Was the NBA truly better in the 90s? 

The 1930s Era was the best 👌👌👌🤘🏀

This is facts. LeBron has had to match up with Kevin Durant, Paul Pierce, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, Kobe Bryant, and Carmelo Anthony. All in their primes. What guards did Michael face in the 90s? Drexler, and who else? Hardaway? Richmond? He was the only truly great perimeter player in that era...

"we lost Kobe Bryant" has a different meaning now...not just retiring from the NBA...

My favorite era is the 2000’s because it was a combination of the 90’s and the 10’s, I also grew up watching it.

the best era was the 1890s of course, no backboards were lit

No hand checks but more athletic players, help defense, and sophisticated schemes

I grew up watching B'Ball in the 80's, then hardcore in the 90's, and yeah I enjoyed it, and yeah it was different to now, but I would never be so arrogant as to say 'it was better'. It wasn't it was just different. I love what came before, I love what I grew up, and goddam I love what the NBA is NOW! It's part of the beauty of this game! Bring it ALL on, I'll watch it, and love it! And can't wait to see what the future brings! ANother great vid Dom! U always bring your A-GAME!!

"Was the NBA really better in the 90s" *has a picture from the '80s as thumbnail* You should've titled it "old school vs new school". Cause you showed a lot of '80s footage as well.

I used to hate Lebron as a kid too, but came to appreciate his game later.

You should do a 2k Scenario of if Jordan never played basketball, see what teams win throughout the 90s

Im 35 I miss the 80s and 90s ball. I love the rivalries, fights, no banana boats no hanging with each other, no training together. Players looked like grown men and no chucking 50 threes a game. Players got put on their a$$. I miss the old Pistons so fun to watch. You earned that title with pain and hard work. Players today can play a game without ever going inside the 3 point line either on offense or defense because both teams do the same thing. So sad...

MJ is so great that haters are saying he played in a weak era.

i just miss the 2000's because so many teams had a chance to win it. Considering two teams have arguably 7 of the top 20-25 players in the league, and only 3 teams have a legit shot at the championship it makes it less entertaining to me. Even just the late 2000s had the celtics, lakers, cavs, magic, nuggets, spurs, mavs etc. all with a chance to win it all. I miss the star distribution throughout the league, now teams need like 3 all stars to win

He kept showing 80's clips for the hard fouls not the 90,s

Dom2k needs to be an NBA analyst/commentator or a trial lawyer. Great channel! There are a lot of fundamental differences between the League in the 90's and now. I think the general theme of those changes reflect the changes in our Country. The League is also far ahead of where it was, in the 90's, as an asset. I loved the 90's and I love the game now. Keep the videos coming, Dom.

9:45 DR J triple right hand on Larry Bird's face is just GOLD

The all stars games were actually competitive in the 90's. Guys don't really take it seriously anymore.

Basically people are expecting some kind of a brawl every game.

love your takes keep it up

Very interesting topic, great information!

I say there are more freakish athletes today: Lebron. Westbrook maybe the most athletic point guard of all time. Anthony Davis. Kawhi Leonard. Greek freak. A 6'11 point guard than can pass block shots run like a cheetah, handle the ball, play in the post and dunk. KD. Jimmy butler. Embiid. Griffin. DeAndre Jordan. Cousins. Drummond. White side. Harden. Lillard. Wall. A 7'3 player that can shoot the three, the mid range, go in the post, block shots, can stay with big man and guards in porzingis. Kyrie with his handles. Iggy. Wiggins. Paul George. And I haven't even brought up Simmons, Dunn, derozan, green or Howard.

