And then they act like the ABA was a league of straight bums, arguably most of the ABA players were on par or even better than a lot of NBA players which is why a good portion of them translated into NBA superstars and hall of famers
It’s true. Nobody disrespects Wayne Gretzky or Mario lemieux as a way to prop up a new generation of great hockey players. They respect the generation that came before them. And it’s like that from most sports. But not basketball, you have to shit on the old generation to make the new generation look good. Which is ridiculous
The most caveats you'll hear about old school hockey is stuff like "it was easier to score because the goalies were smaller" or "they didn't skate as fast back then and were smoking cigarettes in the showers between periods." Which is true, but it's immediately countered with "yeah, but they were using wooden sticks and leather pads, so a screamer shot was harder to make and they were self-regulating their speed on checks to avoid killing themselves." And every hockey fan gets it.
I will say Gretzky and Lemieux are slightly different they were Jordan era more or less. How do hockey fans see Bobby Hull or Gordie Howe or even earlier players. I imagine better than Wilt and Bill are seen these days.
@@Omenshaper heh, my dad will still argue Ted Williams was the best hitter ever. And Willie Mays best all-around. (Interestingly, my dad was born the very day Joe DiMaggio started the hit streak.)
Fr Elgin Baylor had to miss games because he was working in the army I believe back in the day and now most players don't want to play because of LOAD MANAGEMENT 😡😡
Yeah, drop LeBron into '75... no hyperbaric chamber, no platelet rich therapy, no personal trainer, no personal chef, no home gym and put them toes that be throwing up gang signs into some Chuck Taylors that have to last all season... good luck! Oh yeah, no 3 pointers! lol, bring yo' ass to the paint or work on that J boiiiiiiiiii
Fun fact about Bob Cousy: he almost didn't pursue basketball professionally after he got picked by the Chicago Stags because the pay was too low and it interfered with his desire to start a driving school for women in Massachusetts. Pay was so low that at one point before then he considered becoming a truck driver instead of a pro basketball player. We done with people who don't respect Bob Cousy and the pioneers that came before us. In the words of MJ himself, "f*ck them kids."
@@dumisatonyjohnson8145 That is true, he never played a single minute with the Chicago Stags because they folded right after they picked him in the draft. True story: he ended up on the Celtics because they drew his name out of a hat and he thought it was a reasonable distance away from his driving school so he decided to play.
Seriously. I love basketball but NBA has the worst fans in sports. People who would rather watch Kevin Hart & some gen Z influencers make jokes about the game than the actual game.
The disrespect started with Lebron chasing the GOAT crown in the media. Klutch Sports put their guys in the media to trash the past and hype Lebron up.
Those idiots like JJ Redick, Lou Williams, and Gilbert Arenas never know the 50s,60s,70s,80s,90s, and 2000s. Plus, Both JJ Redick and Lou Williams are also apart of blowing a 3-1 lead with the LA Clippers.
JJ Redick is also the exact kind of short, (comparatively) unathletic white guys he's always saying dominated the sport in the old days. He got by because they invented the three point line so being a 6'1-6'3 shooter became a viable play style for more players.
@@XandateOfHeaven JJ Redick is a 3 point shooter with no defense. Plus, Did you see that Both JJ Redick and LeBron James are talking during podcast and The Press Conference when JJ Redick is talking about Bronny James. That was stupid. Plus, JJ Redick never experience being the head coach.
@@XandateOfHeaven The last player who used to be a head coach is Steve Nash, who is never experience being the head coach to begin with in the first place. He just a coach with no defense, just like JJ Redick.
"Can you imagine dropping lebron in '75?" Back when they called travels, carries, offensive fouls, and there was no floor spacing for him to kick out after he drives? He honestly wouldnt be that great lmao
You are literally doing the exact same thing that the video is calling out. Diminishing an all-time great because you took them straight out of the era they were in and put them in another era. A prime Lebron in 1975 would be the best player in the world or neck and neck with Kareem and Dr. J.
