The reason why current competition is irrefutably greater than Jordan's

[clipps]

You don't even follow the NBA.

Your basketball knowledge is putrid.

And you don't have any basketball knowledge. Sit down, child.

[clipps]

The 2011 Mavs swept the defending champion Kobe-Gasol Lakers.

Prime Jordan got sodomized by a team that went on to get swept by a 6th seed in the finals.

Try again, stupid. All of that is irrelevant.

[Hey Yo]

Still waiting for one example of a superteam in the 90s with 3/4 allstar in prime

Atlanta Hawks had 4 All-Stars in 2015. Cleveland swept them w/o Love and Kyrie only playing 2gms.

James swept a superteam practically by himself.

[Airupthere]

Atlanta Hawks had 4 All-Stars in 2015. Cleveland swept them w/o Love and Kyrie only playing 2gms.

James swept a superteam practically by himself.

That hawks team was really scary. Can't believe Lebron swept them with a bunch of scrubs. Imagine going against, horford, millsap, and who else? Shroder? That's a lebron miami heat superteam right there.

[FKAri]

I disagree that it's that simple for a number of reasons. One, the AAU issues. Two, I think basketball(and sports in general) is less popular than it was in the early 90s. Great athletes still play sports but poor athletes don't. This doesn't mean that there are potential superstar players walking around that never tried ball but it has a cascade effect on competitive development. I can explain in detail if someone wants.

In Jordan's era US basketball was on a way higher level than international. It's not like the best players didn't play in the NBA. The best players in the world were pretty much all American at that time. Plus you are forgetting a few really good international players too. Hakeem was Nigerian... Ewing was Jamaican. You had a lot of solid players like Divac, Kukoc, Drazen, Radja, Smits, Schrempf... So it's not like the 90's didn't have international players like you're implying.

The talent pool isn't bigger but the best international players at that time largely weren't good enough to dominate in the NBA. There were some like Oscar Schmidt, Nikos Galis and Dejan Bodiroga who never came to the NBA but many came as absolute megastars and weren't that good.

Basketball wasn't too popular outside the US. It became more popular with the rise of international broadcasting deals and the 92 Olympics. Just like soccer isn't very popular in the US but if it was and there is some time for a culture to form for it then the US would be producing much better players than they are now.

Both of these scenarios are shifts in talent pool. Though I don't necessarily agree with the OP as I explained earlier.

[Mr. Woke]

And you don't have any basketball knowledge. Sit down, child.

Wrong, child.

Pull your head out of your ass.

[guy]

That's true, but it doesn't change OP's point.

There are flat out more people on earth trying to become pro basketball players by a large amount now. This is a fact.

Also, when MJ was drafted there was an estimated 4.7 billion humans. Now it's around 7.4. The top people at almost any skill have more competition. There's like 90,000,000 more Americans now than in 1984.

The total population is less relevant then births. The total population in the US is much larger due to people living longer. The most US births were in the 60s i.e. the baby boomer era. There were 4.1M births in 1963, 3.8M in 1985, and 4.1M in 2009. Births in the world overall have gone up (113M in 1963 to 135M in 1985 to 138M in 2009) but the exploding popularity of the sport internationally probably has WAY MORE to do with that, but thats also been coupled with a significant decrease in popularity amongst white Americans.

[clipps]

Wrong, child.

Pull your head out of your ass.

Maybe I will, after your mom's done licking it, Mr. Joke.

[dankok8]

Basketball wasn't too popular outside the US. It became more popular with the rise of international broadcasting deals and the 92 Olympics.

This just isn't true. At the time my parents grew up in Yugoslavia in the 50's and 60's, kids were playing ball on every street corner. And we had professional teams prior to WW2. It's just that our players weren't as good as America's best in the 80's and 90's. We didn't have any Jokic or Doncic level player at that time.

Popularity and producing talent are two very different things. Even if soccer isn't that popular in the US, the sheer population size should make for some dominant teams. Same with China in basketball. If just 1% of Chinese men played basketball that's 13 million people which is way more than the entire population of many tiny Euro countries that dominant basketball like Greece, Serbia and Lithuania. And yet those tiny countries have national teams much better than China.

[2much_knowledge]

Atlanta Hawks had 4 All-Stars in 2015. Cleveland swept them w/o Love and Kyrie only playing 2gms.

James swept a superteam practically by himself.

90ssssssssss. Tries a slick reply, misses by 15 years. And by the way, i remember that Elton brand, jeff teague, paul millsap collusion. Really sent every team shivers down their spine lololol.

So much LLLLLLL in a single comment

[Mr. Woke]

Maybe I will, after your mom's done licking it, Mr. Joke.

My mom banged you with a strap on. You must have confused her for another woman.

Don't sweat it cupcake.

[Axe]

LeBitch got embarrassed by a German drunkard and gaggle of washed up fossils you retard.

Sad this happened when the heat got hca during that time

[scuzzy]

At the time my parents grew up in Yugoslavia in the 50's and 60's, kids were playing ball on every street corner.

And we had professional teams prior to WW2.

Sick, TIL.

Out of curiosity can you name some. Or what the Yugo pro league was called pre-1938 (ww2)

[FKAri]

This just isn't true. At the time my parents grew up in Yugoslavia in the 50's and 60's, kids were playing ball on every street corner. And we had professional teams prior to WW2. It's just that our players weren't as good as America's best in the 80's and 90's. We didn't have any Jokic or Doncic level player at that time.

Popularity and producing talent are two very different things. Even if soccer isn't that popular in the US, the sheer population size should make for some dominant teams. Same with China in basketball. If just 1% of Chinese men played basketball that's 13 million people which is way more than the entire population of many tiny Euro countries that dominant basketball like Greece, Serbia and Lithuania. And yet those tiny countries have national teams much better than China.

You need a culture, a developmental system and a desire to pursue a sport seriously among kids. This didn't exist in Europe to the extent it does now. Yugoslavia was the exception not the norm in Europe at the time. You couldn't even watch NBA games in Europe in the 80s. Very few pursued the sport seriously. The talent was going to other sports. That being said I outlined earlier that there are larger things offsetting this overall but at least outside the US the sport is simply bigger than in the 80s.

[72-10]

Thank you for naming me that long list of

I wouldn't refute that the world currently has a larger talent pool than heretofore, in fact I'd say the wealth of talent from around the world is 3 times what it was in 1980, and I don't deny that would conceivably mean the United States' National Basketball Association would have the most talent in the world if it were still a pre-eminent league.

However, I think most of the best players in the world are from the past, especially from 1980 to 2008. Most of the starters from the 1990s NBA would still start in the NBA today, in fact most of them are better players than most of the starters today.