Am I The Only One?

[newmich]

Am I the only one that misses the years before the big three? I'm talking about like 2006 since I just got a roster off of 2K share on NBA 2K13. I miss watching Lebron and D-Wade (with his knee high black socks) going up against each other. It seemed like it was always just those two on the court in those games. I miss AI and Melo on the Denver Nuggets. As much as I hate the Lakers, I miss when they could go to the Finals with a team of Bynum, Kobe, Odom, Kwame Brown. I miss when T-Mac and Michael Redd used to have amazing showdowns against each other.


You can't forget about Yao Ming in there too. Or when the Suns were the Lob City with Nash and Stoudemire. How about Agent Zero on the Wizards. Last but not least does anyone remember the showdown between Boston and the Bulls in the first round of the playoffs like five years ago when the series went to 7 games and it seemed like every game went to OT.


Now maybe its because I'm a little bit older now and with Lebron possibly leaving Miami I'm looking back to what the last decade was like when Lebron, and Melo, and Wade came into the league.


Am I the only one though that thought those days were more exciting to watch when you had those superstar showdowns instead of who can get more superstars on their team?

[CaseIH]

Re: Am I The Only One?

Am I the only one that misses the years before the big three? I'm talking about like 2006 since I just got a roster off of 2K share on NBA 2K13. I miss watching Lebron and D-Wade (with his knee high black socks) going up against each other. It seemed like it was always just those two on the court in those games. I miss AI and Melo on the Denver Nuggets. As much as I hate the Lakers, I miss when they could go to the Finals with a team of Bynum, Kobe, Odom, Kwame Brown. I miss when T-Mac and Michael Redd used to have amazing showdowns against each other.


You can't forget about Yao Ming in there too. Or when the Suns were the Lob City with Nash and Stoudemire. How about Agent Zero on the Wizards. Last but not least does anyone remember the showdown between Boston and the Bulls in the first round of the playoffs like five years ago when the series went to 7 games and it seemed like every game went to OT.


Now maybe its because I'm a little bit older now and with Lebron possibly leaving Miami I'm looking back to what the last decade was like when Lebron, and Melo, and Wade came into the league.


Am I the only one though that thought those days were more exciting to watch when you had those superstar showdowns instead of who can get more superstars on their team?

I think this belongs in the pro basketball thread, but I do agree with you that the league isnt as exciting as it once was. IMO the 80's and 90's were the best of the NBA. I miss watching Bird, Magic, MJ, Isiah Thomas, etc. Todays NBA is to soft. I still watch it cause Im a basketball junkie, and dont get me wrong its still a great game, but todays players dont have that same will and heart that the players before them had. You wouldnt ever see guys back in the day team up to win cause they had a drive and passion to beat the best not be teammates of the best players, thats what the All Star game was for

[Chocolate Chip]

Re: Am I The Only One?

todays players dont have that same will and heart that the players before them had. You wouldnt ever see guys back in the day team up to win cause they had a drive and passion to beat the best not be teammates of the best players, thats what the All Star game was for

well said man...

[Chocolate Chip]

Re: Am I The Only One?

Am I the only one though that thought those days were more exciting to watch when you had those superstar showdowns instead of who can get more superstars on their team?

I feel the same way too, we dont have those quality players anymore & the eastern conference is a joke this yr.

[newmich]

Re: Am I The Only One?

IMO the 80's and 90's were the best of the NBA. I miss watching Bird, Magic, MJ, Isiah Thomas, etc.

I'm not old enough to remember those days sadly. I didn't start watching basketball until the draft class of Lebron and company. That being said I find myself reminiscing on the days before the big three lately because times like this in the year when everyone is costing its hard to watch unless its a game like Miami versus Indiana. The funny thing is I'm a huge Miami fan since I used to live 30 minutes outside of Miami and I also love LeBron and Wade since the year I started watching I got a Lebron poster from my dad his rookie year and I grew up watching Wade play in Marquette since I was raised in Wisconsin and I was actually sad when I heard they were joining teams because that meant they wouldn't play each other anymore for quite some time.

[ClutchCity]

Re: Am I The Only One?

I'm not old enough to remember those days sadly. I didn't start watching basketball until the draft class of Lebron and company. That being said I find myself reminiscing on the days before the big three lately because times like this in the year when everyone is costing its hard to watch unless its a game like Miami versus Indiana. The funny thing is I'm a huge Miami fan since I used to live 30 minutes outside of Miami and I also love LeBron and Wade since the year I started watching I got a Lebron poster from my dad his rookie year and I grew up watching Wade play in Marquette since I was raised in Wisconsin and I was actually sad when I heard they were joining teams because that meant they wouldn't play each other anymore for quite some time.

