Jerry West: NBA is the Weakest He Has Ever Seen.

[Rose'sACL]

its not a weak draft class but yes i agree the current culture and rules of the NBA make the incoming rookies soft and not as hardworking as the previous elite players of the NBA. they are so coddled and babied, it is quite sad when things dont go their way. (biggest example i can think of is DeMarcus Cousins)

BRING BACK handchecking!

these players also play under more pressure compare to players of past eras. it evens out actually.
Horace grant in his recent interview said the same thing about social media and media as a whole. he said that there were some things going on during his chicago days that would have been blown up if people had camera phones and twitter/facebook back then.

[BigMacAttack]

Thinking about it the NBA is pretty weak right now. The deepest position is Point guard, and none of the current great Points can win a chip. The C position is weak, PF is weak. SF is doing ok but made to look a lot better by two crazy talents, outside of the top two there is only George and Melo then a big drop off. SG is ****ed too.

[Rose'sACL]

By the early 60's the best basketball PLAYERS (whether white or black) were PLAYING in the NBA. And maybe you can give the exact percentages by the end of the decade, but I can guarantee you it was not 80% white.

it was 75-80% white at start of the 60s. by the end of 60s at most it would have been 30-40% blacks.
Compare that to league today that is close to 80% black. better training and better nutrition are normal things which would have helped athletes of any era and lets say they would have been as fast as players in today's league.
Racism is a totally outside factor though and i am a firm believe that racism was a big factor till the 70s. actually, mid 70s. the wilts and the russels made it because of their talent but i am sure racism stopped a lot of average black players who were better than average white players of that era. I am not even mentioning the impact of racism on kids who might have been NBA level players but quit because of racism.
always remember that best talent will always make it but i am sure racism did stop a lot of average black players from making it into the NBA when they were most probably better than a lot of the white players.

[fpliii]

it was 75-80% white at start of the 60s. by the end of 60s at most it would have been 30-40% blacks.
Compare that to league today that is close to 80% black. better training and better nutrition are normal things which would have helped athletes of any era and lets say they would have been as fast as players in today's league.
Racism is a totally outside factor though and i am a firm believe that racism was a big factor till the 70s. actually, mid 70s. the wilts and the russels made it because of their talent but i am sure racism stopped a lot of average black players who were better than average white players of that era. I am not even mentioning the impact of racism on kids who might have been NBA level players but quit because of racism.
always remember that best talent will always make it but i am sure racism did stop a lot of average black players from making it into the NBA when they were most probably better than a lot of the white players.

Do you want to go on record as saying that?

[gts]

Jerry West isn't the first person I've read or heard lately that is saying there's no difference makers in this coming draft... Seems the longer the NCAA season goes on the hype machine from last fall gets quieter and quieter

Now there's talk that some of those guys that were talked about as being front runners for the number 1 spot might not even come out.

[CavaliersFTW]

just answer me one thing and you can continure with your stupid thread.
NBA during the 60s was 70-80% white. it is not racism when people say that blacks are and have been more athletic and better at basketball. there have been some great white players but they are very few in numbers.
The big question is : were those white guys actually blacks with white paint on them?

That is factually incorrect, do your homework before you toss around these alleged statistics you lazy f*ck.

[Rose'sACL]

Do you want to go on record as saying that?

i counted players in the early 60s for all teams and came up with those stats.

I asked you, cavsftw and many others "knowledgable" posters to give me stats about percentage of blacks in the league in many previous threads but you guys take it as an insult so i am not going to count players for every team for every year to please you guys.
Go ahead and give me a stat. i would be happy to accept whatever number you come up with.
I am just making it clear that racism was a big factor in the 60s and it defnitely must have stopped black players who were not as talented as wilts and russels to try very hard to make it into the NBA.
Some team even played a certain number of black players only from what i have read online. i can only go by what i have read here and many other places. you can post another article about racism not playing a big part in the nba in 60s and i would be happy to read that.