*Things I needed to include in the part about the zone* So technically, yes, zones by rule weren't allowed in the 90s, however they still did happen, as I found footage of Jordan saying a team went into a zone (and I read other accounts of coaches saying they couldn't call it a zone but that's what they were playing). Regardless, illegal defense was still called in those cases and they weren't supposed to do it, so just like most rules in the NBA, it was an imperfect system that could be cheated. Also, I wasn't trying to imply that the rule made 90's defense weak, I was simply acknowledging that just how players today may have a disadvantage against physical D; they may also have an advantage with Iso ball, especially when you consider that with teams today, a defense having to fully double team the star would surely lead to an open three for someone. What is your opinion on the video? Is this a weak era? Were the 90s better? Like comment and sub if you enjoyed! Business email: Theweightliftingcentral@Gmail.com Patreon: patreon.com/dom2k16 Facebook: facebook.com/mrnba2khighlights Twitter: twitter.com/mr2khighlights Instagram: instagram.com/nba_2k_highlights Snapchat: Dom_2k

I can't speak on the 90 being better from a technical perspective but it was definitely more exiting. The NBA became popular in countries that don't watch basketball. Nowadays I can't find a single person in my circle that knows more than 1 current player.

i love ur channel man. very informative.

You also gotta keep in mind, the reason 3s started increasing is becuz the zone defenses became legal and made it harder to get into the paint

The 90's era was like a game of Chess. Tough minded players, that played tough physical defense. The style of play was more of a strategic half court game, something i miss from the modern era. Today's era is like Checkers. Players play less defense, but a faster style of play that relies mostly shooting 3's all night long. They're both entertaining to watch but you can see the difference.

The 80's was the best era in nba.the bird-magic rivalry really change the pace of the game.more serious and physical..truly the real men's game.

Great points made.......Awesome.video

How do you barely have over 50k subs? You deserve WAAAAAYYYY more

90s NBA only got stronger after MJ's temporary retirement. It gave time for the NBA to regain it's intensity between teams

Great videos!

That 90’s footage was cool to see. Thanks for sharing.

I find 2000 to 2010 the best decade in NBA history.

Last year's All-Star Weekend was one of the best. The three-point and slam dunk contests definitely killed it! Then the All-Star Game itself started... and it was like watching paint dry. Nearly every play was either a three-pointer or an alley-oop. They all might as well have worn the same jerseys. To everyone who thought that game was exciting to watch; I implore you to check out at least the highlights of the 1990 All-Star Game. There's more to basketball than just lobs and threes.

I think this is a pretty dope video I like how you didn't favor any era you just stated some of the negatives n positives sides to both so props to that Domk! I clicked this video thinking you were gonna favor today's era like most would but it was actually pretty good n it wasn't one sided n to be fair the game is just different. that could be better or worse depending on the person .

To properly speak on this, you have to say it correctly, The 80s & 90s. Being that I'm 39, yeah the 80s and 90s in my opinion were better because of better fundamentals, REAL HATED RIVALRIES, and most of all VARIETY and VERSATILITY because of GREAT Cs and PFs(My favorite Positions in Bball). Defenses mattered, and real physicality was acceptable. They play GREAT today, but the past had GREAT PLAYER'S to steal from Apollo Creed.."You Fight Great, but I'm a Great Fighter" Rocky III.

Everybody is gonna like what they grew up with. It's just natural bias.

everything was better in the 90s life is shit now.

Great video bro! Subjectively, I liked man to man D and less threes. Having said that, I just love basketball. It’s always good.

90s were great for everything. Premier league Football, NBA, Cartoons, T.V shows and Films. The 10s have taken a dip in quality

Your videos really make me think man...

Okay, I am a 36 year old fan from back in the late 80s. Let me say that just like there's favoritism of the "old days" there's also reverse bias of old school players to the new school players. Some old folks will just say that the 80's and 90's were better just because they enjoyed it more. Both era's had great players, but it is a pointless debate. We'll never see the 96 bulls vs the 15 warriors anyways. Respect to all eras.