Thats pretty cool you didn't get to see an era I saw before the 03 Class. Lol You didn't miss much I mean Shaq totally dominated that 99-03 era but nobody really brings it up. Instead you hear how great Iverson, T-Mac, Vince Carter would of could of been. Isolation ball at its finest lol.

[Majingir]

Re: Am I The Only One?

It does suck how NBA is like stacked team era today. It's good when the REAL big matchups do end up happening,but it takes away from overall depth.

Now today, not many big matchups possible. Especially in the 2013-2014 east lol.

[24]

Re: Am I The Only One?

Damn. Guess you guys all must be young and don't remember how stacked some teams used to be back in the day. The concept of a "Big Three" Is not new. They just came up with a term for it once the Celtics got Allen and KG a few years back.

Some Notable past Big Threes

Kareem-Magic-Worthy
Erving-Malone-Barkley
Bird-Mchale-Parrish (Hell throw in Walton too)


They all played in the same Era. There have always been stacked teams but due to the fact there was not nearly as much media presence back in the day as there is now it never got hyped up. There are quite a few more examples of Big 3's in NBA's history.

[ojandpizza]

Re: Am I The Only One?

There have always been "big 3's" or stacked teams, ever since the 60's man.

If you are referring to the early 2000's being what you missed, you're talking about arguably the weakest era of basketball in league history.

[ojandpizza]

Re: Am I The Only One?

And there hasn't ever been a time in league history that great players haven't went and joined better teams to chase rings..

Only difference in the past NBA and the NBA you're complaining about now is how social media, and sports networks feel the need to constantly talk about it.

[ehh]

Re: Am I The Only One?

Few thoughts...

1) I'll never utter the words "I missed the NBA when..." and follow it up with anything from 1999-2007. The league was horrible during that stretch for a ton of reasons. At least it was setting the foundation for today's NBA, which is far better than what we had '99-'07, though not as good as it was in the 1990's. </old man rant>. I am worried that we're leaving a mini golden era of 2008-2013, this is one of the shakiest, least interesting NBA seasons in a while.

2) I'll take the NBA's top-heavy nature over the NFL's approach in terms of parity. I've said this a million times on OS but IMO parity is only good when a majority of the teams are good-to-great and only a few stink. It falls on it's face when all of the teams in your league are mediocre or it lacks a great team. To me, that's what the NFL has become. Between the rule changes and push for parity the league has become more boring than ever. When I watch sports, I want to witness greatness. Not watch a bunch of mediocre teams battle it out. In the past several years, the Spurs/Heat and Mavs/Heat NBA Finals are more exciting than anything the NFL has put out outside of the Giants beating the Pats to prevent a perfect season.

3) While we never saw anything quite on the level of The Decision before there have always been stacked teams in the NBA, as a few other posters have pointed out.

[BringTheHeat]

Re: Am I The Only One?

And there hasn't ever been a time in league history that great players haven't went and joined better teams to chase rings..

Only difference in the past NBA and the NBA you're complaining about now is how social media, and sports networks feel the need to constantly talk about it.

Exactly. These 80s and 90s teams everyone always says "Oh they never would've teamed up with such and such"...that's because they had at least 2-3 other hall of famers already on the team..Wade had a past prime Shaq and an old GP for one title. LeBron had an old useless Shaq. Bosh...Bosh wasn't a HoFer before he came to Miami. So the Heat team everyone hates probably has less talent than the Celtics or Bulls or Lakers of the past.

[SteelersFreak]

Re: Am I The Only One?

Yeah I miss the days where studs like Erick Dampier and Desagana Diop roamed the floor for the Mavs.

[turty11]

Re: Am I The Only One?

lets just cut out cleveland, minny, detroit, sacremento/utah and go to 26 teams!

[MattUM]

Re: Am I The Only One?

Parity will never work in the NBA. The NBA is based so much on individual matchups coupled with the fact that there just isn't enough elite players to go around means it will never happen. You can never have parity when you got guys like Lebron and Kevin Durant who are on such a higher level than anybody else in a game where individual matchups are what matter. Lebron took the Cavs to the finals, but in the NFL, the best player Adrian Peterson didn't even make the playoffs this year.