NBA Finals

[Justice 0]

Fuck the 90s, I miss basketball in the 80s, where you had guys sitting four or  five places down the bench that could acutally shoot and play defense well enough that you could give your starters and superstars precious minutes of rest.

 

That is the one thing that the Jordan Era ushered in, and its sad. Guys wanting nothing but the dunks and flashy plays, and had minimal amounts of fundamental knowledge of the game AT BEST.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes! Fuckin' yes! I completely agree.

 

And for all the dissing of the recent Pistons: They probably play better and more consistant D today then they did back then. They just had a lot more offensive weapons. It's that sort of tradeoff.

 

And the Jazz in the 90s would still get beat by the Pistons today. cabbageboy has some wacked out views on the teams of the 90s; that had to be one of the worst decades in all of basketball for the sport. It just ruined the entire "Team Effort" vibe of the 80s that is only returning now.

[Vern Gagne 0]

Malone elbowing that little prick Isaiah Thomas, square in the mouth was one of my favorite NBA moments.

[Justice 0]

Malone elbowing that little prick Isaiah Thomas, square in the mouth was one of my favorite NBA moments.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Oddly enough, in complete contrast, watching the Pistons deny Malone a final shot at an NBA championship is mine.

[The Electrifyer 0]

Any moment Malone gets denied a championship is a good moment.

[The Czech Republic 0]

And the Jazz in the 90s would still get beat by the Pistons today.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I don't know about that. Stockton, Malone, and Hornacek were no slouches.

[Precious Roy 0]

Greg Ostertag v. Ben Wallace is a dream matchup

[The Czech Republic 0]

Did Larry Brown and Jerry Sloan ever meet in the playoffs? I'm sure they must have, since Larry Brown has coached like every freakin' team in the NBA, but I can't remember it offhand.

[Precious Roy 0]

1992. Jazz beat Brown's Clippers 3-2

[cabbageboy 0]

I do agree that basketball was probably better in the 80s than it was in the 90s, if nothing else because both conferences were doing well back then. Lakers dominated out west, though the Rockets got to the finals a couple of times too. Celtics were ruling the east but the Sixers also were really good and then the Pistons by the end of the decade.

 

During the 90s Jordan era the west was fairly bleh. I mean yeah the Rockets won two titles but since Jordan was playing baseball no one really cares. The Rockets were also the recipients of a couple of Phoenix chokejobs that frustrated me big time back then since I liked the Suns.

 

That's sort of how I view the Spurs to be honest...champs in between the really important eras.

[The Czech Republic 0]

1992.  Jazz beat Brown's Clippers 3-2

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thank you, Precious Roy.

 

As for the NBA of the 90s, it's what I grew up with, so I have no problems calling it my favorite era. 'Course, it always helps to have the local team win six titles in eight years with the most popular basketball player ever.

 

Tell me if this makes any sense: the NBA has grown up along with the young fans of the Jordan years. It seems like everything of the 90s was really kid-friendly and family-oriented from a marketing standpoint: the most objectionable guy out there was Charles Barkley, and the uniforms and courts were all flashy and gaudy. Now you've got Ron Artest and Ben Wallace starting riots, Allen Iverson popularizing his whole gangsta image, the Kobe Bryant media circus, so on, so forth. All the really flashy jerseys, like the pinstriped Magic, mountain range Jazz, track-uniform Pacers, traded all those in for plain boring jerseys. It seems like on one level or another, they're not marketing the NBA as heavily to younger audiences as they were before.

[Guest Vitamin X]

The National Basketball Association: Rated R.

[The Czech Republic 0]

at least it's not "Rated X: for Xcitement!"

[Rendclaw 0]

Fuck the 90s, I miss basketball in the 80s, where you had guys sitting four or  five places down the bench that could acutally shoot and play defense well enough that you could give your starters and superstars precious minutes of rest.

 

That is the one thing that the Jordan Era ushered in, and its sad. Guys wanting nothing but the dunks and flashy plays, and had minimal amounts of fundamental knowledge of the game AT BEST.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes! Fuckin' yes! I completely agree.

 

And for all the dissing of the recent Pistons: They probably play better and more consistant D today then they did back then. They just had a lot more offensive weapons. It's that sort of tradeoff.

 

And the Jazz in the 90s would still get beat by the Pistons today. cabbageboy has some wacked out views on the teams of the 90s; that had to be one of the worst decades in all of basketball for the sport. It just ruined the entire "Team Effort" vibe of the 80s that is only returning now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I could not agree with you more. I just hope and pray that the Spurs and Pistons contend with each other for the title like the Celtics and Lakers did back in the day. Both of those classic teams had their stars, but they also played the team game on both offense and defense. Sure, the Lakers were Showtime and up and down the court, but they could play decent defense too. The Celtics were the mirror image of that: a little bit better defensively, but not bad on the break, either. That's why almost every game, whether it be regular season or the Finals, had that Game 7 mentality. It didn't hurt that the teams didn't like each other very much, either. A true rivalry.

