Shawn Windsor: Old-timers like Isiah Thomas must admit NBA is faster, better now
A couple dozen of the world’s best basketball players will gather this weekend in New Orleans for the NBA All-Star Game. Several of them – LeBron James, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo – are redefining how we think of point guards. (Yes, James is a point guard.)
Their combination of shooting, ball-handling, vision and athleticism is altering how the game is played. This is a good thing.
Unless you happened to play in the NBA back in the ‘80s or early-to-mid-’90s.
For those players, today’s game isn’t so much a game as it is a scrimmage. Or, as Isiah Thomas recently called it: “Straight summer league.”
Thomas was talking about how many points he would average if he played in today’s league.
“Crazy numbers,” he said, modestly.
“When you come down on a 3-on-1 fast break and pull up from the 3-point line, it’s like straight summer league,” he said. “I was good in summer league. If you saw some of our barnstorming games, we would be doing that type of stuff in the NBA right now.”
Right. And Bob Cousy would’ve scored 30-plus a night had he played in the ’80s instead of the 1950s.
Look, Thomas was a great player. One of the best little men of all time. One of the best point guards of his era. But if he played right now, he’d have difficulty becoming a starter in the All-Star Game.
To do that, Thomas would have to unseat either Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving or Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan. Even if we allowed for a third perimeter player, would he really get the nod over James or Milwaukee’s Antetokounmpo or Chicago’s Jimmy Butler?
No. He wouldn’t. Because he’s not as gifted as these players. And there is no shame in that.
NBA players of Thomas’ era, though, have trouble accepting in this. Whether it’s Charles Barkley complaining about super teams or Earvin (Magic) Johnson harping on the lack of rivalries or Gary Payton ripping everything about today’s game.
It’s too soft. There’s no defense or big men. And by the way, get off of my lawn you 3-point-shooting pretty boys.
It’s true that players don’t fist fight the way they did in the ’80s. Or body-slam point guards who drive into the lane they way they did in the ’90s.
But it’s also true that the New York Knicks once got to the Finals in 1994 with exactly one player who could truly shoot: Rolando Blackman. And he didn’t have range. Or play.
The Knicks had one player – John Starks – who could create his shot on the perimeter, and Patrick Ewing. Everyone else was either out there to provide muscle or to dribble the ball in place and pass it to Ewing.
Look, those Knicks played ugly ball, uglier than the Pistons’ title teams ever dreamed of playing. Because they didn’t have the skill to play otherwise. Their roster was comprised of strongmen and enforcers, the type of player that doesn’t exist today.
Not because the league outlawed the Anthony Masons and Charles Oakleys of the world, but because Kevin Garnett came along. And Rasheed Wallace. And Chris Webber. And Tim Duncan. They brought athleticism and skill to the frontcourt that was new.
Those players, in turn, have been replaced by James and Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant and Antetokounmpo. James is the same size as Webber. Davis and Durant and Antetokounmpo are about as tall as Garnett and Wallace.
All four have ball-handling skills that would’ve let them terrorize the NBA in the ’80s. It’s simple evolution.
Something we have no problem accepting in other sports, where it’s obvious that speed and fast-twitch muscle and size have combined to give us, say, Julio Jones in the NFL and Usain Bolt in track. But we ignore when it comes to basketball.
And it’s silly, as romanticism often is. Hey, athletes of most eras don’t like getting left behind. It’s a blow to the ego. Beyond that, it’s a reminder of one’s mortality. The older you get, the fewer there are who saw you play.
Besides, the NBA came of age in the ’80s and early ’90s, and it’s hard for so many of us that came of age with it to give up that sense of wonder.
Highlights and YouTube can’t recreate what it was actually like watching Thomas speed-dribble in person for the first time. It was thrilling, and felt evolutionary at the time.
But if Thomas were to step into a time machine and land on an NBA court facing Washington’s John Wall, for example, he’d be facing a taller, stronger version of himself who’s handle is equally sublime and is just as quick.
Which is really the point when we start talking about how players from past eras might compete in today’s game. Thomas would still be a good player, maybe even a great player. He could take advantage of the modern era’s diet and training programs and he would likely be a little better shooter.
He would also enjoy the hands-off rules the league enforces on the perimeter. Much as he did in the ’80s, when basketball wasn’t nearly as physical as we remember it. The beefy, brawny take-down style of play didn’t come until the Bad Boys themselves used it in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Still, Thomas’ greatest advantage from his own playing days was his quickness. That edge would be gone. Everyone is quick now. Everyone can dribble. Just about everyone can shoot. Whatever rules changes may help now are offset by all that foot speed and size.
The old guard just doesn’t want to hear it.
So they deflect. Say it’s all about numbers, as Thomas did last week when he was in town to commemorate the Palace’s final season.
“Winning is now secondary,” he said. “When they lead the newscasts now, it’s, ‘Oh, this guy got a triple double, and by the way (he) lost.’ Wait a minute, that doesn’t sound right.”
Well, they led newscasts in the ‘80s and ‘90s with dunks, which is fine, because spectacular sells. Today this just means different things. Like 35-foot bombs off the dribble. Or point guards flying in from the free-throw line to tomahawk over a 7-footer.
The NBA is more skilled and competitive than it’s ever been, as basketball has become a game played around the world. It’s a natural process, no matter how often the game’s icons try to tell us otherwise.