Enigma869 wrote:Saint John wrote:The NBA is at an all-time low as far as talent and fundamentals go. Kobe, Wade and Chris Paul are the only guys that are legitimate "superstars" that know and understand the game, and care to play defense and try to make those around them better. I would include Tim Duncan, but he is on the downside of an incredible career. LeBron James is a fraud and is one of the most overhyped athletes as of right now in the history of sports. Basketball is nothing more than an organized penal league with traces of euro trash.
I definitely agree about the NBA, but not sure that it's really anything new. When I was growing up, almost everyone had a jump shot and the "bad" free throw shooters shot 70%. I would say for most of the past 15 years, the NBA is a joke. Nobody can fucking shoot to save their lives. You have a guy like Rasheed Wallace who should be playing in the low post taking three pointers and point guards (hello Rajon Rondo) who hit free throws at less than 50%. Complete embarrassment. A guy like Larry Bird shot just about 90% from the free throw line for his career and now it seems nobody gets close to that. The NBA is mostly unwatchable for me, even though I force myself to watch from time to time.
Every sport has its critiques like this with people longing for the golden days of fundamentals and variety/completeness in games. Tennis, for example, catches a lot of flak because the racquet/string technology that has evolved has homogenized the game into power baseliners (you don't see people serving & volleying like McEnroe anymore). I've been to pro tournaments and seen guys who hit the ball a ton from the back of the court and have stone hands up at the net. There are a lot of people who constantly bemoan that. Hell, it bothers me a bit because I play an all-court game. But at the end of the day, the guys are still athletic freaks and finely tuned machines and that's what I pay to see.
I think basketball and every other sport sees these evolutions too as guys get more athletic and things change to suit certain games While the free throw stuff is a fair critique (and another reason why LeBron will never be great if/until he gets his FT act together), the fact of the matter is that back in the day, an average big guy like Sheed didn't have the athleticism or talent to knock down Js and were
forced to play post games.
I don't think the talent is down, I just think the talent manifests itself in different ways as the game evolves and athleticism changes. I wanna see athleticism and excitement and the NBA delivers that in spades in my eyes. Watching some fat fuck trot out from the bullpen amid 5-minute commercials spitting shit everywhere does
nothing for me, especially when about 3 teams can legitimately compete for a title. Yes, there's tons of skill involved in pitching and hitting, but like golf, it doesn't impress me too much to sit there and watch it for 3 hours.
Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 12:08 pm
