The Jets-Colts Super Bowl - a tangent

And that clip's from 1972, the NBA's average skill level had multiplied enormously over the preceding decade. The real horror show is before the mid-60s.

I just did a quick youtube scan to see if I could find some footage showing how early 60s NBA games looked, best I found was this clip (

) about Elgin Baylor's famous 61 pt finals game in 62.

It's just a highlight clip and not extended game footage, but it STILL clearly makes the point. Notice how ridiculously porous the defenses were back then compared to today. And the funny part is the two defenders being shown in this clip, Russell and K.C. Jones, were actually considered the best defenders of their day.

And, btw, further worth noting that this clip is from the same 62 season when Wilt had his 100 pt game, 50 ppg average, and all sorts of other zany offensive records were set all across the league. Next time you hear someone bleating about how Wilt is the greatest ever because of his ungodly early 60s stats, please remember that this was the style game and defenses he did it against.

 

1979 with ESPN. Get your damn facts straight.

 

Did the rules prohibit dribbling with your left hand at that time? That's what the footage seems to indicate.

 

Does anyone know when the Hornung 5.0 was timed? Ie, was it right before the 1957 draft? End of the his Heisman season? Middle of the the 1961 campaign?

A guy who runs a 4.4 at the combine is not running a 4.4 at the exact end of the next season.

Also, something tells me Hornung wouldn't smoke in the locker room at half time today as well.

 

Civil Rights for one. It exposed a broader range of black athletes to a higher level of collegiate play.

 

From 1956 until now, the 100-meter world record has dropped from 10.2 to 9.58. I don't think it's at all out of line to say a 40-yard dash time can drop 0.4-0.5 seconds. Hell, prospects go for two months of training before the combine and they drop 0.2-0.3 seconds just from having a sprint coach.

Also: No magic pills? Where you been since 1988?

 

Agreed. There are speed schools all over the country that kids as young as 10 are attending.

Training and technique is a lot better today.

 

It is a fact I freely admit (and I think I said so in an earlier post) that there are more real good NBA players, and way less not-so-good NBA players than there were 30, let alone 50 years ago. The number of great players remains pretty constant, and great players would excel in any era. Elgin Baylor scored 61 because he was great, not because Russell and Sam Jones sucked.
If a center came along as good as Kareem or the uninjured Walton, they'd eat the league up today just as they did then. Look at Dwight Howard. He's an All-Pro, and he's far from being as skilled (yet) as they were, or as Shaq was in his prime.
Demographics tells us it's inevitable there'd be more good players today. The talent pool is infinitely bigger. To make the NBA as an African American in 1960, you pretty much had to be borderline great. As for the rest of the world, forget it.

 

Damn you and your infernal facts. Let him keep his delusion.

 

Can't wait for this 2052 thread: Kobe, LeBron and Jordan couldn't hang in today's NBA.

 

The Browns were also motivated by how they believed the Cowboys run up the score on them in a 52-14 divisional round asswhippin' in the divisional playoffs the previous season. What was odd is that in those days, a team with the best record didn't have homefield advantage, which explains why the 10-4 Browns hosted the 12-2 Cowboys.

Meredith's numbers: 3 of 9, 42 yards and three picks before Landry lifted him for Craig Morton; not that Morton was great shakes.....he went 9-23 for 148 and a score to go along with an INT.

 

Might be true. Someone made the Einstein comparison earlier. Same difference. I think even someone like Stephen Hawking would fully admit, for example, that what he knows is the tip of the iceberg of what a physicist 100 years down the road will know.