was the NBA stronger 20 years ago or weaker?

[OG Hack Wilson]

look at the top 10 players back in the early 1990s:

Jordan
Hakeem
Ewing
Stockton
Malone
Barkley
Shaq  (orlando era)
Robinson
Pippen
Drexler


the top 10 players now?  

Lebron
Wade
Kobe
Durant
Howard
Rondo
Amare
Williams
Rose
Paul

[Tha A]

I won't pronounce myself in terms of talent, it's hard to tell (except at the center position ), but late 80's/early 90's nba had less crappy rules helping teams offensively or star players gettin the royal treatment, had less crappy teams, less teams and more great players per team. all in all, nba back in the day was more fun to watch, now I just watch major games here and there but college ball is more attractive nowadays imo. nba peaked in the 80's/90's.

[OG Hack Wilson]

thats funny cuz i HATE college ball untuil March  - and even then it's still boring most of the time lol



i think that Stern and co have made it easier to be a PG these days and much harder to be a big

[Chamillitary Click]

Today would win.

You don't even have Melo on today's list lol.

[OG Hack Wilson]

Today would win.

You don't even have Melo on today's list lol.

nor did i include Dirk or K-love

[Tha A]

if you're asking about the best from 20 years ago going against the best now you have like (off the top of my head)

20 years(early 90's):

at pg you had guys like stockton, thomas already declining, magic before hiv, mark price, kevin johnson, young hardaway, young payton coming into the league...
at sg you had jordan, drexler, dumars, mitch richmond, dale ellis, sprewell...
at sf you had pippen, wilkins, beat down bird full of injuries, mullin, worthy...
at pf you had malone, barkley, chambers, cummings, full of injuries mchale, kevin willis, young kemp...
at c you had hakeem, ewing, robinson, young shaq coming into the league, old parish, daugherty...

now:

at pg you have paul, rose, rondo, deron, nash, billups, parker, westbrook...
at sg you have kobe, wade, roy, manu, joe johnson, past his prime ray allen, ellis...
at sf you have lebron, durant, melo, past his prime pierce, gay, granger...
at pf you have gasol, amare, nowitzki, love, past their prime duncan and garnett, boozer, griffin...
at c you have dwight, bogut, horford...

it's hard to tell but I think 20 years ago would win mostly due to inside game

[Mietek23]

Today would win.

LOL

You must be on crack.

[M Dogg™]

If your talking exactly 20 years ago, today would win. In the 1990-1991 season it was too much transition, Magic was going to leave because of HIV, Hakeem was not quite in his prime, Isiah was leaving his, the NBA was basically MJ and then either people too washed up or not there yet. The 1989 draft was one of the worst, if not the worst drafts in history. The top pick was Pervis Ellison, followed by Danny Ferry. The only players people would remember from that draft was Glenn Rice, Shawn Kemp and Vlade Divac. Everyone else were scrubs, except Sean Elliot, Tim Hardaway and Nick Anderson who were a great role player. The 1990 draft wasn't that great either, aside from Gary Payton, only Derrick Coleman (first overall) and Dennis Scott even made for decent role players. So in 1990-1991 season, you had a lack of young talent, you had aging talent on it's way out in Isiah, Magic, Bird, and you had talent not ready for prime time like Ewing, Stockton, Malone and Hakeem. Then you had Michael Jordan at his best, Clyde Drexler who was ready from prime time, and Charles Barkley who was in his prime.

Right now you have better young talent, you have great talent in it's prime like 'Melo, LBJ, Wade and Dwight and the aging talent right now is Kobe who is still winning. So 2010-2011>1990-1991.

Now if you want 25 or 15 years ago, that's different. the mid 80's and the mid 90's would crush today. But in 1990-1991 season, it was the perfect storm of bad draft classes and aging talent.

[Tha A]

If your talking exactly 20 years ago, today would win. In the 1990-1991 season it was too much transition, Magic was going to leave because of HIV, Hakeem was not quite in his prime, Isiah was leaving his, the NBA was basically MJ and then either people too washed up or not there yet. The 1989 draft was one of the worst, if not the worst drafts in history. The top pick was Pervis Ellison, followed by Danny Ferry. The only players people would remember from that draft was Glenn Rice, Shawn Kemp and Vlade Divac. Everyone else were scrubs, except Sean Elliot, Tim Hardaway and Nick Anderson who were a great role player. The 1990 draft wasn't that great either, aside from Gary Payton, only Derrick Coleman (first overall) and Dennis Scott even made for decent role players. So in 1990-1991 season, you had a lack of young talent, you had aging talent on it's way out in Isiah, Magic, Bird, and you had talent not ready for prime time like Ewing, Stockton, Malone and Hakeem. Then you had Michael Jordan at his best, Clyde Drexler who was ready from prime time, and Charles Barkley who was in his prime.