Great breakdown

Calling it a weak era doesn't necessarily means disrespect to today's great players. It is overall a weak era because the of the same reason you pointed out: No rivalries, soft fouls, etc It seems like today's kids are mostly focused on 3 pointers and that's why we see the excessive amounts of 3 points attempts from today's players. Players have become soft, Lebron for instance is quick in crying foul instead of keep coming back harder to the basket. The game has changed for sure, I personally don't like that today's players are mostly focused on offense and not so much on defense. In the "old school" era it was rare to see a game past the 100 point mark, let alone 130s on the finals. Players were physical back then and I believe that style of game created the huge rivalries and "hatred" between players. Fragrant fouls back then were for real!

This was a very fair video. Great job! I still don't know where I come down. I started watching the NBA in 1989. The Knicks were the prototypical 90's teams. While I don't necessarily love Don Nelson-ball, it was pretty boring watching 82-75 slugfests sometimes. I will bravely take NO position and say they're equally good eras, just different :D

Hey guys, so my mind definitely moves a bit faster than I edit sometimes, and I forget you guys aren't inside my head. The video should've probably been talked about as (and called) old school vs modern era so I could've encompassed the last 35 years of basketball, because in part a lot of the things I said about the 90s apply to the 80s as well (hence why you see a lot of 80s clips), and a lot of things people have said about the NBA in the last six years apply to pretty much every year after about 2005 probably. So my bad for naming it 90s (I won't change it now cause RU-vid's algorithms are already being pissy and I don't want to throw this vid off track), however I did want to say this just so you guys have an idea of where my mind was. Thanks!

One thing I can comment is that the offense today can sometimes be too dumb for focusing too much on the 3 pt shot where it's a lower percentage shot than a post shot. For example, during a screen and a defensive switch happens where the offensive big man let's say Gobert during the Rockets vs Jazz playoff game is guarded by Tucker and Capella is guarding Mitchell, instead of giving it to the post to take advantage of a 6'3 Tucker guarding a 7'1 Gobert we instead saw a most likely 3 point attempt by Mitchell. The same can be said with Harden instead of giving it to Capella being guarded by a small guard. One of the reason why these two team lose because it was too guard oriented and too much isolation on the 3 point area, they have no post offense except for lob passes and put back shots. If it were during the time of Malone and Olajuwon the first option would be them because their attempt is much nearer to the basket and is a much higher percentage shot, whether you like it or not and these two were elite in the post and inside the 3 pt line jumpers. The zone defense of today wouldn't even matter because there is a gaping hole in the middle because no defensive player can stay there without guarding anyone, else, he will be called for a 3 second defensive violation. The zone defense is not the same with what we see in FIBA. That's why playing zone defense can be most of the time a liability, that's why you see a lot of slashing athletic guards taking advantage of it because the middle shaded area is wide open.

I like the video brotha .. yu pulled up facts

I think the 90s and 2000s are equal. The only point that you brought up that I totally agreed with that is a flaw of the 2000s is rivalries. Not that Wade and Bron are friends and stuff like that, but team vs team. I'd like it if players would compete as if the other team's players are your worst enemies on court, but off court y'all can be cool. There are so many potential rivalries today that would make the NBA better. So I went to make a list for current rivalries that should happen. Current: Boston Celtics vs Charlotte Hornets. Master mind coaches. Elite PGs. Amazing SGs. Lockdown SFs. Great big men. Amazing benches. How fun would it be to see Kemba Walker and Isaiah Thomas going 100% every time they face each other as if they hate each other. Batum vs Bradley, Crowder vs MKG. Steve Clifford vs Brad Stevens. This would be so fun to see them as rivals. Oklahoma City Thunder vs Houston Rockets. Star power. Offence. Fast pace. Proving who can lead their team further. This rivalry was born to happen. Former teammates with everything to prove. Imagine if they both went 100% as if they hated each other. They're both capable of a 30, 10 and 10 game. This rivalry would be about offence and how fast they play. It would be so fun to see them in a real rivalry. Utah Jazz vs San Antonio Spurs. The old vs new. Master mind coaches. Ball movement. Fundamental basketball. Passing the torch. This rivalry would be fun to see as these 2 teams are the most fundamentally sound teams in the league. It would be like San Antonio passing the torch to Utah. Just beautiful basketball. If you like the 90s you'd love this rivalry. Just defence and ball movement. Toronto Raptors vs Chicago Bulls. Scoring vs Defence. Both teams are in love with mid range jumpers and scoring inside. Both teams have superstar talent. This would be like a poor man's Piston vs Bulls rivalry. If these teams hated each other, we'd have some of the most entertaining basketball of the past decade. Jimmy vs Demar. Lowry vs Rondo. Wade trying to prove he still has it. It would be a great rivalry.

