The NBA's Revival

I like to think of the time from the fall of 1998 til about 2006 as the "lost years" of the NBA.  Scoring was down, "defense" dominated, and play was sloppy overall. 

Slowly, in the past two to three years, we have seen a revival of high-octane basketball as well as the profile of the league—all just in time, no doubt, for the inevitable labor shutdown in two years, as I alluded to in last week’s column.

So then, why is this coming about now?  Mostly, it has to do with the rise of the next generation of stars—guys like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, and others.

They have raised the profile of the league in a way that has not been seen in almost 20 years—during the height of NBA popularity in the days of Jordan, Magic, Bird, Barkley, Isiah, and so forth.

Also do not underestimate the ability of "defense" to have turned people away.  Fairly or not, the NBA gained a reputation starting in the late 1990s as an "enforcer" league.  I place the word defense in quotes because as scores went down—the reason usually given was that defense had gotten better. 

This is sort of the Big Lie of the NBA in that time—mugging was probably the better term for it. 

Beginning with the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons in the late '80s, an extremely physical defense was considered a positive; the '90s Pat Riley-led New York Knicks made it an artform, and combined with lower shooting percentages and more three-point attempts, 84-78 scores became the norm in a league where "the first team to 100 will win" had been the conventional wisdom for decades.

Up until the middle years of this decade, we (as sports fans and the media) have been obsessed with trying to find the "next (fill in the blank)"—whether it is Michael Jordan or Magic vs. Bird. 

The fact is, those were a one of a kind entity. 

Once we got past this obsession (I remember when Harold Miner was considered the next Jordan. Harold Miner!!), the league has been able to pursue the future without being shackled to the past.

So here we are in the year 2009 and now there is a renaissance in personalities and play.  In the western conference, run and gun is once again the order of the day, and it is catching on in the east as well, especially since Mike D’Antoni migrated to the Knicks and has begun restoring them to respectability. 

Boston with their "Big Three" is restoring past glory, and the legends of Kobe, LeBron, CP3, D-Wade, and Superman are growing.  The superstars of the "lost years" are fading away and new world order is upon us…at least until the work stoppage occurs in 2011.

Then the NBA will have to start from scratch.  I am not sure they will recover from it.