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Originally Posted by T3B
P...I respect your basketball knowledge a great deal. But the NBA game has become diluted with just too many marginal players for me to enjoy anymore. Its a ME game in the ME generation...no concept of team basketball. Half court game and ball movement have become a lost art.
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Kev it is very tought to get consistent ball movement in 24 seconds with the defenses that are allowed. Double teaming off the ball or covering an area were not allowed in the Bird days. A team had to play another team man to man. You could help on the man with the ball, but not off the ball. Pat Riley at LA brought this game to a screeching halt with his zone/man defense. It has been a war of rules since then, not players imo. I think the players in all 3 major team sports are after stats and the money that goes with it (the owners also). Baseball with Barry Bonds is a joke. He will play for one reason and it is not to win games. One reason I really liked Peyton Manning and the Colts winning the Super Bowl was that Peyton did exactly what was necessary to win, not to look good.
Basketball undergoes constant rule changes that very much affect a game that is so visible. If NBA teams were allowed to play a Syracuse 2-3 zone... holy crud, you would see some awfully looking selfish shots in 24 seconds. The fantastic athletes in the NBA are "not allowed" to play zones (3 sec defensive paint rule) for this very reason. The court would have to be made a lot bigger (and this has been discussed). Rule changes have occurred in football also, but they are not as visible as they are in basketball. 10 people are much easier to watch and criticize compared to 22 and about 1000 refs.
I also think other games, like the X-games which I personally cannot stand, have become popular because a lot of the kids that play these "sports" do it for the love of what they are doing. It has not become a money issue. Yet. They have very small followings and would be playing their sport for nothing.
02-09-2007, 10:52 PM
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