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Does the NBA stink?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by clutchcargo, Feb 16, 2007.

  1. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Never said it. Not once.

    I only disputed people's selective memories that said it "stinks" or wasn't what it was.

    It's a game. Same court dimensions. Basically the same rules. Games don't tend to make radical changes for the worse, especially when it is acknowledged that the athletes by and large have never been better and are --- for the first time --- literally coming from all over the world. Doesn't pass the smell test. Certainly doesn't pass the "stinks" test.

    There is something in between "faaaaantastic" and "stinks", but you wouldn't know it by reading today's newspapers and magazines (or the SportsJournalists.commers who write for them). It's always gotta be one extreme or the other.
     
  2. zeke12

    zeke12 Guest

    I tend to agree with a lot of what you said, BTE, but with one caveat -- there are better athletes, but not better basketball players.
     
  3. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    It's a difficult argument.

    Example: I hear all the time how today's tennis players don't have "touch" or can't play with "finesse" . . . like the good ol' days.

    Nonsense. They are magicians with the racket and can hit any shot. Problem is, they can't WIN with touch and finesse. Drop shots have an amazing percentage of failure on the pro level. Oh, they are executed beautifully . . . but 90 percent of the time the opponent is too good, too fast, too athletic, gets to the ball and puts it away. Same for the lob. No matter how well struck, 90 percent of the time they are put away by the opponent. So those finesse tactics are rarely used.

    Likewise, I don't think "motion offenses" and "backdoor cuts" would work against NBA defenses. Doesn't mean the players are incapable of playing that way. Just means they can't WIN doing it.
     
  4. Chuck~Taylor

    Chuck~Taylor Active Member

    When did I say that?
     
  5. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Go back to the small wooden rackets, and finesse would work perfectly fine. Today's rackets allows players who would be inaccurate and imprecise otherwise to dominate with superior athleticism.
     
  6. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Sigh, another myth.

    Pete Sampras won the U.S. Open in the 21st century with a 14-ounce, 85-square inch racket with a sweet spot the size of a BB designed in . . . 1984, two years after Borg and his wooden racket hung it up.

    In an experiment for Tennis magazine, Mark Philippoussis hit serves with his regular racket and with a wooden racket. There was only 3 mph difference. The main difference was in first-serve percentage (which was lower with the wooden racket). But give him --- or any player --- a requisite amount of practice with the wooden racket, and that difference would be shaved significantly.

    Professional tennis players do not use powerful "game improvement" rackets. They use frames with little power because accomplished players create pace with technique and racket head speed, not racket technology. You simply cannot beat today's tennis professional playing a touch game, regardless of racket.

    Using your line of thinking, football should use a less-streamlined shape of ball (as was used in the past) to make it harder to pass, baseball should not replace balls that get scuffed (as was done in the past) and should use the types of gloves that were used in the 1920s.
     
  7. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    oh, i got your point.
     
  8. fever_dog

    fever_dog Active Member

    chan ho park = $15.3 mil
    mike hampton = $14.7 mil
    richie sexson = $13 mil
    jorge posada = $12 mil
    javier vazquez = $12 mil
    kerry wood - $12 mil

    yeah, it's just an NBA problem.
     
  9. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    yeah, but baseball is entertaining. the nba sucks.
     
  10. fever_dog

    fever_dog Active Member

    someone should spread the word then.
    someone should spread the word then. a majority of parks -- on average -- are closer to half empty. should parks be smaller?
     
  11. fever_dog

    fever_dog Active Member

    and kerry wood is entertaining!
     
  12. fever_dog

    fever_dog Active Member

    avg. nba salary = $3.6 mil
    avg. mlb salary = $2.8 mill

    and obviously, there are way more MLB players.
     
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