70s was a tough era. He would've been getting punched in the mouth every night with no recourse from the refs or the league office 😂😂😂 His natural Sherman Hemsley hairline would've been exposed by his sophomore season.
and then they wonder why guys like Ben Simmons and Zion just don't care. you're gonna be calling em plumbers as soon as they retire anyway, who cares? just get that bag 💰
These clowns talking about Rodman at 6'7" 210 pounds not being able to defend a bigger player. Rodman had games where he defended, and shut down Shaq!!! Let that sink in. Pippen on the other hand was incredibly versatile at both ends of the court. He was 6' 8" with a huge wingspan, and he was fast too. He put the clamps on Magic Johnson, but yeah, I'm sure these guys would have no trouble defending Shaq and Magic, right?
My god the people Rodman had to defend against. Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwan were 7 feet and 255, Shaq was 7'1 and 300 lb, Robinson was 7'1 and 250. Also Rodman is taller than Zion Williamson or Draymond Green. He's a pretty standard height for a power forward that doesn't also play center.
The rule set was completely different in the 70s 80s and 90s . If Lebron traveled back to any of those eras and tried to play like he currently does, He’d be called for countess travels , carry’s , offensive fouls, and would somehow have more turnovers than he does now. What the nba rules let players get away with in today’s game doesn’t make them more “skilled” , they have rules have changed the idea of what a skilled player looks like. Half the moves players use now would be called carries , and travels 30 years ago. This “put player A in any era and they would dominate” conversation is always so stupid.
Exactly. Players didn’t practice crossovers because they’d be called for a violation. That’s just one example. It’s totally disingenuous to say “put kyrie in the 80s and he’d cook everyone.” Or anything of that nature.
You put a guy like Ben Simmons in the 70s they wouldn’t give a shit about mental health and force his ass to play and if he’s trash they would just waive him or he would go to the ABA
I hate when they say old NBA greats couldn't dribble when today's game is full of violations, street ball is better officiated than actual NBA games. Of course they couldn't dribble like they do today, 30 years ago shit was called a carry, it was AI who forced the game to be a little bit more open on that aspect, but today's game has taken that and abused the F outta it.
Exactly. The NBA has changed the rules for AI and since then dribbling rules have become a joke in the NBA. I was taught basketball in Europe in the early to mid 2000s and I was taught basically the same rules that were enforced in the 1992 Olympics.
Instead of explaining why Lebron is the GOAT, they make excuses for why he didn’t win more and minimize or invalidate the accomplishments of other players
I mean there is also a large group of bron haters who spend all day trying to tear Lebron down instead of saying "MJ the GOAT" and moving on, I love both Lebron and MJ. People act like two legends can't coexist
What is crazy is we saw a fraction of how they would handle things in the past with the 2020 bubble. Players were complaining like it was a camp from world war 2. It was Disney!!!!
Thank you for making this. I thought the NFL portion of ESPN and FS1 sht takes on former legends was bad. I had no idea it was this egregious when it came to the NBA. This isn't just disgusting, it's pure iconoclasm at work.
it’s garbage but for different reasons; i wouldn’t say there’s too much disrespect for hall of famers (outside of obvious shitposts/bait) but 75% of the posts on nbacj now are just either “haha i’m horny for wnba players” or thinly veiled racism
Wilt ran a 4.6, had a 46 inch vertical, benched 459 at 59 years of age and was 7 feet tall. Prime shaq benched 450. You’re telling me that guy wouldn’t be able to play today?
And he was 300 pounds at his peak in Philadelphia. He looks pretty thin, but that's because he was all muscle. He'd be able to get up to around 320 in the modern NBA and wouldn't have a high body fat % like Shaq did. He'd absolutely dominate.
Even if his skills didn't develop in the same way because the game is so different he had an inhuman level of endurance that would make him competitive in any era.
