NBA League/Players Then VS Now Discussion

In light of the recent years of making headlines about teams breaking old records (namely GSW's 73-9 record), there's been countless debates on past teams, players and league in general vs what it is today.

Yes, it's an entirely different era and the game is played alot different now with many aspects favoring both eras. I was having an argument about this with a colleague, and his only argument is that Jordan era >>. With no facts or reason. Although personally, the NBA during those days were funner for me to watch, it's hard to say what's better. It's not a black and white answer and homie thinks it is.

So it'd be awesome to get some collective thought going on "then vs now". Thoughts? Was the NBA truly better in the 90s than it is today? Or even in the 00s?

My brief take on it, although MJ the goat, I thought the league overall back then was a bit overrated after the first 3-peat. Stars after during the 2nd 3peat were aging and non really come to mind on the come up other than the 96 draft, to which they were sophomore players new in the league.

You gotta factor in though when most people think Jordan era they would lean more to '85-93 than the second Bulls threepeat.
The 2000's was not even close to today, in fact a lot of that decade were the lean years of the NBA. We were even getting punked out of the olympics.

You are right it's tough to compare eras but I think a big thing with the old heads saying their era was better was factoring in the "toughness" part. The 80's and 90's were known for Bad Boys and Knicks teams and looser rules, and players hating each other and very little free agency movement making super teams with ya boys. That's a lot of why people say Jordan Era >.

The game has changed now where there is a larger top-end of stars. In the last 40 years there have probably never been more good to great players playing in the league at one time. Kyrie Irving, Paul George, Damian Lillard, Gordon Hayward, Karl Anthony Towns, Chris Paul, DeMarcus Cousins and Klay Thompson all were unable to get to an All-NBA team this past year.

I just love basketball. The game just evolves, but the core is still the same. We get new characters every year. The rules get tweaked, but in the end, it's still about who can outscore the team in front of them. I don't bother myself with the comparisons and era competitions that we will never see played out. I just enjoy the game that's in front of me.

RyGuy45 said:

You gotta factor in though when most people think Jordan era they would lean more to '85-93 than the second Bulls threepeat.
The 2000's was not even close to today, in fact a lot of that decade were the lean years of the NBA. We were even getting punked out of the olympics.

You are right it's tough to compare eras but I think a big thing with the old heads saying their era was better was factoring in the "toughness" part. The 80's and 90's were known for Bad Boys and Knicks teams and looser rules, and players hating each other and very little free agency movement making super teams with ya boys. That's a lot of why people say Jordan Era >.

The game has changed now where there is a larger top-end of stars. In the last 40 years there have probably never been more good to great players playing in the league at one time. Kyrie Irving, Paul George, Damian Lillard, Gordon Hayward, Karl Anthony Towns, Chris Paul, DeMarcus Cousins and Klay Thompson all were unable to get to an All-NBA team this past year.

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I think it's more that the one Star over shadowed the others to a greater degree than now think about James Harden won the MVP, There are no great big men the Post dominance on both end has totally diminished. Shaq, Hakeem, David Robinson, Karl Malone, Shawn Kemp there is not a player in the NBA now that could remotely guard any of the above now.