Nikola Jokic: Basketball is better today

[Field Marshall Bradley]

Football. Look at the 3 yards and a cloud of dust style offense so many teams used to run. Look at the quarterback quality across the league 25 years ago. Baseball. Go look at the movement on offense speed pitches 25 years ago compared to now while the average velocity of a 4 seam fastball has jumped from 89mph to 94mph in that same span.

Nah… The NFL is mid as fukk right now…

 

[Copy Ninja]

Comparing the phone technology evolution to basketball players is fukking diabolical and nonsensical.

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

Nah… The NFL is mid as fukk right now…

That’s because the officiating sucks ass. The point is that offensive philosophies evolve and grow more complex. Same thing with baseball. Look how rarely guys face the batting order 3-4 times now. Look how common it was to see shifted infields until it was banned. Think about how many relievers throw near or above triple digits. Teams in sports get more proactive as more information becomes available.

 

[UpNext]

Sports don’t become better JUST because of time. Look at golf. There still isn’t anyone touching Tiger or Jack in skill or accomplishments and that is a sport that is of the highest degree of skill.

Same with Tennis but more athleticism infused along with the skill gap. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic and then a HUGE gap before anyone contemporary can be mentioned.

Basketball is not far from this comparison. This isn’t technology that by simply existing, you being superior to the previous model so that was a dumb comparison. The style of basketball has changed and that has led to the finesse game and catered to players who can benefit from that style being prominent now. Jacking up 95 3pt shots doesn’t make the game better than before. shytty zones that leaves men wide open and broken down defenses every possession doesn’t make it better. The ability to defy game mechanics that allows traveling, carrying, making it impossible to defend etc. It changes the game, it doesn’t make it better. It’s just different now, but not superior.

It’s like the quote from Superman’s dad. “Earths gravity is weaker, yet its atmosphere is more nourishing” when he’s explaining to Superman why he can do things that other people can’t. It’s the environment that he benefits from that makes him different.

If you were a skilled player then, you would be an exceptionally skilled player in today’s game because the atmosphere you would perform in now is so much more nourishing than the harsh environment we saw them in. Take a guy like Reggie Miller. We saw how amazing he was in that league, now put him in today’s league where he’s affectively a 6’8 Steph Curry with a defensive rating of Klay Thompson. We think he doesn’t perform BETTER than we saw him?

Nah son. The game isn’t better just because. It’s different. As different as the old NBA to the European League USED to be. Which is very different.

So how much stock do y'all making posts like this put into the improvement of trainers over the last 30 years? Like I agree with your Reggie analogy that he'd be much better now than back then, but I think it's also because he'd have shooting coaches that would better know how to optimize his shot mechanics which is why I think the game has clearly evolved. It's just much better infrastructure surrounding players nowadays and people just have a better understanding of how the game works now.

Like I don't think LeBron in the 80's, 90's and early 00's ever fixes his outside shot and makes it into a legit weapon the way he's made it into at his peak because the infrastructure wouldn't be there for it.

 

[lib123]

Nah AI got a lot of shyt for playing the way he did, the thinking was like yeah maybe his teams aren't the greatest but he's still taking way too many shots regardless.

That wasn’t really until the mid 2000s.

 

[mastermind]

NBA 90s heads sounds like white baby boomers about MLB from the 1960s.

Its hilarious seeing this happen.

And I am a 1990s head. I grew up in that period and saw all the NBA on NBC years and the one year on CBS.

 

[Long Live The Kane]

NBA 90s heads sounds like white baby boomers about MLB from the 1960s.

Its hilarious seeing this happen.

And I am a 1990s head. I grew up in that period and saw all the NBA on NBC years and the one year on CBS.

Or like 90s hip hop heads

Golden Ages tend to get revered

It is funny how so much of the conversation about the league lately is about how to “fix it”(from the fans, the media, the commissioner), then we get these threads about how the time when the league was thriving at its peak was actually secretly complete trash

Cognitive dissonance all around

 

[mastermind]

Or like 90s hip hop heads

Golden Ages tend to get revered

It is funny how so much of the conversation about the league lately is about how to “fix it”(from the fans, the media, the commissioner), then we get these threads about how the time when the league was thriving at its peak was actually secretly complete trash

Cognitive dissonance all around

The 90s NBA wasn’t trash, but it is a better game today. Eight man rotations are better today than back then. It’s okay to admit that. It is a better NBA.

But the NBA can also improve. They tried to improve the game in the 1990s too, which people with rose tinted glasses tend to forget, because people were pining for 1980s NBA.

 

[ManBearPig]

In terms of “skill” maybe. It damn sure isn’t as watchable as it was even 10 years ago though.

Thats isn't long ago enough.

Who in 2016 wouldn't be effective in 2026?

 

[lib123]

NBA 90s heads sounds like white baby boomers about MLB from the 1960s.

Its hilarious seeing this happen.

And I am a 1990s head. I grew up in that period and saw all the NBA on NBC years and the one year on CBS.

The 90s NBA gets my respect because it was way harder to score. Players who averaged 20 ppg were actually impacting the outcome of the game. Even KD said on an interview that when he came into the league in ‘07 it was way harder to score.

 

[fifth column]

The NBA is “better” today because of all the shiny features such as a analytics, players with bags, specialized training, load management.

The problem is the fans don’t benefit from shiny features, we just want players to compete at the highest level on the court. The fact that the NBA created the in season tournament and play in tournament shows that deep down they realize this. These soft players are all about protecting they brand, they don’t even want compete in dunk contests or give a little effort in all star games for the fans. The league has to do all the heavy lifting in this era.

 

[In The Zone '98]

Parity doesn't have aura

League needs to be chasing a king, ironically

 

[Rekkapryde]

Parity doesn't have aura

League needs to be chasing a king, ironically

Wemby is here

 

[FlimFlam]

Everyone can have their preferences and arguments

But there are unprecedented skills in the league today. Stuff that would have sounded like a cartoon back in the day.

7 footers with handles while being 3 point snipers...not long ago a 7 footer had knee and elbow pads and grimaced up n down the court lol

If one cant appreciate the highs of this era then they got something else going on. Its all kinds of amazing stuff going on

 

[VegetasHairline]

Wemby is here

Cooper Flagg