There's NOT A SPORT on Earth where players are better 20 years ago then now.

[BoutPractice]

Basketball is a game of skill, not just athleticism. By skill I don't mean the ability to show off with flashy moves but the ability to use your moves in a game context - a fundamental bank shot by Tim Duncan that actually goes in is always preferable to a series of behind the back and between the legs dribbles from Iverson culminating in a missed pullup jumper.

A lot of this era's top players are nothing special athletically. Just this year, 37 old Tim Duncan was the best center in the league and Roy Hibbert was looking unstoppable against the Miami Heat. Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki and Paul Pierce were still remarkably effective a year ago or so. Teams focus their gameplan on trying to stop Kevin Love, Zach Randolph, and Al Jefferson... Guys like Chauncey Billups were MVP contenders 6, 7 years ago... The list goes on.

And it's not just offense. Some of the best defenders of the past decade include Bruce Bowen and Shane Battier. Forwards in the league find it incomparably tougher to score against Udonis Haslem or Chuck Hayes than against Amare Stoudemire.

Meanwhile, are all the really athletic players dominant? Just ask yourself, what happened to Darius Miles? Gerald Green? Danthay Jones or whatever you misspell his name? There are tons of athletic scrubs in the league.

The fact that many of today's stars aren't athletic is the crucial point in the discussion, in my opinion. Indeed, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain are clearly more athletic than Duncan or Nowitzki, making it very difficult, even impossible, to argue that the game progresses because players are more athletic.

Yet you can be almost certain that an ignorant bunch in the future will use today's stars's lack of athleticism against them. "Duncan couldn't play in this era, he's just a stiff", "Paul Pierce won a FMVP, weak era!", etc. You'll hear all of this, I can guarantee.

So it's not the body. Still, you might say, "even if basketball is a game of skills, skills are much better in the era since I started watching the league than in the era before that". But are they? Are all the current stars more skilled than stars from the past?

Contrast LeBron and Jordan, or Larry Bird... The clips you're using today to discredit LeBron's post game - you know the ones - don't you think that fans in a couple of decades will dig them up to argue that LeBron couldn't do anything in their era?

Be honest with yourself. Are you prepared to say you're more impressed by Westbrook's ability to read the defense than John Stockton's ? Will you ever say: "Dwight post game is so much more advanced than Hakeem's, he would simply destroy him"?

Many current bigs are incapable of passing the ball. Every year we draft centers who can't do ANYTHING - projects, we call them. We draft point guards who can't pass. Shooting guards who can't shoot. Tweener forwards who clearly should be SFs, but can't because they just aren't skilled enough. And yet we're supposed to believe that today's players are all so much more skilled than players from the past...

So it's not skills either. What is it, then, that makes today's players so much better?

(And yes, I guess this is more of a blog post than anything else, but whatever)

[ILLsmak]

There's alot of foolish talk by mental midgets and media puppets stating that the NBA was better 20-30 years ago , there's not a sport played today where players are overall better 20-30 years ago when they are now.

If you had a guy like Paul George who isn't even a top 5 player today, and put him in the NBA in say 1992, he'd be an even better player with guys who are overall physically inferior. Lebron would be EVEN MORE dominate.

Imagine a guy with the physical tools of Lebron James playing against the likes of 190 pound 1980s Jordan, or Larry "turtle" Bird, or Magic "stiff, no jump shot" Johnson? It would be like a man playing with boys, which hell it's even like that now.

Golf, maybe? Tennis? There's no doubt players are more athletic, but I think when people say better they mean more skilled. And it's true, the guys back in the day had a lot more fundamental skill. It comes down to the path they took to the NBA opposed to now.

-Smak

[HeddaGambler]

So it's not skills either. What is it, then, that makes today's players so much better?

(And yes, I guess this is more of a blog post than anything else, but whatever)

Great post. To answer you last question, it is much more about the attitude towards the game, modern technology and the development in nutritional research. Athletes today take much better care of their bodies than they used to do, meaning that they can perform better over a longer period of time. In today`s game, every play is filmed from several angles, giving players, scouts and coaches much better opportunity to prepare for an opponent than earlier. Plays and tactical variantons can be studied for extended periods of time, and the advancement of stats have provided coaches, GMs and players with tools to develop more efficient strategies.

