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last night I was channel surfing switching between the Winter Olympics, the NBA Allstar Weekend activites and came across the NBA classics featuring great games from the 60's and 70's
I watched game 6 of the 1970's NBA finals between the New York Knicks and the LA Lakers (of special interest because I was at that game, plus Willis Reed is from Louisiana and I had the opportunity to have lunch with him a few years ago with Special Olympics)
is it just me or are the NBA teams and players of today have got to be the biggest ripoff ever. I would never allow my child who shows any interest in the game watch the selfishness and poor fundamentals that today's over price NBA "stars" (and I use that term loosely) display. I would show them the tape of Game 6 and point out how the game should be played (teamwork and basics)
the Knicks line up in Game 6 consisted of guards Dick Barnett and Walt Frazier center Willis Reed forwards Bill Bradley and Dave DeBusschere with Willis Reed having the highest salary of $125K and the 6th man was Cazzie Russell..the Laker lineup consisted of guards Keith Erickson, Gail Goodrich, center Wilt Chamberlin and forwards Elgin Baylor (who was the Michael Jordan of his time) Happy Hairston with the 6th man Pat Riley..Wilt made a whopping 250K per year...the Knicks had to beat the great Celtic team to get to the finals
teamwork and being unselfish is what makes basketball such a great game...the NBA has lost it's way with expansion and the focus on individual stars...Larry Bird and Magic Johnson must cringe when they watch the All Star game on Sunday
I played in a basketball league and got to know many NBA players back in the mid 60's .I became very friendly with Len Chapall who played for wake Forest and the Knicks .Its like night and day between todays players and the players of my time .
I basically quit watching pro sports several years ago as most are overpaid, under worked people who see themselves as something on a pedestal, put there by the media and the public in general.
With the multi-million dollar salaries, they really could care less about their sport anymore and in many cases just go through the motions of doing whatever it is their supposed to do. In baseball a guy can stand in center field with his glove on his one hand, kick the dirt with his foot, scratch with the other hand and command millions per year. Pro basketball is basically the same--they go through the motions--get a sore toe and sit out a couple of games and collect millions per year. I certainly can't blame the guys for taking the money--it's handed to them on a silver platter --I have to blame the guy who pays it to them--at least the players know there's one guy less intelligent than they, the players are, and that's the guy who pays them these exorbitant sums of money.
Last edited by Ron; February 13th, 2010 at 11:35 PM.
I prefer watching college basketball . My alma mater has been in the NCAA tourney the past 2 years and will likely be there this year but alas they are in Div.III
Unfortunately nobody famous graduated from Brooklyn College and to my knowledge nobody from CUNY .However ,I grew up in Brooklyn which was the birthplace of many NBA players
Amazing that you posted this, as I've felt this way about professional basketball for a long long time. They simply don't follow the rules! They constantly palm the ball, double dribble, and travel! No way could we have ever gotten away with this kind of basketball. No sportsmanship or team work. HORRAY for me, and to hell with everyone else seems to be the motto of these guys.
I used to be an avid bball fan, but when they started wearing floppy knickers instead of shorts, I lost interest. OK...I'm a female sexist toothless(Married) cougar, but gimme back those shapely (drool) men legs!! (I still like Coach K 'cause he and I were born on the same day)
toodles
m
M....you know I hear alot of women in my church say the exact same thing about the b-ball players shorts
the NBA AllStar game drew 108,000 and they did not get to see a good game of fundementals
when Will and I learned to play back in the old daysyou had to pass the ball three times before anyone could shoot, once you crossed the center line you were only allowed 5 dribbles and then you had to pass or shoot, everyone on the team played at least one quarter..but we all learned the basics
If we have five dribbles today, our kids are trying to put us in assisted living or declaring us incompetent!!!