In hockey, fans honestly worship the legends. The NHL itself has little to no respect for its alumni. Guy Lafleur was very vocal about how poorly his colleagues were treated during and after their careers
Boxing does go through a good bit of the plumber narrative. Sugar Ray Robinson usually (and rightfully) ranked by boxing historians as the greatest P4P boxer of all time, but most boxing casuals say he just fought bums which isn't true. Even Muhammad Ali, arguably the most famous athlete of all time, suffers criticism because he lost fights when he had Parkinsons. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is someone who did that.
everyone shits on old baseball stars because the players were out of shape (comparatively) and it was before blacks and latinos played. but to an extent it is warranted. in every competitive activity the skill level raises over time.
@@reillyhopf6508Not as bad, people give credit to people like Joe Louis who fought in the 30s and 40s, for the NBA if you're career began before Lebron's you played no competition.
You are 100% correct Dynamo and it really needs to stop. I think it stems from basketball being the only sport with a 1on1 culture. It’s the only game where 2 players of any era could reasonably be placed in a vacuum without goalies or umpires or teammates and go against one another to decide a “hypothetical” true winner. But like LeBron and other guys have said that’s not basketball anymore it’s just certain players and fans ego’s getting out of control.
this is why i started to watch hockey more, the nba fanbase is a cespool of toxicity and stupidity. I only just watch the celtics when they are in the playoffs or major games they play now. NBA fans are the most cringiest sports fans. Im done with the Lebron glazing and the Kobe disrespect. Now you have fans hating on Tatum because he idolizes kobe. Like what??? I hate NBA fans so much. I will always be a celtics fan and rock the gear but I dont like to associate myself with an idiotic fanbase that disrespects players that paved the way for the new generation. It's disgusting.
@@lemonscentedgames3641 honestly you might be right. they employ the same tactics for marketing like the nba does they market the players instead of the sport but this time with the added press conference trash talk.
Argentinians still held Maradona in a higher tier than Lionel Messi until he won the world cup in 2022. I think football more than other sports respects their all-time greats. The best era of football was the 90s - early 2000s.
They held Maradona in higher regard, not in terms of skill, but for what he brought to the nation. Argentines and everyone else who knows even a bit about football understand that Messi is lightyears more skilled than Maradona and is actually a complete player. Messi is a legendary dribbler, playmaker, and goal scorer all at once. However, Maradona is still considered one of the top two players in football history.
@@Zagirus well the football GOAT list is incredibly nebulous outside of Messi and Ronaldo being the top 2, I don't think anyone really cares where you have anyone else outside of them, since this isn't an argument football really has to go through or even cares enough to do.
@@toxic0470 But, they weren't considered top 2 before they emerged. The point is, people understand that professional football players of today would eviscerate, say, Pele, but that doesn't interfere with constantly putting Pele in higher positions of a top 10 list. Most of the time that context is acknowledged and understood and it's not even mentioned. Dynamo is right in pointing out training, chambers, science, technology and all that shit as contextual and it is really odd to see nba fans being so impervious to contextualizing these kinds of debates a lot of the time. They don't understand that "they were plumbers" isn't an argument for their side as much as it is against it.
I don't think there is such a thing as the best era of football. Also, football has been the most popular sport since before WW2. People around me still hold Maradona above Messi and Pele is viewed as the best ever, although no older fan denies the greatness and genius of Messi. I don't put any era of football above any other era, nor does anyone else here do such a thing. It makes no sense to me at all. We can only say that clubs from our country and our national team had more or less success in international play with this or that generation.
