You hear it constantly, especially in discourse surrounding ESPN’s “The Last Dance”: The NBA of the ‘80s and ‘90s was just different. The physicality. The tension. Hand-checking, low-post play and hard fouls ruled the league. Social media and its benefits and perils weren’t yet a twinkle in anyone’s eye.
But the differences between that past era and this one transcend style of play or the manner in which conversation about the game is carried out. There is also a disparity in team-building philosophy, and the way players — with shorter-term, big money contracts and the autonomy to journey about the league at their disposal — operate in their decision making.
Mike Tirico and NBC Sports Chicago Bulls Insider K.C. Johnson hit on that contrast in Johnson’s guest segment on Tuesday afternoon’s Lunch Talk Live from NBC Sports:
“We’re getting to relive how good that (era) was,” Tirico, who covered parts of the Bulls dynasty as a national radio reporter, said of his experience watching “The Last Dance.” “And not just Jordan, the Bulls and their built-in drama. But also the competitors and those who tried to knock them off, whether it was the Seattle team or the Barkley Phoenix team. What a time that was for the NBA, when teams stayed together a little bit longer.”
“Not only are we seeing a different stylistic NBA, but we’re seeing a different era of the NBA, when you went through teams,” Johnson said. “The Pistons went through the Celtics. The Bulls went through the Pistons. You didn’t go join superteams.”
Indeed, in the league’s current environment, there are plenty of player-to-player or player-to-team rivalries (Steph Curry vs. LeBron James; LeBron James vs. the Celtics and so on), but team-wide vitriol is rarer. As recently as the past decade or so, we’ve had such enthralling rivalries as Bulls-Heat, Heat-Spurs, Warriors-Thunder, Warriors-Rockets, Warriors-Cavaliers and more, but most seem to fade in a matter of a couple years.
Rivalries of yesteryear faded eventually, too, but most seemed to do so by way of the natural progression of time (e.g. the Pistons overcoming the aging Celtics or the Bulls overcoming the battered-down Pistons) rather than roster churn (e.g. LeBron James cutting the Celtics-Cavaliers rivalry of the late aughts short by going to Miami, or Durant doing the same with Warriors-Thunder by signing with Golden State).
But at the end of the day, the modern NBA is just as worth appreciating as past generations. Johnson and Tirico agreed on that, too.
“And I don’t hate on this. This is today’s NBA, it’s fantastic, player empowerment is fantastic,” Johnson said, as Tirico nodded his agreement. “There’s always great things about different eras. But back then, you did not change things, you got through teams, and you’re right, the rivalries born from that are fantastic.”
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