The Jets-Colts Super Bowl - a tangent

Did DeBusschere have some sort of left shoulder deformity?



http://www.hoophall.com/hall-of-famers/tag/david-a-dave-debusschere

 

With year-round training, specialized technique coaching and an array of steroids like today's college and NFL players have, Hornung would have been running in the 4.5-4.6 range.

 

And Dubusschere's ability to throw a baseball has below zero to do with his NBA potential. The difference is if he came up today, Dubusschere would probably stick with baseball, because he would not be regarded as a bona fide NBA prospect. That said, he WAS a great player in his era, but the NBA has changed ENORMOUSLY since then, and those changes long ago pushed the Dubusschere style players out of League.

Oscar's a tougher call. I acknowledged that he's one that WOULD make it in today's league. But how good he'd be is a difficult call. Not a chance in hell he'd be anything remotely resembling the triple double machine he was back then. An all star? I quite doubt it.

And, fwiw, I am not winging uninformed opinions here. I've been fascinated with basketball history since childhood, and thus have gone out of my way to watch games from past eras every damn chance I've gotten and, unfortunately, have been quite disappointed (and even downright shocked) by the level of play I've seen in the 60s era games, ESPECIALLY the early 60s version (the game changed enormously during that decade). I know the difference between what good and bad basketball looks like, and that stuff was so inferior to today's version it's barely comparable.

And, Gee, I've followed your prognostications on the NBA threads for some time now. I don't believe anybody is more consistently wrong than you are (and usually due to some Boston-centric or outdated anachronistic viewpoint). I would not want to be part of your scouting department, because that team would suck something fierce.

 

Specialized coaching technique? He played under THE ALL TIME GREATEST FOOTBALL COACH EVER.

I'm thinking nowadays, he wouldn't have gotten past high school ball, and had been a bookie (or internet poker player) in college.

 

Check out the lack of athleticism, skill, and just about everything else in the first 2 minutes of this early 1970's one on one NBA tournament. Its Jeff Mullins vs Jo Jo White, and boy it is ugly.

 

The idea that today's "specialized" coaching techniques could trim .5 off a 40 time is beyond ludicrous. Today's modern conditioning and nutritional advancements do not include magic pills. The biggest fattest most potent steroid scientifically concievable can't generate that kind of change.

Hornung is another guy who's very much a product of his era. A tremendous star then, probably not even a roster spot now. Pasty tailbacks who run 5.0 40 times do not play in today's NFL, in fact they don't even play for today's Divison I college teams. In fact, the don't even get a look.

 

No way. He wouldn't have got anywhere near as much pussy as a bookie.

 

So humor me: What did generate that kind of change? We're a few thousand years short of being able to credit evolution.

 

One big reason - not that you asked me - is that had he grown up in the '50s or '60s, for example Derrick Rose would be playing center field for the Chicago Cubs instead of point guard for the Chicago Bulls.

I think a lot of it is how the sport was recruited and players were evaluated back then. For some reason, perhaps the way the rules were structured, physicality and "toughness" was favored over raw athleticism. In college football, for example, Miami started recruiting high school linebackers and sticking them on the defensive line. (Jimmy Johnson came upon that philosophy almost by accident at Oklahoma State because he couldn't outrecruit the Sooners for traditional down linemen).

 

Read any NFL gamer back in the day and you can't help but notice the number of missed field goal kicks. They were truly horrendous back in the day, compared to today's kickers.

Yes, I get it, specialized techniques, specialization, blah blah blah.

Mark Mosely missed four field goals in the 1983 playoffs against the 49ers, before hitting a 25-yard game winner. Can you imagine that today? That was the year (I think) Mosely won the MVP.

 

Not to mention the Grand Prize of $15,000.

 

Yeah, we get it. There were no athletes in the world until 1990.