The NBA is better today than 20 years ago, period and certainly better than 30+ years ago, when the King played at Kemper.

That was awful.

I get it for sure. But ESPN's focus on the upper Northeast and West Coast has allowed Fox Sports 1 and the Regional Fox Networks to jump into the market and satisfy those customers.

It's also allowed the creation of the Big Ten Network, The Longhorn Network, et al.

The unfortunate side effect is that a company like Time Warner Cable creates a network for the Dodgers and won't license its broadcasts to competing service providers. For past two seasons, I've been unable to see a single regular season Dodgers game, despite the fact that the stadium is 3.7 miles from my home, because I subscribe to Direct TV.

As for ESPN, if it weren't for KU BB, MNF, bowl games and the occasional Royals game as of late, I'd never have it on. But I'd be bummed if I couldn't watch those events, so it serves a purpose.

Just for the record, Stuart Scott died.

Booyaah!

In terms of the aesthetics of the game, the NBA is much better to watch today than it was in the mid/late 1990's.

Scoring, fast-paced play is back in vague… unlike in the mid/late 1990's when Pat Riley's boring grind it out basketball became the norm and the NBA looked like college basketball does today with low scoring.

Adding "period" is what makes many of us think you're an asshole. It's like you don't think others can have an opinion, or are invalidating any other opinion.

Also, the "it's better now than then" argument is simply terrible IMHO. It's like saying the current NFL is better than the 70s. Not only is that subjective, it's also difficult to compare the two. Ticket sales? I hope not, it's only one point that can be made.

Now, are the athletes "better" now than then? Perhaps they are, but these kid's lives are very different from birth to draft then back then. Not to take anything away from them, but I'm sure Gale Sayers was about as natural and athlete as the sport has ever seen. C/mon man, Barry Sanders... And I know many of the kids today might not survive the game of 1975.

Another comparison......golf. It's almost as silly as comparing 2015 golf to 1973 golf, too much has changed in the game to equate the two. I love me some Tiger Woods and Justin Spieth, but introduce them to Amen Corner with some persimmon sticks and you might see a few strokes come off. But I do think they're equal to their sport's forefathers, perhaps better.

So I won't opine too much about the quality of 2015 basketball as compared to 1970s/80s basketball because I'm just not a huge fan of the sport, but I have employees from Fargo/Iron Mountain (to the north) all the way down to the coasts of Texas/Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and a very small part of Florida (to the south) and many of them are "basketball" fans. Many of those who live in NBA cities/states (MM, WI, IL, OK, TX, LA) think the same of the NBA as they do the NFL, and that's that it's getting harder to love. Don't get me wrong, they attend the games, they have a good time, but they are clear that the NBA isn't "what it used to be."

So I think you might be overstating things a bit. Then again, they aren't on the East or West coasts, so maybe that's why they think what they think.

I really enjoy watching the NBA. But I feel like at least half the league is bad to mediocre at best. Not enough to talent to fill 30 teams perhaps??


But you could probably say this about the other pro sports leagues as well...

Yeah, sorta weird how that works.

Shut the **** up.

I never realized what a complete and utter **** you where until I visited the DC the past few weeks and saw all of your ****ing bullshit.

Now you're spilling that shit into this forum?

**** off and die, you ****ing twat.

Your daughters get sad when they see you like this.

LMAO

Dude...

Mike And Mike ****ing blows. I can't stand that shit. And for the record Stuart Scott died.

He's just parroting the biggest assclown on this site, Cosmo.

Strange kind of unity there, I suppose.

The product is different. That's the only way it "ain't what it used to be."

If you give me a good reason why the NBA is currently worse than it was 20 years ago, you'll be the first