Why the Golden Age of Basketball Won't Be Topped by the Modern Era
Maybe it's just the polarity between two generations' ideologies and reasoning. Maybe it's modern technology that revamped the weight training systems to produce GI-Joe clones. Or maybe it's the media gobbled stars that receive an influx of raw criticism from every possible social or professional media outlet. Whatever "it" is, there is clearly a difference between the Golden Age of the NBA and the Modern Era.
It wouldn't be foolish to say that we are embarking upon our second Golden Age of basketball. After all, the modern era seems to be constructed so that we are in position to watch breathtaking competition like it's the 80s all over again: The Knicks just plucked two all-stars in the same season in response to Miami's establishment of the Heatles. The Oklahoma City Thunder have used the draft as a launching pad poised to catapult them into the league's elite this coming season. The Nets have a blood-thirsty owner with pockets so deep they run all the way down to Death Valley, and he's willing to go there and back so long as Deron Williams stays.
Teams hate each other again, which is wonderful to see. Sure, the buddy-buddy AAU system caused the whole Heat merger, but this same communal nurturing atmosphere that AAU ball provides also led to the animosity between players today.
Dwight Howard can't stand the Heat and he can't stand "the Decision." After all the decision was a narcissistic, self promoting, one hour montage of LeBron James leaving Cleveland, right? He can't stand the way things went down. He poked fun at James several times during the offseason, cracking jokes about him and more recently saying he'd never consider going to the Heat. Players don't like Miami's attempt to "skip the process" and jump straight into a realm of glory only reserved for those who've paid their dues. No one wants Miami in that conversation.
Enter competition.
The Knicks responded by nabbing Carmelo Anthony and creating a duet on Broadway. Chris Paul and Dwight Howard are both looking for greener pastures in hopes of joining new Big 3s.
Now, the whole premise of today's game is built around having multiple stars on one team, and while that will essentially wipe out the middle class of the NBA, the games between the star-hoarding franchises will go down in the books.
In a way, it's similar to the Golden Age. No one-star team had a real shot of winning the NBA Finals, not if you had to go through the likes of Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars, of Magic, Kareem, and Worthy, of Bird, Parish, and McHale, or of Jordan, Pippen, and Grant (Rodman). Dominique Wilkins wasn't going to will the Hawks through that whole plethora of mega-starred teams. That's why the closest he ever got was pushing the Celtics to a classic Game 7 in 1988 (who knows what would have happened if that Rivers block wasn't called goaltending) where Atlanta fell in the Eastern Conference semis.
The similarities stack up between what we're seeing now and the time of old. Still, it won't be the same. Nothing will measure up to the Golden Age.
Why? Because the game is so physically oriented now. It's about strength, speed, and force. Sure, you could use Dwight Howard's left shoulder as a bed, but call me when he works a dream shake like Hakeem. Call me the next time you see a skinny white guy (that's you Kevin McHale) dominate the low post by actually breaking out a killer drop step and working his post moves like it's nobody's business. I'll never see a 6'7" man average 17 rebounds per game in this era. Why? Because now if you give that nice, little necessary nudge that gives you the rebound, it's a foul (that and the fact there will never be another Dennis Rodman).
If this insipid lockout ever ends, the basketball we see will be dazzling. We'll see acrobats fly over Timofey Mozgov (oh wait, that's Blake Griffin), we'll see LeBron steamroll four people and still finish at the rim, and we'll see Durant put that lanky body to use by torching the opposition.
No matter what we see though, it'll pale in comparison to Magic dishing it to Kareem. It'll pale in comparison to Bird drawing that double team and dishing it to McHale. Maybe I'm just thinking in an outdated sense of mind, but I don't care. The pure skill displayed by the likes of Magic, Kareem and Isaiah was really a sight to behold.
Their skill sets are now the basic framework for the development of the modern player, but it's for their development once they get to the NBA, and that's the sad thing. From the beginning of their playing days in the modern era, players are picked to make AAU teams off of sheer athleticism. They use that to succeed. Once they get to the NBA, they've been living off of their physical gifts the whole time, and only then do they realize that in order to compete at the NBA level, there must be a specific skill set. In the 80s and 90s, basketball was at it's purest form: fundamentals, heart, and the personalities to tag along.
The stars are unquestionably bigger and better in the Modern Era. I'm sure if you pit Dwight Howard in his prime vs. Kareem in his prime, Howard would just out muscle him. I'm sure if you let Derrick Rose and Isaiah Thomas play one on one, Rose would spawn over him and onto the rim. I know that that the athletes of today are superior, but that doesn't mean the game is.
We may be embarking upon the 2nd Golden Age in NBA History (once the lockout ends), but don't let a return of insanely riveting basketball make you lose sight of the very era it's modeling.