 

The Spurs and Pistons are the poster teams for the team play concept, something that has been SORELY lacking in the league for at least 10 to 12 years. The Bulls were the closest thing to it through that span of time.

 

And as for the Jazz, they suffered from not having enough quality complimentary pieces around Stockton and Malone to get over the hump. I give big time respect to those two for doing it as long as they did, but they had their shot in 98, and thanks to a non-call, they didn't get it.

[Rendclaw 0]

1992.  Jazz beat Brown's Clippers 3-2

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thank you, Precious Roy.

 

As for the NBA of the 90s, it's what I grew up with, so I have no problems calling it my favorite era. 'Course, it always helps to have the local team win six titles in eight years with the most popular basketball player ever.

 

Tell me if this makes any sense: the NBA has grown up along with the young fans of the Jordan years. It seems like everything of the 90s was really kid-friendly and family-oriented from a marketing standpoint: the most objectionable guy out there was Charles Barkley, and the uniforms and courts were all flashy and gaudy. Now you've got Ron Artest and Ben Wallace starting riots, Allen Iverson popularizing his whole gangsta image, the Kobe Bryant media circus, so on, so forth. All the really flashy jerseys, like the pinstriped Magic, mountain range Jazz, track-uniform Pacers, traded all those in for plain boring jerseys. It seems like on one level or another, they're not marketing the NBA as heavily to younger audiences as they were before.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I hate to play this card, but the media has gained so much in the way of sniffing out stories and investigative methods, that if things were like are they are now back then, you would have heard more about the foibles of their players.

 

Especially after the brawl are the Palace, I think the NBA realized that they should focus more on the positives in the league and turn the other cheek to the negative. Back to basics, as it were. I don;t need to see flashy jerseys and all of the bells and whistles (Finals pregame concerts, anyone?). To me, its more about the guy wearing the jersey and what he can do for his team rather than the color or font of the jersey he has on.

 

::sighs:: there is another sign of me getting old. I'm starting to sound like my uncles when I was a kid.

[Dangerous A 0]

It's funny that the Bad Boys are the ones who helped usher in the type of philosophy that helped win championships through the 90's and right now. The Pistons were the ones who held the "defense wins championships" saying to become the truth. The 80's were dominated by the offensive juggernauts of the Celtics and Lakers. People all want to say that MJ's Bulls finally became a championship team when Jordan finally started using his team to help him win as opposed to using his team to get him the ball in the right places, which actually is a part of it. However, I think what helped put the Bulls over the top was they became a much, much better defensive team. I remember the "release the dobermans" press the Bulls would use when they went on one of their stranglehold defensive stands. All the way through to now, the NBA champion has been a top 5 defensive team. You don't have to lock a team down for 48 minutes, but you do have to be able to fall back on your defense when the offense goes to hell and you need to be able to turn it up defensively when you sense the other team is ripe for the picking. The Laker and Celtic dynasties of the 80's weren't defensive chumps or anything, but they chose to run and run and out shoot and then try to clamp down the last couple of possessions. If you go and watch NBA TV and catch a game or 2 from the 80's, you will see that guys just don't play the defense they do now. Just a totally different mindset.

 

Bottom Line: The Bad Boy Piston teams influence was felt througout the 90's and into today.

[Slayer 0]

It seems like everything of the 90s was really kid-friendly and family-oriented from a marketing standpoint: the most objectionable guy out there was Charles Barkley

[Slayer 0]

I also remember the times when a young Shaq was cited as a bad influence because kids wanted to imitate his backboard-breaking dunks.

 

When exactly did "gangsta" culture begin to show up in the league anyway?

[Vern Gagne 0]

Bottom Line: The Bad Boy Piston teams influence was felt througout the 90's and into today.

 

True. But Chuck Daly once pointed out those Piston teams still averaged like 103 points a game.

[Justice 0]

On Dangerous A's topic: I think the misinterpretation of the Bull's success also hurt the rest of the league. The almost singular focus of people on Jordan's prowess and skill that it brought in the "Star Focus" idea rather than the "Complete Team" focus. So many teams back then focused on getting a better star rather than getting a team that would gel. Even my Pistons picked up Grant Hill and assumed they had it (which is when I stopped watching until Rick took over), you get the Sixers with AI, Orlando with Penny and Shaq, Celtics with Paul Pierce and Walker, and finally the Lakers gathering up as many stars as they could and putting them on one team.

 

The Bulls might have gotten the right idea, but everyone else misinterpretted it to the max, which caused perhaps the weakest basketball decade ever.

[Precious Roy 0]

When exactly did "gangsta" culture begin to show up in the league anyway?

 

[Youth N Asia 0]

goddamn cracker-thug

[Guest Vitamin X]

Larry Bird a thug, cuz.

[The Czech Republic 0]

It seems like everything of the 90s was really kid-friendly and family-oriented from a marketing standpoint: the most objectionable guy out there was Charles Barkley

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Oh right that dude. Played for the Bulls and everything. I should amend that to "until Rodman went nuts, the most objectionable guy out there was Charles Barkley"

 

I'll take pregame concerts and flashy Utah Jazz jerseys over no concerts and plain Jazz jerseys, though