This is the level of NBA games in the 60s...

[Dbrog]

I need to watch more games from the era. But watching those 2 vids just reminded me of a typical Spurs game. No pointless dribbling or ball-hogging, ball is constantly in motion and so are the players, no real super athleticism on display just fundamentals. I wonder if there were any Clippers-like squads then- team full of ridiculous athletes who put on dunking exhibitions every night but can't get out of the 1st round

Hahaha ya maybe Oscar's Royals or something. Could only imagine prime Oscar diming everywhere. Probably not much dunking though since it was considered showboating back then. A team I would really like to know more about were the 60s St Louis Hawks. I know they were pretty beast almost every year and incredibly stacked...just ran into Wilt a lot.

[navy]

They lack muscle mass.

[tomtucker]

................they hit the basket just as good as the players of today

[LAZERUSS]

Interesting too that the NBA shot a higher FT% in the 58-59 season (.756) than they are doing in today's NBA (.753.) Or that in the 73-74 season, it was at .771.

I guess those players were just better shooters...

[secund2nun]

Looks like the old men that play halfcourt at the park

+1

I can't believe people actually take players and stats serious from that era.

[Ed Wachter]

Imagine if the 1902-03 Camden Electrics played today. Pure shooting talent by comparison.

[DonDadda59]

They lack muscle mass.

These dudes were a Ray Allen miracle shot away from winning it all last June



Hopefully the NBA's anti-doping program catches them soon.

And lest we forget that this guy...



Shut down this guy for a huge chunk of the series...

[Ancient Legend]

There was no blatant palming of the ball like today. Other than that the level is comparable. Next

[andgar923]

These dudes were a Ray Allen miracle shot away from winning it all last June



Hopefully the NBA's anti-doping program catches them soon.

And lest we forget that this guy...



Shut down this guy for a huge chunk of the series...

to top it off, they were old/past their prime and playing injured.

Nique stated how hard the Celtics were at beating recently. Even tho the Hawks were uber athletic and young while the Celts were slower and unathletic they couldn't beat the Celts. It wasn't as tho the Hawks were sucky, it just happened to be that the Celts were better. Lakers were a fast athletic team as well, but even they couldn't always beat the Celts.

Athleticism can only help you so much if the ball is constantly moving and there's set plays with tons of screens on offense. No player can move faster than the ball, plain and simple. There's also a reason why And1 type handles aren't used on every play of the game. Yeah they can come in handy in certain scenarios, but the vast majority of the game is played almost the same way as its always been.

[DonDadda59]

to top it off, they were old/past their prime and playing injured.

Nique stated how hard the Celtics were at beating recently. Even tho the Hawks were uber athletic and young while the Celts were slower and unathletic they couldn't beat the Celts. It wasn't as tho the Hawks were sucky, it just happened to be that the Celts were better. Lakers were a fast athletic team as well, but even they couldn't always beat the Celts.

Athleticism can only help you so much if the ball is constantly moving and there's set plays with tons of screens on offense. No player can move faster than the ball, plain and simple. There's also a reason why And1 type handles aren't used on every play of the game. Yeah they can come in handy in certain scenarios, but the vast majority of the game is played almost the same way as its always been.

Yeah, I would take the 86 Celtics over any team ever in a 7 game series. Obviously not the most athletic squad, but they had extremely skilled players at every position and just played the game the right way. Basically a younger and far more stacked/talented version of the Spurs today.

Athleticism gets overrated by many. If that's all it took, the Clippers would be championship favorites every year instead of first round losers.

[secund2nun]

These dudes were a Ray Allen miracle shot away from winning it all last June



Hopefully the NBA's anti-doping program catches them soon.

And lest we forget that this guy...



Shut down this guy for a huge chunk of the series...

25/11/7 finals MVP is being shut down?

[Micku]

if someone asks about dribbling and why it looks so stiff is because palming wasn't legal/overlooked back then not because that's the only way they can dribble.

I don't know. Back then ppl were amaze of how Bob Cousy was handling the ball. There was a clear difference in terms of dribbling with guys like Bob Cousy who didn't look as awkward or stiff compared to the other perimeter players when going left. Since a lot of guys today have better dribbling skills as Cousy, and don't look awkward going to their left either. But it's not players couldn't go to their left at all tho.

Other skills like passing was always great.

also this was 47 years ago it's natural the game evolves as every single thing in world did ( except for quality skilled big man with post moves which are extinct now )

Wilt imo always looked awkward when backing down. Some of the footwork looked awkward too. Compare to a guy like Willis Reed who didn't look nearly as awkward with his dribbling or his jumpshot. Wilt didn't box out often it seems. I guess you can argue that he didn't need to because he jumped higher and is stronger than the other guys.

But despite that, Wilt had a variety of post moves and a nice touch to finish. You can see old Wilt vs Kareem and old Kareem vs Hakeem. As you said, post moves are extinct now for big men. It's just the style of play atm, so one team have to get a big guy (whoever that is out there in the world) and play that style of basketball and win a championship with it to encourage the rest of the league to do so again.

[DonDadda59]

25/11/7 finals MVP is being shut down?

Come on dawg, we all watched the series. Whenever Diaw was on him, Bron couldn't get anything done. For long stretches he looked like his 2011 finals self with the Spurs daring him to shoot by giving him like 5 ft of space. He picked it up towards the end of the series though.

[La Frescobaldi]

if someone asks about dribbling and why it looks so stiff is because palming wasn't legal/overlooked back then not because that's the only way they can dribble.


sure players now have better dribbling moves but that has nothing to do with their skills or talents, they just had to follow different rules.



also this was 47 years ago it's natural the game evolves as every single thing in world did ( except for quality skilled big man with post moves which are extinct now )

Not extinct. This man has elite skills in the key:

[tragicbronson]

Not extinct. This man has elite skills in the key:

And this one