Other sports leagues revere and respect the past while also try to respect the current era. The NBA used to be like that, it stopped imo around the late 2000s. Because of social media imo, the fanboys came out and then the media followed suit and the the NBA embraced individualism instead of the team. And now instead of embracing the past as pioneers, they crap on them.
just say its cuz of lebron. its lebron, his people and his fans their only goal is to prop him up to be the goat even if it meant tearing down other current generation players or previous generation
@@xaevius5319LeBron I'd say is a symptom. It's not any one thing. The media and the league covered him like this before he did anything. All he did was put his own guys in there to make up BS narratives, but they were doing that before he won anything it's just worse. If the NBA had a commissioner worth a damn he would probably be gone by now. I'd blame the commissioners David Stern a lil bit because after Jordan retired they were trying to manufacture the next MJ for a long time before LeBron. Granted he didn't want MJ to come back to the Wizards cause they tried to move on from his era. But Stern at least understood the game. He's not perfect but as a commissioner he's ok. Adam Silver however, helped destroy the game with cheap gimmicks and always deferred to the players wants and needs and never cared for the fans needs. He completely kissed their butts, and helped make the NBA unwatchable, and looked rigged.
@@trowabarton321 i agree with the commissioner point but we're just talking about fan discourse here and why the nba's is so much worse and more toxic compared to other sports. more specifically as well when it comes to the treament of older players and how people of today look at them. i think you've already agreed with me anyway: "ll he did was put his own guys in there to make up BS narratives" and that's exactly what happened. it started with lebron and his fans with all that goat narrative stuff and the attitude and the "modus operandi" of disrespecting other players and eras has been copied from them.
NBA has been respectful towards past legends Adam Silver to his credit has done a good job on that. Its the media and retarted podcasters who shits on legends and then the fans listens to them and starts shitting on legends.
Discourse and hate is all the NBA has these days. No one is watching the games these days, which is crazy in regards to the money the league is getting from TV. When a regular season WNBA team outdraws an NBA final regardless of context….your league is in trouble.
Every time i see that JJ vs Cousy statement, I realize JJ has never seen footage of Bob Cousy. I have seen Cousy switch to his left hand, it was rare but he could do it.
LeBalco started all this brotherhood thing with the NBA and I’m an 80s & 90s guy, today’s gen indeed are more skilled but are soft. the handshakes with opponents are absurd.
90s guys used to shake hands and stuff be friendly it was only teams like the Pistons and Knicks who were hated and non friendly the other teams were friendly.
Great video and very fascinating and underrated discussion. I agree with your premise here. What's interesting is on the total other end of the spectrum you have baseball who I think does the exact opposite. Everything some old head did back in the like 20's or 30's was All-Time while anything a recent player does is overrated.
I don't know why I didn't notice this before, but JJ Redick is exactly the kind of (relatively) short, unathletic white guys he claims dominated the league in the past. The irony of that is the introduction of the 3-point line made his play style viable. He's got barely two inches on Bob Cousy, and Cousy averaged 18 ppg before the three.
LeBalco would be on the floor in a fetal position (from his overwhelming whining) due to the many defensive plays against him that would be legal. Lefraud stats would be high school-level with the level of defense that would be all over him and pummeling him into the ground.
Well, first he'd go catatonic from depression due to not having a personal chef and having to go work as a plumber as a day job. As Dynamo pointed out, for some reason nba fans refuse to contextualize these kinds of debates whereas most other sports fans don't have this issue.
In my experience when it comes to older fans saying they saw someone do something before, they weren’t lying. I never took it as a slight to my guy but it gave me something else to learn about the game. And it game me new things to appreciate about the game. Me and my dad used to go highlight reel for highlight reel past and present. There’s a lot to appreciate across eras if your actually willing to learn
The only leauge that will destroy thier legends for the careers of lesser players. Greats are great in any Era. But dont say brook Lopez would cook will become he could shoot 3s something that was invented uet
I think this is a problem with NBA discourse in general. Everyone wants their horse to be the one that wins in the race rather than just enjoying the spectacle of horses racing. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. The older generation does it just as much as the younger, but expect the young generation to stop doing it. That's not how it works
@@wesleycfree6563 I fully agree that a lot of the more egregious takes like the pathetic “we done with the 90s” trend were in response to old heads trashing the modern game, but I also don’t recall that much focus on these things until LeBron declared himself the greatest. That happened to coincide with the league more broadly adopting the pace and space 3-point bonanza ball that golden state enjoyed success with so when those who’d perhaps left the game for a bit or who weren’t being as critical in their viewing now saw a completely different game with flops and carries and little post play. So I think that’s where the initial groans of it being soft and unearned came from. If you’d had one without the other maybe the pushback wouldn’t have been so great, but having a then 3-6 finals record holding, team hopping flopper put himself ahead of all the greats of the past put a magnifying glass on the game just as it was changing into something completely foreign. Tough 1-2 combo to ignore.