Yes, I remember those days and learning fundamentals of sports. I could play a mean game of horse against the guys back then, and often beat them. Skills evened out the game for us 5 ft tall mini people
marianne
Location: Wisconsin....about 100 miles south of the Frozen Tundra and 70 miles east of Camp Randall
Posts: 9,241
I agree with you Venice. What happened to traveling, etc.? Now they only call traveling if you walk with the ball from the half court line! What about calling the game correctly instead of giving the "stars" all the calls? Basketball today is nothing like the way it is supposed to be played!
Marianne...growing up in a small town in upstate New York, our best set shot shooter was a girl (never wanted to play horse with her...wait a minute, she was really really cute, maybe I let her beat me in horse so she would kiss me)
Lisa...I think there is an unwritten rule to give the "superstars" a pass on fouls so they can stay in the game..fans today come to see certain players, not teams...proof of that is the highest drawing crowd for an NBA home team is when the LA Lakers come to town (to see Kobe)..LaBron is second ....it starts when they are young
I remember, if you did not keep your grades up , no matter how good you were, you didn't play for an entire report card period (8 weeks)..that was the school board rule..my mother had a more stringent rule, if I brought home one C on my report card, I could not play and my B-ball coach was scared of my mother (as was I)
My sons went to school in Roscoe and Downsville, (Delaware County) NY. Talk about small towns---my sons rode the bus 15 miles each way and had graduating classes of less than 30! (My baby boomer senior class was around 700.) Where are you from in NY?
Marianne
Dutchess County, Amenia..my high school graduation class set a record of that time of 39 and it drew from 4 townships..my first college class had more people in it then the population of my town
however, it gave me a great education and allowed me to play all sports
Thats a great area to have grown up in .I was born and raised in a tiny town called Brooklyn . Now I live in a town with a population of 25,000 ,quite a difference .No movie theaters ,no bowling alleys ,one book store .
Dutchess County, Amenia..my high school graduation class set a record of that time of 39 and it drew from 4 townships..my first college class had more people in it then the population of my town
however, it gave me a great education and allowed me to play all sports
would not have traded it for anything
I have relatives living in Rhinebeck .I would go there and cross the boarder into Mass and attend the jazz festivals
Henry..Tanglewood right I LOVE Rhinbeck they were one of our big rivals in sports and one of my best friends lived there, plus my son loves the AeroDome
what a small world we actually live in
Brooklyn..hmmmmm never heard of that unincorporated village ::
A friend of mine has a theory that if you speak to a person long enough you will find a common link . Just to digress for a minute,my friend was in Scotland ,approached a woman to ask for directions and found she was a tourist as well ,not only did they both live in Manhattan but in the same building and never knew each other .
Brooklyn was great to live when I was a kid in the 40's and 50's but nearly everyone I knew from that era has moved to other places .
My final years in High School, I drove about 10 miles to attend McCordsville High School, Indiana. I told the lovely Mrs. Jones (Vita) that I graduated in the top ten. What I didn't tell her, until much later, was that my class had only 9 people, 8 boys, and 1 girl. (Yes,,,she was VERY popular!) ;-)
I thought everyone was born in Brooklyn! And rooted for the Dodgers. And remembered penny candy and five cent candy old timers disease is great I've had it for years!
m
Sky...when my high school has reunions they have to combine 5 graduation classes to get enough people to fill the volunteer fire department hall for an evening
it's funny that my classmates who never left the small town (got married the saturday after graduation) are still together after 40 years and the rest of us that could not wait to leave to go to college or the service have had multiple failures in marriage and in life
there something to be said about small town America
Speaking of small town America, one of my favorite movies is Doc Hollywood, which takes place in a small town in South Carolina. Sometimes I think I'd like to leave the rat race, and settle into a small town.
Hey, I lived for a year on 84th between 3rd and 4th (Bay Ridge) in Brooklyn. I love it and still miss "the neighborhood" especially the bread, wet mozzarella and rum ba-ba's. ;-) :-)
Yet I wouldn't trade my small town for anywhere else in the world, just one reason out of about a thousand being that I can afford something I never could in NY.......living in a single family home (brick no less) on an acre of land with an annual property tax bill of less than $500 not to mention, no state income tax on wages or pensions!
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