Stop Telling Me That NBA Players Aren't As Talented As They Used to Be

Get over your nostalgia.

I know you like to look back on the "good old days" and reminisce about the NBA teams and players that you loved as a child.

But please stop telling me that the NBA players aren't as talented as they used to be.

Why do I have to hear about how the Dream Team would easily crush the Redeem Team? Why do I have to hear about how the league-leading Cleveland Cavaliers would struggle to even make the playoffs in the '80s or '90s?

And all this, said as if it's fact. You don't know that.

But I can't try to argue, apparently, because I'm too young. I wasn't there, I didn't watch, I don't know. So I'm forced to just listen and take it.

But I'm done with listening and taking it.

One thing we do, in fact, know, is that athletes get better over time.

Why are world records beaten at every Olympics? Because athletes jump higher, run faster, and have more endurance every year.

Now, of course there is a huge difference between athleticism and talent on the basketball court. We all know that.

But a player's athleticism doesn't take away from their talent. Just because Derrick Rose can choose to take off and dunk over someone on a fast break, where the '80s point guard would've dropped off a nifty pass to the trailer, doesn't mean he's any less talented.

Players in the NBA are doing things today that we've never seen before. And they're also doing all the things we have seen before.

You see, the players of today learned from the players before them. They watched them, idolized them, emulated them, just as they did the players before them.

And with each generation, we can become better.

I grew up watching Jordan and the Bulls. I loved the way they played basketball and dominated the league.

Now I'm having a lot of fun watching Kobe, LeBron, and company do their thing.

Twenty years from now, I promise myself, I will appreciate whatever new levels of talent I get to see.

I won't try to tell the next generation that the league was so much better when I was young, just because of the nostalgic feelings it spurs within me. 

I'm excited to see what the children being born now will bring to the league in the future.

For now, I'll enjoy watching the best collection of basketball talent the world has ever seen.