[LAZERUSS]

it was 75-80% white at start of the 60s. by the end of 60s at most it would have been 30-40% blacks.
Compare that to league today that is close to 80% black. better training and better nutrition are normal things which would have helped athletes of any era and lets say they would have been as fast as players in today's league.
Racism is a totally outside factor though and i am a firm believe that racism was a big factor till the 70s. actually, mid 70s. the wilts and the russels made it because of their talent but i am sure racism stopped a lot of average black players who were better than average white players of that era. I am not even mentioning the impact of racism on kids who might have been NBA level players but quit because of racism.
always remember that best talent will always make it but i am sure racism did stop a lot of average black players from making it into the NBA when they were most probably better than a lot of the white players.

The NBA must have IMMEDIATELY became mostly black in the early 70's then...

http://books.google.com/books?id=4oC...201960&f=false

"By 1972 the NBA had expanded to 17 teams, and nearly 250 players had played at least one game that season. Only 27 were white, and many of them were fringe players or seven-footers."

[Rose'sACL]

That is factually incorrect, do your homework before you toss around these alleged statistics you lazy f*ck.

go and dig up wilt and lick his bones you crazy idiot who thinks that jordan missed playoffs not once but multiple times.
your comment is a great example why everyone thinks you are biased. i never insult anyone, even the trolls but you come here and write stuff like you are a big basketball expert and only your opinion counts.

[Rose'sACL]

The NBA must have IMMEDIATELY became mostly black in the early 70's then...

http://books.google.com/books?id=4oC...201960&f=false

"By 1972 there were 250 players who had played at least one NBA game...and only 27 were white."

give me stats for early 60s. what is so hard? i must do all the work. i would be happy to accept whatever you come up with.
also, lol @ started one game.

[fpliii]

i counted players in the early 60s for all teams and came up with those stats.

I asked you, cavsftw and many others "knowledgable" posters to give me stats about percentage of blacks in the league in many previous threads but you guys take it as an insult so i am not going to count players for every team for every year to please you guys.
Go ahead and give me a stat. i would be happy to accept whatever number you come up with.
I am just making it clear that racism was a big factor in the 60s and it defnitely must have stopped black players who were not as talented as wilts and russels to try very hard to make it into the NBA.
Some team even played a certain number of black players only from what i have read online. i can only go by what i have read here and many other places. you can post another article about racism not playing a big part in the nba in 60s and i would be happy to read that.

I think you're mixing the 50s with the 60s. I do think a big transformation occurred in the 60s, but it was likely early in the decade.

If you want, I'll check 68-69 (since you said late 60s).

[CavaliersFTW]

go and dig up wilt and lick his bones you crazy idiot who thinks that jordan missed playoffs not once but multiple times.
your comment is a great example why everyone thinks you are biased. i never insult anyone, even the trolls but you come here and write stuff like you are a big basketball expert and only your opinion counts.

[LAZERUSS]

I think you're mixing the 50s with the 60s. I do think a big transformation occurred in the 60s, but it was likely early in the decade.

If you want, I'll check 68-69 (since you said late 60s).

It was clearly early in the decade of the 60's. Why? Yes, racism was a part of it, but the reality was, the best players in colleges at that time, were mostly white (and again, for a variety of reasons.)

In any case, aside from Connie Hawkins, who was banned, not because of race, but for supposedly a gambling scandal, I can't think of some truly great black basketball player that somehow slipped thru the cracks. Why would an NBA team allow Russell, Wilt, and Oscar to dominate the league, and continue to ignore some great black prospect?

[Rose'sACL]

I think you're mixing the 50s with the 60s. I do think a big transformation occurred in the 60s, but it was likely early in the decade.

If you want, I'll check 68-69 (since you said late 60s).

i am assuming about late 60s as i didn't have time to count every year. i started in 60-61.
why can't anyone give me a stat about early 60s. please don't take it as an insult. i don't have the resources to watch games on early 60s so i am hoping you guys can make it easier for me given how many hours you guys have spent on watching early 60s games and stats.

[fpliii]

i am assuming about late 60s as i didn't have time to count every year. i started in 60-61.
why can't anyone give me a stat about early 60s. please don't take it as an insult. i don't have the resources to watch games on early 60s so i am hoping you guys can make it easier for me given how many hours you guys have spent on watching early 60s games and stats.

Which specific year do you want me to do next? You said that 30-40 percent of the league was black in the late 60s so I'm doing 69 now.