@@student99bg same like people will say great players today could not play back then ridiculous but at the same time people acting like these current players are superrobots like they didnt have modern advances and the three point shooting is the end all be all when in reality if you gonna give both eras the same amount of training they are gonna be great at any era the problem is i still think the era that used to tough defense back in the day is gonna have an edge to that Like in twitter saying Klay Thompson is better than Reggie Miller just they play the same style like come on now you cant be that dumb lol Only in Basketball that have this discourse this current players thought because they are disrespected but in 20 years people are gonna say LeBron aint great because he went against podcasters which is freaking dumb if you dont ball.
Yeah, I mean it's either to toxic or just glazing most of the time at the same time, really who cares if your first or fifteenth it's still a 100 overall rating it's the same thing. People really confidently say a 6'6 guy on the autism spectrum disorder, who got walked by a Detroit street gang, a cripple white guy with Aspergers, a tv show host doing magic tricks, some Morman accountant, and Steph curry's real dad, that was picked after a comedy movie character about a guy coming to American and winning a ring, was above everyone by miles. While also saying the Instagram guy who loves tacos went to ten finals is mid, some of which he is the MVP at an age older than the age other guy couldn't jump anymore so he became the defense goat, playing against the spur's dynasty, the Kobe Shaq lakers dynasty, Kawhi, dirk, garnet, miller also, a bunch agile skyscrapers and mountains and the warriors dynasty is trash because he only has four rings, I agree I don't like how Labron plays but come on we only hate on Labron even though curry's worse because we know he's a top 5. There's no perfect player and we should be realistic and give everyone their due, we are comparing different potatoes of the same size let's just enjoy all the potatoes while we can.
1:07 they forget LeBron wouldn’t be where he’s at if it wasn’t for everybody before him of course if you go back in time and you play basketball the way we do today of course they’re not gonna be ready
People almost never respect the difference in refereeing the way they should. If Magic had the looseness of today's travel/carry rules or Wilt existed in a league with the defensive-3-second rule they only become more mythical. It's not like they lose any of their skills either so that'd be something to see The entire "eras" thing reminds me of Hip Hop artists doing the same thing to discredit prior GOATs. It's made better by the fact that basketball and Hip Hop are so linked
Every player in today's NBA would have a shit time adjusting to the fact you couldn't palm the ball in the 70s. Also the whole idea that today's NBA players are like giant super humans compared to past players just isn't true. The average height of an NBA player now is 6'6, it peaked at 6'7 in 1987 and was 6'5 in the 60s. Bill Russell was 6'11, Wilt and Kareem were 7'1, Magic was a 6'9 PG! Weight has also gone down in the NBA since its peak in 2009 because people are realizing its hard on your joints. Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan would dominate in any era. Wilt still has the record for minutes played, and he did it in Chuck Taylors. All the advancment in nutrition and kinesiology and players still cant beat his endurance
@@dxtremecaliber Its always been a problem in basketball. Are there not very famous stories of other NBA players saying stuff like "If Larry Bird was black, he'd just be another NBA player" Or "They changed all the rules to allow you to dominate, Michael, meanwhile, they changed all the rules to make it harder for me to dominate/"
@@xaevius5319 Blatant racism and a great player dismissing the accomplishments of another aren't as bad as Lebron saying he (rightfully) feels like he's the GOAT?