Do a video on why why the 2015 NBA draft class could become one of the best NBA draft classes of all time.

as I watched Spurs from late 2000's to their final years of being contenders in the early 2010s, they reminded me a lot of 90's basketball. In that, each player had their own skill set and Pop got his players to play at their utmost potential in their skill sets and positions. The ball sharing was something to be greatly admired as each player had a significant role in making their system work as well as it did with Tim Duncan being one of the most superior leaders of a team in NBA history. People talk about the excitement that Jordan brought to the game, we actually have quite a few players like Jordan in regards in creating excitement in games. We have Russell Westbrook, regardless of your thoughts on him of being a team player, their is no denying how fun it is seeing this guy hustle play after play, going after it, etc. and seeing him display powerful attacks and dunks and the will to try to break the opponent guarding him down. He's got like that Charles Barkley attitude of wanting to show his alpha side on you. Dwight Howard in Orlando was always fun to see as he was basically our last Center of a bygone era. Sadly, his mental approach to the game got exposed harshly and since then, we had to wait until the guys you mentioned that have definitely become fun big players to watch. If it weren't for the Golden State +KD transition, and LeBron not being LeBron James, the NBA would be red hot right now in regards in tough competition throughout many games with different sets of teams at each other. Come 2018-2019 season, if the Celtics can afford a healthy run throughout the year and no injury setbacks, and everyone executes the way they are suppose to execute with now Kyrie and and Haywood....it's an exciting thing to think about. Anthony Davis and KAT are going to be even bigger stars at the start of 2020. Things will become even more interesting in regards to what KD's legacy will become if he at some point within 3-4 years decides to leave Golden State and becomes part of a team where he is the sole leader and takes on the responsibility in leading a team where the team must need him around on court to have the team truly gel the way they can, unlike right now where Steph Curry is still the heart of the Golden State that makes everything easier for the rest of the stars and supporting cast. But again, after 2017-2018 season, if LeBron James were to join forces with Sixers or definitely Houston, despite all the talent that the NBA possesses right now, it could just still fall under the category of the top 2 teams, and the rest as just being fodder during the post season.

Pippen and MJ could cover everyone you said one on one. Easily.

the 2000s era is slept on so hard

Modern era players might be better then the dream team if they all came together Curry Westbrook Paul Harden Butler or Thompson Lebron KD Kawhi PG13 Anthony Davis Blake Griffin Boogie Karl Drummond or Deandre It would be stacked

The best era is the one you started watching. It had the best teams, the best players, and it was without a shadow of a doubt better than the eras other people started watching. And of course the players in the era you started watching were real men, not like those weak kittens in the other eras.

I think the 90s are better for one reason, actual competition. Now all the superstars just join each other on one team, but back in the day superstars used to compete not play together. We have a better talent pool but we don't have more competition.

1999 - 2010 best years of the NBA in my opinion

LAbron doesn't play in a weak era, in fact I think 2000 era was the most competitive. But the problem is Labron is playing on the weakest Eastern Conference era ever.

Removing handchecking and adding a defensive 3 seconds in the key rule destroyed basketball.

One thing you forgot in comparison, even though you couldn't play zone, you could hand check (now illegal outside the paint) and now has defensive 3 seconds because shaq was dominating the paint on Defense. So the lane is actually more open today not less. The new rule changes were designed to increase scoring and pace

I would say the basketball right now is the most talented it has ever been and the best its ever been but the thing that 90's have over modern day is rivalries. Back then people would clothesline you on a fastbreak and would start beating eachother up because they were rivals. Now there is no rivalries only the Cavs vs Warriors in the finals, they could care less about the regular season.

