No More Finesse in the NBA
As I grew up I watched the NBA transform from a game of skilled legends to something completely different. Now days the players are bigger, faster and stronger and less skilled. Something happened on the way to Michael Jordan being the greatest player ever and it was the Detroit Pistons. I know that the Celtics and Lakers had their skirmishes years earlier but the Bad Boys of Detroit changed basketball into a game that is less finesse and more brutes in the key hammering people.
We’ve lost personalities like George Gervin, World B Free, Dr J, Adrian Dantley and Dominique. That’s just to name a few. Now if Gervin were to drive to the hoop today he’d get laid out and we’d never have his finger roll. DR J would go in for his patented dunk and be put to the ground by some scrub or enforcer that each team has. Some guy with 6 fouls to give. Adrian Dantley used to live at the foul line but now he’d have to file a police report to get calls.
The part I don’t understand is that a ref will call a hand check 30 feet away from the basket but not call a foul when a player drives and gets mugged near the basket. Kobe elbows a player in the throat and the other guy gets called for the foul. It’s just a different game. When I grew up the cheap shots were subtle but their is no point in hiding it now as the game evolves into a form of professional wrestling.
I know it isn’t that bad truly but everything evolves and I’m not enjoying what playoff NBA basketball is evolving into.
