NBA fans?

[Revering4Blue]

I may be entirely wrong--it has happened before--but I suspect that most non-NBA fans, even though they may be huge College hoops fans, are big fans of at least two of the following:

1)Golf

2)Tennis

3)NASCAR(motorsports)

4)NHL

Me? I'll continue as both an NHL and NBA fan, which seems to be an anomaly, largely because the first three bore me to tears.

[westofyou]

Originally Posted by Revering4Blue

I may be entirely wrong--it has happened before--but I suspect that most non-NBA fans, even though they may be huge College hoops fans, are big fans of at least two of the following:

1)Golf

2)Tennis

3)NASCAR(motorsports)

4)NHL

Me? I'll continue as both an NHL and NBA fan, which seems to be an anomaly, largely because the first three bore me to tears.

Me as well, but I augment my NHL habit with EPL.

[improbus]

Originally Posted by Revering4Blue

I disagree.

Teams in the '80's and earlier simply executed better offensively. Read: Over-dependence on isolations and three-point shots at the expense of the mid-range game bogged offenses down and helped to disrupt the flow of the game.

Factor in over-expansion, shake well, and the result wasn't pretty, for the most part.

Thankfully, the NBA now allows zone defenses, which allows a team to place it's five best players on the court regardless of position, allowing for more mismatches on the offensive end.

The result: Significantly fewer 85-72 clunkers than a decade or so ago.

To a certain degree, you're right. The dangerous combination of Free Agency and Over Expansion really hurt the game. Team are unable to stick together like they used to an gain any real offensive cohesion.

But, in the interest of research, I watched some of 7 of the '84 finals and noticed one huge thing. No one puts any pressure on the ball-handler. The defender is always three steps away from the ball, particularly on the perimeter and this allows the guards to make extremely easy post entries without any denial. Because of this, the offense actually begins at 17 feet, unlike at 25 feet where the modern NBA starts. Part of this is probably due to the lack of fear of the 3 point line. But, it allows the offense to start without any hiccups. In the 90's, it wasn't easy to start the offense with GP or Pippin hounding the ball at 25 feet, so running intricate sets wasn't really very effective.

In a way, you can blame '90's Knick/Heat/Piston ball on the refs. They should have continued to call it tight (like they did in the '80's.) When players realized that they could "hand check" (read: foul) and generally mug players, it made fluid basketball tough to create.

[Captain Hook]

Growing up in the 80s and early 90s I became a big Lakers fan.Nothing was better then Lakers vs Celtics but Lakers vs Pistons was pretty good to.

I admit I lost interest for a few years(probably about the time Jordan retired)but with Lebron and Kobe I think we have our modern day version of Magic and Bird.Nothing sparks interest like a good rivalry.

While NBA action probably isn't the best it's ever been it sure is better then it has been in a long time.Over 30 and I watch bits and pieces of games every night and will settle in for at least 1 full game a week.