The NBA in the 90s was more physical compared to today, there were not even close to as many fouls called back then in the 90s, I don't think players like Lebron or Harden would be as efficient of scorers in the 90s.

2000s era is the best of both worlds

8:49 IM DEAD THEY OVER THERE POSTING UP

i've seen the games in the 80's and 90's . boy it was rough compared today.

Speaking of hand-checking can you imagine a guy Lebron's size being able to just push anyone who tries to drive on him? He has the same height and weight as BEN WALLACE and you're gonna try to outmuscle him and drive through him? Please.

well said bro

Thank God somebody made this video

The only reason I like the 90s more is because they wouldn't call fouls if you held onto a guy's shirt or lightly smacked them shit like that is a flagrant now a days

At around 7:50 you ask who would be able to guard players like Lebron or Melo with 90's rules. First of all, no one is going to have an easy time guarding any good one on one player regardless of what era's rules you use. If players today were actually allowed to get physical like players were allowed in the 90's then it seems that there really wouldn't be a difference because there is another rule from the 90's that restricts the defense in another way. For example, a Kawhi Leonard would have a much easier time guarding folks if he could hand check and what not but if double teaming is more difficult to pull off then his ability to get more physical due to the rules is nullified because of other rules that come into play. With each set of rules that allows something there is something that those same rules restrict for any given era. Not really a persuasive argument from either side who is arguing for their favorite era in my opinion.

I've said today is more free flowing but I grew up watching the 90s or Jordan era and I loved it. The intensity of those Knicks bulls series or the Pacers Knicks or Knicks heat (the Knicks were in so many awesome series) cannot be matched today. But today's perimeter oriented NBA is really fun to watch. I'm just old and nostalgic and love my old school nba.

It’s funny how the narrative changes over time which ofc makes sense, the 2010’s was the most talented era ever so far and the game is going to keep evolving players today are just better then back then🤷🏽‍♂️

imo i feel like the 90s is better but its not by a wide margin teams are smarter now and even though the handcheck rule is gone double teams and zone make up for it .

both are amazing so stop comparing

When the best defensive team in the 2018 season is allowing 99.0 points a game it really shows you how little defense is considered. The NBA is unwatchable until the pkayoffs

All the "90s" NBA footage is really from the 80s lol

old school dom, his voice changed so much

in this channel im learning more and more than sitting in school for 8 hours. By the way this is a joke....

Ill always be a fan of the 90s being thats when i played basketball in school and every chance i could get as well as watching it there was definitely a lot more rivalries in the 90s but as I suddenly found myself starting to play basketball again i do believe there is a lot of talent like for me obviously being a Huge Jordan fan and bulls fan im happy to see we got Zach LaVine that dude is amazing and i think is so underrated that its not even funny so for me ill always remember the golden years when i was younger but i also found as my passion for basketball has come back so has my desire to watch some of the new talent as well

Nice video dom2k! It's a tough debate..... there are better things in the 90s era, physical play, rivalries, etc. Today game is run and gun it seems. Talent levels are pretty similar, imo, just spread around differently than the 90s

I really think this is a valid argument

Thumbs up if dom2k is low key becoming your favorite RU-vid because he is for me

"Barbecue chicken." Too good. :D :D :D

I’m an old school guy that grew up watching and playing in the 90s. Today’s shooters are incredible even though I’m not a fan of so much iso ball. I call it a weak era not because of the skill necessarily. But because of the lack of physicality and as you said fundamentals. Team fundamentals anyway. You made a case for both eras and I appreciate that. But that feeling of going to the basket and knowing you really earned it was a great feeling. Keep doing the great work.