I'm new to watching professional sports and I still have only really delved into basketball, but it really shocked me how much people dismissed older players, so it's good to see that I'm not alone in finding this whole sentiment very weird and bad. Like I was on the rowing team in college but I would never think to shit on professional rowers of the past. Maybe that's because there always seems to be an old wooden shell hanging in every boat house I've been in, so there's a physical reminder of how things are different.
It's true some fans today calling he has many goals coz there's no offside rule in this time where in reality, the offside rule was now implemented when modern football was invented in England in mid 19th century
Bob Cousy played in the 50s and 40s back when NBA salaries weren’t impressive enough to make a living. A lot of the players had to pick up second jobs and trades. They were LITERALLY plumbers and firemen part time.
defense is usually innate (Rodman for example didn't even play ball until college), offense needs practice. so doesn't that make Cousy's offensive feats even more impressive? these guys didn't have infinite free time to practice their jumper
1000% agree, but just fyi, the younger generation kills NHL players from the past, not as heavily, but mainly because pre 90s goaltending is seen as a joke. “Gretzky was great because all the 80s / early 90s goalies sucked” mentality. When Alexander Ovechkin breaks the all time goal record either next year or 2025, it will be even worse.
Which is ironic, because the league put restrictions on goaltenders pad sizes after the 16/17 and 17/18 seasons and it's one of the big reasons why were seeing an explosion in scoring again in the NHL now.
So disrespectful to the men who forged the path for todays players. They were paid blue-collar salaries. They rode a bus or flew commercial. They did not have sponsorship deals. They had off-season jobs. They built the league to what it is today. Such a nasty, unappreciative bunch to say anything disparaging about them. This sort of talk is in the same league as current military personnel talking smack about WWII veterans.
Complete agree commish. I think it may also be because NBA players have got to be the biggest Divas out of all the professional sports, even soccer, which is saying something.
The game hasn't evolved, the only thing that changed was the rules and the league allowing players to control more! If all the greatest players played at one time, they would either look better or worse based off the rules🙄
I think any generational talent into another era they'd adapt. If you put Lebron in the 70s, he'll figure it out. you put Jordan in the 2020s he'll still be an all time great scorer, Bill Russell would still be a top center in any era
@@thedonjavon-23 Lebron wouldn't make it if he had to play and adjust to past eras that wouldn't let him get away with violations and trying to stack teams in his favor. The man doesn't have a competitive bone in his body.
While I knew the argument that the old players were "trash" was absolute BS from the start, this vid really brings up good points that I've never thought before. Great vid Comish.
Wilt Chamberlain was a stronger, more athletic, taller and more skilled Shaq. Some people would like you to think that he wouldn't survive in modern eras.
@@student99bg And he was already a monster before the big contracts, modern gear and nutrition along with the other luxuries that help modern players focus on the game more.
💯 Commissioner. I've be telling anyone who'll listen that you don't hear NFL players nowadays disrespecting Jim Brown, Lawrence Taylor, Deion Sanders Ect. Only in the NBA do people act like it's cool to disrespect the legendary giants from the past. I don't believe in the word "goatS" because there can only be one goat of a basketball and whoever you think that is fine but don't you dare disrespect the people who pave the way for all these guys to get paid all these millions of dollars simply because they were born at the right time as Charles Barkley has stated many times.
This is one of the most intelligent takes on this topic I have seen... 👏👏👏 And just wait until the next generation of fans and players grow and start shitting on this current generation of players, then they will understand the so called "OLHEADS" 🤷
Those players back in the day truly loved the game of basketball. They were fundamental sound, played hard and were great competitors. I no longer watch today's NBA. I only watch classic games on RU-vid from the 80,s 90, and early 2,000s. I'll also watch some games from the 70s
Only inadequate people purposefully go out their way to completely dismiss previous generations. Today's NBA is the direct result of today's players not respecting the past.
