adjust given time. But it would be ugly initially for both. FIBA is a lot closer to the current NBA than the current nba is to the nba of decades ago and we can send 10 stars to lose to guys who can barely make the league.

Imagine sending them to play the 86 Celtics when a team with Lebron, Wade, Melo and so on couldn’t defend vassilis spanoulis in an unfamiliar setting rules and play style wise.

If Patty Mills and Ingles can beat a team USA with KD, Tatum, Lillard and all those superstars by 8 I’d say it’s hard to overstate what a lack of familiarity with the rules and play style can do.

of course, those things would happen less often playing on your own team with better developed chemistry, but the old-school refs would literally have to just let the modern players cheat by their standards to not completely disrupt the game with violations.

Someone would have to call down and tell the refs to just let the new guys cheat. The old guys would be going ballistic I’m sure but I don’t know what else you could do. Guys carry by those standards just standing in place. They think fiba is strict. Let them deal with those 70 year old refs from the 70s who didn’t give a **** if the crowd booed them all night or what anyone enjoys watching.

[tpols]

Im gonna take a moment to think but at a glance….that may be the least true thing ever posted.

Someone has said the back half of that sentence every 15 minutes of basketball discussion for a good 40 years. There is absolutely no way you have never heard it. I suspect I could give you 500 recent examples if I had nothing better to do with the next few hours.

Wait the least true thing I ever posted or everybody in history on this forum?



I filter out dumb posts like that. If anything athletes back then were tougher... they played all 82 games under more physical duress.

And quite frankly if you look at the 90s dunk mixtape it destroys today's. Guys today are so boring and vanilla attacking the rim. A Shawn Kemp mix is better than every player combined today. We just saw a fat, slow guy dominate the whole league last year.

[Kblaze8855]

This is after 20 years of the refs getting less strict.

Imagine a guy used to todays rules playing 10 years before even that.

I honestly don’t think 10-15 turnovers would be a bad estimate. The refs will either have to agree to stop calling the game as they see it or the players would have to rebuild their game completely on the fly. Not really fair to ask.

[Kblaze8855]

Wait the least true thing I ever posted or everybody in history on this forum?

It’s as untrue as anything I’ve ever read by somebody I didn’t think was kidding. Because it’s not a matter of opinion. People factually say it what must be thousands of times per day on the Internet. It’s the default statement when comparing different times. And that’s in every sport. And it’s been going on forever. I watched an interview where Bob Cousy said it when he was a coach in the early 70s. It’s hard to imagine you just missed the 600,000 times it’s said.

[Xiao Yao You]

This is after 20 years of the refs getting less strict.

Imagine a guy used to todays rules playing 10 years before even that.

I honestly don’t think 10-15 turnovers would be a bad estimate. The refs will either have to agree to stop calling the game as they see it or the players would have to rebuild their game completely on the fly. Not really fair to ask.

But they're so much more skilled today with much better handles!

[Kblaze8855]

I wish people who get upset at fans calling out travels could go back to when we were kids and play a game or two. Forget even organized play. Go play on the playground. Someone would fight you trying to play the way these guys play if you’re playing for money. Put 5 dollars on the game then argue it isn’t a travel when you take 3-4 steps because you’re allowed to gather the ball. I might not have lived to adulthood.

[90sgoat]

I wish people who get upset at fans calling out travels could go back to when we were kids and play a game or two. Forget even organized play. Go play on the playground. Someone would fight you trying to play the way these guys play if you’re playing for money. Put 5 dollars on the game then argue it isn’t a travel when you take 3-4 steps because you’re allowed to gather the ball. I might not have lived to adulthood.

Yeah, people really called out carry and travel on the playgrounds in the 90s, even in Europe.

I think the And1 changed some things, but that was like 10 years later.

[Kblaze8855]

I wanna go back to my days on the local drug dealers back yard court and get some of those travels back. Old heads calling everything. Even Hakeem drug his pivot now and then. I might have been pistol whipped trying some of the shit they get away with now.

[theballerFKA Ace]

The league is more athletic than ever. More skilled than ever. More talented than ever. The infrastructure around the game(marketing, medical, training, scouting, etc) is better than ever.

But the individual player is also dumber than ever. More distracted. Less knowledgeable about how to play team basketball. Less of a natural feel for the game because more of their reps have come from skills work rather than pickup.

Don't forget smaller than ever, well since the 80s at least. With the exception of point guards(because there are more combo guards running the point these days than true point guards), it's been almost 4 decades since the league was this small even with all the giant big men coming in from Europe. If it weren't for the influx of Europeans, the NBA would be REALLY tiny

[Airupthere]

This is after 20 years of the refs getting less strict.

Imagine a guy used to todays rules playing 10 years before even that.

I honestly don’t think 10-15 turnovers would be a bad estimate. The refs will either have to agree to stop calling the game as they see it or the players would have to rebuild their game completely on the fly. Not really fair to ask.

Talk about stifling the offense with officiating. And yet some wonder why the offense "skills" are so much more advanced nowadays. How can one explore on offense during this era.

[Soundwave]

Luka and Joker pretty much killed the "unathletic stiffs couldn't work in this modern era! Larry Bird wouldn't be able to play!" line of logic completely even if it was dumb to begin with.