The 2000's have been stacked.

[305Baller]

The NBA mythology on a whole is a lot stronger coming out of last decade than one could have expected.

The Western conference has been dominant for a while (at least in regular season win totals) and the trifecta of Duncan, Kobe and Dirk have been holding it down consistently since even before 2000.

Then you have the mini-sagas of the Pistons, the Heat and Wade, LeBron, The Big-3 Celtics, Nash... there was a ton of strong teams and storylines throughout the last decade. You could say it rivaled the 80's in quality.

[Im Still Ballin]

It did

Basketball is as good as it has ever been.

[buddha]

it'll be a shame when these guys retire and we're stuck with Andrew Wiggins.

[3ball]

Then you have the Heat and Wade, LeBron, The Big-3 Celtics, Spurs... there was strong teams and storylines throughout the last decade. You could say it rivaled the 80's in quality.

The league was top heavy in the 80's - all the talent was at the top with the superteams: the Celtics, Lakers, Sixers and Bad Boys.. Everyone else far behind talent-wise.

The 2000's is like the 80's - very top heavy - just a few great superteams at the top (Lakers, Celtics, Heat, Spurs) with everyone else far behind.. A very small middle-class of good to very good teams.

The 90's shows a far more balanced talent distribution across the league and a large middle class.. While the talent was the deepest it's ever been at the SG, SF, PF, and Center positions, it was more equally spread around the league than the 1980's and 2000's.

So again, the 80's and 2000's had a top-heavy dynamic that allowed for 1 team from each conference to beat up an a larger lower class and make repeated Finals.. Whereas the 90's was characterized by a better balance of talent throughout each conference.. The better balance had a cancelling effect, particularly in the mid-90's Western Conference - there were just too many super-talented teams competing at the same time: 1997, 1998 Lakers.. 1997, 1998 Jazz.. 1995 Rockets.. 1998, 1999 Spurs.. 1995-1998 Seattle (one of the most underrated big 3's of all time - kemp, payton, schrempf).

Meanwhile, in the Eastern Conference, the GOAT happened to be there leading the greatest team of all time against the supremely stacked but overmatched 1996 Orlando Magic, 1992-1997 Knicks (who snap-made the Finals each time MJ retired in 94' an 99'), and teams like Riley's Alonzo/Tim Hardaway Heat.

[Showtime80']

LOL! Only ONE decade had 3 of the top 5 most transcendent superstars playing in their primes the Holy Trinity of Magic, Larry and Michael, that's why It's called the golden era! Not to mention the supporting players of the decade like Isiah, Drexler, Barkley, Dr J, Dominique, Hakeem, Stockton/Malone, English, Ewing, Gervin, Moncrief, Moses, Aguirre Etc... In a 23 team league more than half of the teams had a top 50/Hall of famer leading them!

Nothing in today's league touches the Lakers-Celtics, Celtics-Sixers, Celtics-Pistons or Bulls-Pistons rivalries, NOTHING! The hatred those teams had for each other gave those games an extra edge that you don't see anymore.

That decade also had 4 to 6 title winning teams that could conceivably crack the top 10 all time, how many would you put up there in the last 5 years?

The 90's takes a severe hit thanks to the Rockets 94 and 95' title teams with rosters that don't even approach those of the 80's! People call the 80's top heavy, at least you had 4 to 5 all time great teams fighting it out instead of the 90's where it was just the Bulls against a weakening expansion and free agency diluted league!

[3ball]

No way OP - from 2002 to 2006, the NBA couldn't even beat Euroleague - literally - they lost to them repeatedly (7 times) on the biggest stage (world stage).

The USA's skills and brand of basketball was so far inferior at that time, that it more than offset their GOAT talent advantage.

**** There's only way to describe an NBA that can't beat Euroleague: the worst era of all time *****

[Cold soul]

2000's era was by far and away my favorite so many great players.

[SouBeachTalents]

No way OP - from 2002 to 2006, the NBA couldn't even beat Euroleague - literally - they lost to them repeatedly (7 times) on the biggest stage (world stage).

The USA's skills and brand of basketball was so far inferior at that time, that it more than offset their GOAT talent advantage.

**** There's only way to describe an NBA that can't beat Euroleague: the worst era of all time *****

I look forward to you copying and pasting this post dozens of times in multiple threads

[3ball]

I look forward to you copying and pasting this post dozens of times in multiple threads

No problem bud, happy to do it - it's important to remember that the skill needed to play basketball in no-spacing was much higher, which produced superior players.

With no spacing in previous eras, the option of running offense to shift the spaced-out defenders and get an open shot wasn't available, so players had to settle for contested shots more often.. When teams don't run as much offense and settle for contested shots instead, pace and shot volume increase.

The volume shooting associated with 2-pointer basketball and the wider repertoires needed to navigate defenders in closer proximity enabled previous era wings to put more pressure on defenders than today's wings - higher volume and wider repertoires meant previous eras wings were more of a threat to go off for a big game than today's 3-and-D players.

Otoh, today's game requires a slower pace - the spacing necessitates running more offense to shift the spaced-out defenders and set up open 3-point looks.. Also, smaller offensive repertoires are necessary for the wider lanes provided by 3-point shooting and spacing-out environments.. Naturally, it's not surprise that today's 3-and-D wings are less of a threat to go off for a big game and pose less of a threat individually to the defense.. Again, this is in contrast to the more consistently aggressive, diverse mid-range games of previous eras, which enabled repeated contested shots and therefore less time-consuming offense.
.

[Hamtaro CP3KDKG]

80s-00s was an amazing time for basketball. Unfortunate we in the very weak 10s era now feels like the 60s

[Showtime80']

Neither Kobe, Shaq, Duncan or LeBron are as transcendent as Michael, Larry or Magic! Compare the Finals ratings between them and it's not even close, the 00's and beyond have been putrid in comparison! Hell Olajuwon's two Finals got better ratings than Lebron EVER has!

Again look at the top 10 list in MVP voting in 1987:

Magic
Larry
Michael
McHale
Wilkins
Barkley
Olajuwon
Thomas
Lever
Moses

Compare that to this year's list for God's sakes!

[keep-itreal]

It would've been nice if Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett joined up sooner

[SugarHill]

80s-00s was an amazing time for basketball. Unfortunate we in the very weak 10s era now feels like the 60s

lol you say this all the time and I know damn well you don't believe it

[Im Still Ballin]

Moe is my favorite skinny white boy on this forum