I like the points you brought up. The big men in the NBA like Embiid, Cousins, Drummond, Porzingis, and Davis will make the game better and more exciting to watch. I'm with you on rivalries. I grew up with these in the late 80s-early 90s like the Celtics-Lakers, Celtics-Pistons, Bulls-Knicks, Bulls-Pistons, and Knicks-Pacers. Back then, the Eastern Conference was a cross between playing basketball and football, while the Western Conference was an all out offensive blitz. The NBA has to step up on these guys playing on the same team. Have all the superstars play on complete separate teams. True about the Clippers. If they had players that are fundamentally sound, they may make it past the second round. The NBA All Star Weekend events are a joke!! The stars should be out there for the events.

watching this over a year later, I'd gladly watch a bucks-wizards game now haha

So many talents cos of the weak defence id like to see those u mentioned back in the 90's i guess theyd be polishing benches with their big ass shorts in most of the games

Great video - if I may add two things that are important but you overlooked: 1) you didn't distinguish true CENTERs from other big men. The Center's responsibility is to rule the paint on offense and defense. One problem with m2m defense is that If your 'tallest player' is running around chasing the other team's 'tallest player' around the 3-point line, then they are not really playing the Center position in any way, shape, or form. There's a strong argument to be made that basketball is a beautiful game BECAUSE of the rules and specifics, and not because some players blur distinctions and then fool people into agreeing that it is somehow 'innovative' to not play your position. I ain't all for it, but I can also see what we're missing. 2) Fines. DIdn't used to have so many of them like it is now until the early-'10s. They started snowballing upwards after after the Malice@ThePalace incident. NBA wanted to be all-hours broadcast friendly, so fighting had to be heavily discouraged by handing out bullshit fines for every little tid-bit. anyway...Outey for now... Hup!

This era can be summed up easily. The paint is empty and perimeter shooters can't be touched. It's basically zone d floating around the mid and it's pathetic. That alone shows you the type of advantages players have today. It's why the posterized dunk is relatively non existent and 3 point/perimeter shooting has sky rocketed.

The 90s NBA is the grunge. It's the gritty, hard, tough ball game. The years where you actually hustled your ass up and down the court. MFs would dunk in traffic just to get contact. 90s vs now... 90s win.

Good vid no excellent video. 1 gripe tho, there was zones in the 90's coaches just stayed away because you had skilled big men in the league at that time. Every team played like San Antonio and GS today. The passing was so good you couldn't play zone. With a skilled big zones got shredded.

Good points. But, a lot of clips you showed came from the '80s (Bird, Magic), etc. But, overall, great video!

“Losing Vince Carter soon”

This isn't a weak era, but it's a weakER era than the 90s

80's up to mid 90's were fun.. Late 90's and the early 2000's was centered ard defence then came the superteam era now we are back to 80's mid 90's ball but with no defence..Nba did a great job with opening up the offence now they gotta let defenders defend again..

I've been watching since the mid 80's and I just think it doesn't appear to be as much of a battle because of the grittiness of the game in the 80's and 90's. I believe that helped tell a more compelling story when teams played. You don't have the stories you had during those times that felt like teams hated each other. So the story telling of the game and the media is different. The media cares too much about every aspect of a players life now that its over-saturation. I don't need to know everything going on in LeBron's life. Tell me the struggle of the game. That's what people like to see. The story telling of two teams going to war. When A.I. and the 76ers played again Shaq and Kobe's Lakers everyone knew the 76ers didn't have a chance but the story was spent about an undersized "never say quit" pg would do everything he could to win. It helps that A.I. went crazy and they won the first game. Then it was over. Most people don't remember the Lakers. They remember who it was spin on the 76ers won a game.

90s emphasizes defensive tenacity, physicality and offensive prowess to be able to withstand physicality on defense. Today emphasizes play execution, 3 point offense and perimeter defense My verdict: 90s is the best era

"we lost Kobe Bryant" That turned out to be deeper than it seemed.

Im not a hardcore fan but the 90s were just alot more entertaining to me. You were on point with the rivalries.