In my opinion legends of the NBA get disrespected because the game has changed so much. Half the dribble moved people do nowadays were travels even 25 years ago let alone 60 years ago. I think it makes it very difficult to judge how good someone is because the argument of “oh well x player couldn’t do thing that only recently started to happen so he’s trash” works because in a sense they are right but they fail to consider in the old game they wouldn’t ever practice that either so maybe they could have done it but due to strategy they just couldnt get the opportunity to do so. I think people need to remember as well if it wasnt for these so called plumbers and fireman we have no NBA today so they deserve alot more respect that they are given.
I’m a hockey and (actual) football fan. I feel like in hockey there’s a disrespect to basically any player or goal scorer before the year 1995 or so, because the “goalies were terrible and I could score 90 goals a season back then”. For example even the goat of all goats, Wayne Gretzky, gets disrespected. That dude has so many points, you could take away all of his goals that he scored in the NHL and he’d still have the most points in NHL history (points = goals +assists). That’s like if an nba player scored 60k points in like the 70s and 80s and would be disrespected. And when it comes to football, there isn’t much disrespect to the players who came before, apart from Pele. I’d argue he has become one of the most disrespected players ever. Some (young and very foolish) people disrespected because “he scored his goals vs farmers and he counts goals scored against his grandkids in the backyard to his total goal tally”. The disrespect is so boring. We need to respect the pioneers, instead of saying with the benefit of hindsight and all the development of today the players are better now than back then.
Yeah you can tell the people on here don't know hockey very well, because the new vs old gen debate is hotly contested among fans. Adjusted stats are pretty much accepted at this point because it's almost impossible to compare different eras otherwise. Even now the scoring has gone up a lot in the last 7-8 years and it's hard to compare players from the 2000's and 2010's to now.
The 3point era vs the Big Man era? The ENTIRE reason why it became the 3 point era was because they couldn't hang in the paint with the big boys. Flagrant 1 or technical fouls were very rarely called in the 90s. Now you sneeze on a guy and you get ejected. Luca already said it is WAY easier to score in the NBA than in the European leagues.
I've said this on other channels/videos, and others have also said this, but you don't hear this kind of shit from the other major team sports. The NFL would NEVER allow icons like Montana, Rice, Elway, Marino, Brady, etc. to be disrespected. The NHL would ex-communicate ANYONE who slandered greats like Gretzky, Howe, Lemieux, Orr, Hull, etc. MLB would disappear anyone who even THOUGHT of trashing legends Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Jackson, Griffey, Jeter, etc. Only the NBA allows this shit. And it's sad, because it wasn't always this way. Started watching the NBA around 1985, but really became a diehard fan in 1987. Magic Johnson's Showtime Lakers got me into the sport, and MJ Bulls cemented my love for it. I used to get all of the VHS tapes Sports Illustrated sold back then, especially the Jordan/Bulls videos. All were done through NBA Entertainment, and in just about every video, there was a segment that talked about the history of the game. I loved learning about how the NBA came about and evolved from basketball's early days to the then modern era of the late 1980s. Learning about how Dr. James Naismith invented the game, the first NBA game, the first great star in George Mikan, the beginnings of the Celtics dominance, the Russell/Chamberlain rivalry, the Lakers/Celtics rivalry, the ABA and its freestyle ways, Dr. J's arrival, the NBA/ABA merger, the Lakers/Celtics renewed rivalry and how it increased the NBA's popularity in the 80s, Michael Jordan and the new wave of talent that would go on the take the NBA to even greater heights... THAT is what got me into the game and fall in love with it. I collected everything I could related to basketball--magazines like Sports Illustrated, Sport Magazine, Beckett's Basketball Card Magazine, Inside Sports, Slam--basketball cards, video games, jerseys, Air Jordan shoes, you name it, I had it (and STILL have all of that stuff to this day). But this current generation of players and commentators have destroyed the game I love. And honestly, if the NBA collapsed tomorrow, I wouldn't care.
Cant wait till they say, in the future, "guards of 2020s were streamers, tiktokkers, podcasters, fluffers, protesting whiners, and backwards cap wearing juice boys"
