Basketball's golden age- 60s, 80s or 90s?

[ChrisKreager]

If you had to ask me, I would say the 1990s.

I know people point out to the aura of talent and legends of the 1980s or the amazing amount of future hall of famers in the 1960s, but those were eras of predictability.

1960s- Yes, you had the likes of Wilt, West, Oscar, etc. but save for the legendary 76ers of 1967, it was the same outcome every year- all Celtics, all the time. If you were not a Boston fan, it could not have been fun. (Wake me up when Bill Rusell doesn't win a title!)

1980s- Again, for all the talent and great teams, it came down to the same old. Not in terms of winning titles, but how the East was basically won by two teams until the Bad Boy Pistons came along, and that save for two Houston upsets, the West had a hopeless feel if you were not a Laker fan (How many Denver or Dallas or Phoenix fans felt hopeless? Why is it always the same old Lakers every year?).

The 1990s- Even though the Bulls and Rockets (and Detroit's second title) dominated, there was never a sense of hopelessness. All the good East teams felt like they had a shot, the West was wide-open following a decade of LA domination, the talent was awesome, the game went international, and it reached unprecedented popularity with the finest players becoming true stars.

[1987_Lakers]

mid 80's - early 90's

Also people don't understand how good we have it right now. So much talent & superstars in today's league. The late 00's - present will go down as one of the best eras this league has seen.

[OKCThunderUP]

2010-2020 is going to be the best decade of NBA ball ever imo.

[Micku]

For the NBA? The 90s was when the NBA peaked domestically in popularity.

For talent and teams? The NBA was stacked in the 80s in talent and teams. About four teams in the 80s are considered the best teams of all time. Two or three of them are arguably the GOAT team. And talent was great across the board. Especially in the mid 80s.

In the early 90s was a nice balance between fast pace basketball of the 80s and the halfcourt offense that you see in the 00s. They also still have physical play. Pretty cool stuff.

The only time where a franchise did not dominate the league was in the 70s. The 50s, 60s, 80s, 90s, and 00s were all dominated by a franchise or two.

[Pushxx]

80s

[Psileas]

If you had to ask me, I would say the 1990s.

I know people point out to the aura of talent and legends of the 1980s or the amazing amount of future hall of famers in the 1960s, but those were eras of predictability.

1960s- Yes, you had the likes of Wilt, West, Oscar, etc. but save for the legendary 76ers of 1967, it was the same outcome every year- all Celtics, all the time. If you were not a Boston fan, it could not have been fun. (Wake me up when Bill Rusell doesn't win a title!)

1980s- Again, for all the talent and great teams, it came down to the same old. Not in terms of winning titles, but how the East was basically won by two teams until the Bad Boy Pistons came along, and that save for two Houston upsets, the West had a hopeless feel if you were not a Laker fan (How many Denver or Dallas or Phoenix fans felt hopeless? Why is it always the same old Lakers every year?).

The 1990s- Even though the Bulls and Rockets (and Detroit's second title) dominated, there was never a sense of hopelessness. All the good East teams felt like they had a shot, the West was wide-open following a decade of LA domination, the talent was awesome, the game went international, and it reached unprecedented popularity with the finest players becoming true stars.

Given that the Bulls had won 67, 72 and 69 games in different periods of the same decade, more than the 60's Celtics could imagine, given that the Celtics had no absolute HCA after 1965 and that they were pushed to 7th games more frequently as well, I don't see how the 60's were more "hopeless" when it comes to the outcome.

[JohnnySic]

'83 - '93.

[TheMan]

80 to mid 90's...the NBA is a pu.ssy league right now, the offensive player has the big edge with all the soft rules, LBJ would've gotten kicked in the teeth back in the day by PFs and C's that were ALLOWED to physically manhandle you, you can't even breathe on a player going to the hoop nowadays.

[miles berg]

84-93 and today, today is red hot.

[AlphaWolf24]

@ the kids in here...

Magic and Bird's rivalry was something that has and never will be duplicated..it tranceneded the sport and made the NBA what it is...

for those who did not live through it or remember it...I am truly sorry..

It was by far the greatest era and the greatest act in NBA's History.

1980 - 1990 the greatest age, the Golden age wahtever you want to call it...






I don't care what Nike says.....Kobe , MJ or Lebron are great stories....and some great basketball.



but it never got better then Bird vs Magic , Lakers vs Celtics in the 80's

[colts19]

@ the kids in here...

Magic and Bird's rivalry was something that has and never will be duplicated..it tranceneded the sport and made the NBA what it is...

for those who did not live through it or remember it...I am truly sorry..

It was by far the greatest era and the greatest act in NBA's History.

1980 - 1990 the greatest age, the Golden age wahtever you want to call it...






I don't care what Nike says.....Kobe , MJ or Lebron are great stories....and some great basketball.



but it never got better then Bird vs Magic , Lakers vs Celtics in the 80's

This.

[97 bulls]

@ the kids in here...

Magic and Bird's rivalry was something that has and never will be duplicated..it tranceneded the sport and made the NBA what it is...

for those who did not live through it or remember it...I am truly sorry..

It was by far the greatest era and the greatest act in NBA's History.

1980 - 1990 the greatest age, the Golden age wahtever you want to call it...






I don't care what Nike says.....Kobe , MJ or Lebron are great stories....and some great basketball.



but it never got better then Bird vs Magic , Lakers vs Celtics in the 80's

I do agree. Unfortunately for the 90s bulls, there just wasn't the storyline year in and out that could rival what magic and bird had.

[CavaliersFTW]

60's until early 70's when the league was small enough to sustain them was undeniably the golden age of the dominate centers. Unusually agile track and field stud 7 footers that flat-out dominated the game (Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain) had a strong influence in such a small league. They forced teams to look for only the most athletic centers available that could best match the influential big's in size and endurance. All teams essentially adopted a fast-break game. (They'd just get murdered on the scoreboard if they didn't anyways).

70's is sort of this period of adjustment and recovery from rapid league expansion and then competition and then merger of the ABA and NBA. The retirement of those 60's centers and the realization that they couldn't be replaced as fast as they left resulted in re-evaluation and tweaking of NBA rules and marketing to address the lack of big men. Game pace slumped as well. There was a quiet racial rift from the white players retiring and also not being replaced as fast as they left.

80's is the NBA's giant leap into the mass-marketing world. This came together exactly when they also started getting forward and guard rules improved to the point that they better outweighed the fewer relative #'s of dominant bigs. Newer generations of fans weren't carrying the same prejudice so any rift in "black" vs "white" league drama was fading . Rapid improvement in shoe technology almost certainly also allowed for faster and more stable footwork showcasing more "athleticism". In addition to this, the break-away rims invented in 1979 suddenly opened up the game too spectacular hang-on-the rim "highlight" dunks. The game briefly went back to dazzling fast-break style similar to the 60's thanks to the influence of teams like show-time Lakers.

90's is another expansion/recovery time but the media empire that was the NBA by that time handled it well, and Prime Jordan and many of the other players carrying over from the 80's kept it very interesting despite some pretty poor teams here and there, although late 90's definitely seemed like a slump.


I'd say 80's or 60's is the strongest the league has been but honestly, early 90's aren't exactly bad they just didn't have some of the same rivalry/dynasty competition. All the era's do have unique strong points though, even in the re-structuring phases of the 70's.

[97 bulls]

This decade may give the magic/bird rivalry a run though with okc and miami featuring james/durant. Both players are a perfect contrast of each other. With james being the bad guy (like it or not ) and durant being the good guy

[OldSchoolBBall]

'86-'93.