Right now you have better young talent, you have great talent in it's prime like 'Melo, LBJ, Wade and Dwight and the aging talent right now is Kobe who is still winning. So 2010-2011>1990-1991.

Now if you want 25 or 15 years ago, that's different. the mid 80's and the mid 90's would crush today. But in 1990-1991 season, it was the perfect storm of bad draft classes and aging talent.

totally agree, if you're just talkin about exactly 20 years ago today would take it, now more or less than that is a different story

[Chamillitary Click]

Today would win.

LOL

You must be on crack.

Rose/Paul/Rondo (take your pick)
Kobe/D-Wade off the bench
LeBron/Durant/Melo (in order off the bench)
Duncan/KG (I don't know why we can't look at the last five of six years)
Dwight/Amare

vs.

Stockton
Jordan/Drexler
Pippen
Barkley/Malone
Hakeem/Robinson

The only reason you're shocked to think that today's game would win because you're probably in your mid to late twenties & watched all those guys play & all those guys on the older team have some sort of legacy tied to their name that today's players are going to inevitably get.

You can say what you want about Stockon, but we have the PG position covered; I didn't even use Nash or Deron. Yeah, you got Jordan. But Kobe Bryant is pretty amazing if you ask me lol. Some already dispute that Kobe is better. We own you at the SF position. If you got back to like 2002-2003, KG & Timmy could be the two best PF's to ever play the game. You take the center position but we're beyond athletic at that position.

Even if we didn't win the game (which would surprise me), we wouldn't get blown out.

[IRAN iz Gangsta!]

80s and 90s (up to 96) was the golden era of basketball


games were more exciting and even players that were no name or u cant remember their names were good players...especially in 80s basketball players were actually players that can shoot the ball, the basics of basketball has become a joke; dunks and lay ups....as opposed to SHOOTING

Now days on a team you have less than handful of players that you can actually rely on scoring...basically have a few key players and the rest are fillers.   You shut those people down and the team cant score.  

CENTERS are rare nowdays, some teams dont even have them or they dont play them.  Coaches go for more smaller line ups to make the game faster but alot of it is just running around uselessly, losing the ball, i bet average of turnovers is more nowdays if u look at stats.  For example, one of the biggest things they used to mention about the bulls winning was that they did it without dominant centers.  And those guys would be dominant centers in todays game, thats how weak the league is now days.

Games were alot more exciting back then but now only if its a big name team and nothing else.  Now its all about a few players and teams the rest are a joke that cant do shit...sometiems when i hear teams like timberwolves, bucks, nets, bobcats, warriors, etc...im like damn these teams exist? lol they're so far off the radar....point is back then upsets were normal and there was passion, now days upsets dont really happen


game is weak nowdays, its all flashy dunks

[.:DaYg0sTyLz:.]

With those two lists...the early 90's squad would dominate. Particularly on the glass. I like the current players backcourt over the early 90's (with the exception of Jordan obviously). But they would get NOTHING in the lane, and have a hard time getting any boards. The current team would need to shoot 65% on their jumpers to stay in it.

Watching Pippen stick LeBron would be interesting.

There are also too many PG's on the current team. Im guessing so that you could make sure to add Rondo to the list lol. But I would take off Paul and Rondo, and add Dirk and Melo for sure.

[Tha A]

Today would win.

LOL

You must be on crack.

Rose/Paul/Rondo (take your pick)
Kobe/D-Wade off the bench
LeBron/Durant/Melo (in order off the bench)
Duncan/KG (I don't know why we can't look at the last five of six years)
Dwight/Amare

vs.

Stockton
Jordan/Drexler
Pippen
Barkley/Malone
Hakeem/Robinson

The only reason you're shocked to think that today's game would win because you're probably in your mid to late twenties & watched all those guys play & all those guys on the older team have some sort of legacy tied to their name that today's players are going to inevitably get.

You can say what you want about Stockon, but we have the PG position covered; I didn't even use Nash or Deron. Yeah, you got Jordan. But Kobe Bryant is pretty amazing if you ask me lol. Some already dispute that Kobe is better. We own you at the SF position. If you got back to like 2002-2003, KG & Timmy could be the two best PF's to ever play the game. You take the center position but we're beyond athletic at that position.

Even if we didn't win the game (which would surprise me), we wouldn't get blown out.

if you wanna look at the last five or six years, look five or six years before the early 90's or at least after, that way the team from the past would get the w and I'm not saying that because all of the legacy thing you talked about.

[IRAN iz Gangsta!]

i dont think any of the current players are legends, especially if they lived back then...stockton and magic for example would school all these point guards


current players who would be legend are; kobe, lebron, wade, shaq

[OG Hack Wilson]

i dont think any of the current players are legends, especially if they lived back then...stockton and magic for example would school all these point guards


current players who would be legend are; kobe, lebron, wade, shaq

I'm sure if they were born 10 years earlier KEvin GArnett and Timmy Duncan would've dominated in any league


and Rondo would school that sucker Magic Johnson