[brain drain]

Tennis? There's no doubt players are more athletic, but I think when people say better they mean more skilled. And it's true, the guys back in the day had a lot more fundamental skill.

More fundamental skills than Roger Federer when he was at the top of his game? Who?

[brain drain]

Great post. To answer you last question, it is much more about the attitude towards the game, modern technology and the development in nutritional research. Athletes today take much better care of their bodies than they used to do, meaning that they can perform better over a longer period of time. In today`s game, every play is filmed from several angles, giving players, scouts and coaches much better opportunity to prepare for an opponent than earlier. Plays and tactical variantons can be studied for extended periods of time, and the advancement of stats have provided coaches, GMs and players with tools to develop more efficient strategies.

I'd say it's about the optimisation of everything - youth scouting and development, technical & tactical training, conditioning, nutrition etc etc.

Especially in soccer, 20 or 30 years ago, it was enough to be very good at some aspect and you could neglect other aspects and still compete at the highest level (for example offensive players who didn't even try to defend, technically gifted players who drank (Gazza) and smoked (Cruyff) or hardly worked out (Socrates, but he also drank and smoked), or were plain fat (Maradona)). You could be technically gifted but slow, you also could be technically inept but fast and strong and still be a top player.

That kind of stuff would't be possible today.

I must admit that to some degree, I miss those times because they were more entertaining. Guys like Gazza or my personal favourite Wolfram Wuttke just hardly exist anymore and they made for much better stories than today's fully focused crop of players. But it's pretty obvious that today's players are simply better at playing football.

[K Xerxes]

The fact that a well past his prime 37 year old Tim Duncan is currently seen as the best center in the game says it all really.

The game has evolved into a more perimeter-orientated one, but Miami won in spite of not having a competent center, not because they played small ball.

The big man is inherently greater than the guard - they simply have more impact on interior defense and take more high percentage shots if they are skilled enough.

[deja vu]

Boxing

This.

Ali >>>

[K Xerxes]

Golf, maybe? Tennis? There's no doubt players are more athletic, but I think when people say better they mean more skilled. And it's true, the guys back in the day had a lot more fundamental skill. It comes down to the path they took to the NBA opposed to now.

-Smak

How?

Back then, the game was mostly about serve and volleys. Now it is far more predicated on how good you are on the baseline - players will simply hit passing shots all the time if you play that style. Match up the average player today against back then, and it's quite clear who would come out on top.

But that's not only about increased athleticism. Watch Djokovic, Nadal and Murray play each other and you'll see just how punishingly deep they hit the ball pretty much all the time.

Djokovic's best attribute is his ability to get to seemingly 'ungettable' balls and return them deep into your court. That's skill + athleticism.

But the most skilled player of all time? Federer. At his best, he is practically unbeatable (except against Nadal on clay). His shot was the most precise, and he had the greatest variety in his game (great server, baseline stroke and volley).

[INDI]

There's alot of foolish talk by mental midgets and media puppets stating that the NBA was better 20-30 years ago , there's not a sport played today where players are overall better 20-30 years ago when they are now.

If you had a guy like Paul George who isn't even a top 5 player today, and put him in the NBA in say 1992, he'd be an even better player with guys who are overall physically inferior. Lebron would be EVEN MORE dominate.

Imagine a guy with the physical tools of Lebron James playing against the likes of 190 pound 1980s Jordan, or Larry "turtle" Bird, or Magic "stiff, no jump shot" Johnson? It would be like a man playing with boys, which hell it's even like that now.

Boxing

[Alan]

Pole vault, Sergey Bubka's record 6.14m stands untouched since 1994.

[HeddaGambler]

Pole vault, Sergey Bubka's record 6.14m stands untouched since 1994.

Well nobody will beat FloJo`s 100m record either...

[Asukal]

I can't believe kids today are far more ignorant and stupid than kids from my time or before that.

[Doctor Rivers]

Well nobody will beat FloJo`s 100m record either...

she was on PEDs

[Mr Exlax]

To the OP: I feel like players are bigger, faster and stronger now at every position besides the Center position. I can't say that they're "better" than previous players. Players 20 years ago were more fundamentally sound. They were more skilled than the guys we have now. I can't say that they're "better" either though.

[miles berg]

The dumbest topic in history folks.