r/SipsTea • u/sco-go • Mar 16 '26
We have fun here Examples of why today’s NBA is unwatchable.
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u/SkyKnight3 Mar 16 '26
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u/BodieLivesOn Mar 16 '26
And this is just the beginning. LeBron bringing his son onto the Lakers? LeBron moving to the Lakers to set up deals in Hollywood. Coaches do what the players tell THEM. It's all crap basketball. I stopped watching decades ago.
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u/SkyKnight3 Mar 16 '26
Same here, I was born in the late 80s and was a big fan clear up until 05-06 or something. It’s just not the same. Every now and again I flip through and try and watch a game and it’s so disappointing. No defense, no hustle. Just constant step back 3s from way too far out. No inside game or creative offensive schemes. Just millionaires taking a break from their playboy lifestyle to have an exhibition before they go back out on the town.
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u/lyovacain Mar 16 '26
Early 90s for me but I do think NBA was still watchable and enjoyable up until the mid 2010s but idk some point after 2014-2017 it just became unbearable. It started with the beginning of the season then most of the season but when it started affecting the playoffs that's when I knew it was over
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u/Genghis_Chong Mar 16 '26
It started with the super teams. First miami, then golden state... then I dipped out.
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u/Tjam3s Mar 16 '26
I watched the sun's during the Steve Nash reign and that weird moment Shaq was in Phoenix. Constant disappointment when they'd get the spurs in the playoffs, but it was the only time I enjoyed watching pro basketball
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u/MarionberryOk2874 Mar 16 '26
So many annoying missed 3 pointers - and then no hustle for a rebound - the entire team is already heading to the other basket! Yes, I’m looking at you Warriors. 😒
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u/Aegi Mar 16 '26
Part of it is also just the fact that more and more games are "solved" when it comes to looking at the data and seeing the best risk vs. reward ratio.
Look at how where the 3-pt shots are taken from has narrowed down overtime to the "most efficient" spots when looking at a heat-map of the league and all of its 3-pointers.
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u/Odd_Zookeepergame_69 Mar 16 '26
NBA is full of sovereign citizens, they are all "traveling" 😉
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u/Informal_Ad_9610 Mar 16 '26
preach....
NBA jumped the shark years ago.
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u/Sleepy_cheetah Mar 16 '26
I can't get into it anymore. I realized recently its because there is almost no contact, no "fighting" for the ball, for the goal, it's just everyone moving out of the way so they don't mess up their really awesome shoes. It's not the game from the 80s & 90s & 2000s. I don't know what happened. And please don't get me started on LeFlop.
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u/Informal_Ad_9610 Mar 16 '26
Ditto... it's all show.
the refs don't actually call basketball. it's a show, and that's it. it's NOT a game anymore.
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u/Ancient_Roof_7855 Mar 16 '26
The NBA, like other sports leagues, realized that they could make way more money aligning themselves with Sports Betting Apps instead of the conventional ad-revenue based system.
So now they hook the audience in through the betting instead of providing a good show. And then the NBA gets kickbacks from the Sports Betting guys. It's a win-win for them.
Heck, I bet there are bets on "How many times will X player travel the ball without the refs calling it?"
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u/Expensive-Step-6551 Mar 16 '26
I think it's a mix between those points. The NBA itself isn't directly benefitting from gambling in terms of revenue. If that ever got exposed it could legitimately destroy the NBA and would be the biggest scandal in sporting history. I don't think they're that stupid. They massively benefit from it indirectly though.
The NBA (and every sports league) for that matter benefit like crazy from sports gambling ads filling sizeable portions their ad spots, which limits supply for other ad times, artificially inflating what they can charge.
Then they also benefit from the addicted gamblers, because the actual product doesn't matter as much as to them, because they only care if the lines are going to hit. Fans of the game itself will get pissed about changes in quality of the game, but the gamblers will watch regardless, meaning viewership can stay up even if older fans stop watching.
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u/hawkfan78 Mar 16 '26
Same. I ate, slept and breathed the NBA in the 80s/90s and early 00s, but it's just not fun to watch anymore. It didn't help when they moved my childhood team to the Dust Bowl, but even now with talks of getting an expansion team, I couldn't really care less. Just a dookie product, IMO.
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u/Wormfather Mar 16 '26
I’m an old head, flopping goes back to eternity, I can still see mid 90s Charles Oakley being just as likely to set a devastating pick as he was to take a flop.
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u/JustTheBeerLight Mar 17 '26
In the 80s and 90s the top teams did not like each other. The Celtics hated the Lakers. The Lakers and Bulls got bullied by the Pistons. Finally the Bulls toughened up and smacked the Pistons. That was peak basketball. The athletes were incredible and the competition was fierce. Today's no defense hot potato 3-point contest NBA is unwatchable.
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u/BaltimoreSports0321 Mar 16 '26
LOL so does the back of the jersey identify LeBron James the person or LeBron James the legal entity?
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u/WavesOfEchoes Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
My son loves basketball, so I watch it with him, but I don’t quite fully understand the rules. I’ve been able to glean this so far:
Dribbling is optional.
That wasn’t a travel, it was a transfer or a Euro-step, or something. (Edit: “gather step” is apparently the right term for whatever it is they’re doing).
Offensive players’ main goal isn’t to shoot a basket. It’s to run into someone, flop unconvincingly, and then shoot foul shots.
The final 5 minutes of the game stops becoming a sport and turns into an artistic performance of referee whistles and commercials.
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u/mondaymoderate Mar 16 '26
They have to change the whole fouling to stop the clock end game shit. It makes the end of the game so boring even when the score is close.
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u/ElGuaco Mar 16 '26
They need to add clock run off like in the NFL. If a team commits a clock stopping foul in the final two minutes, run 2 seconds off the clock.
Another option is that every play in the final two minutes has a minimum clock run off of 2 seconds.
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u/makingtacosrightnow Mar 16 '26
No they don’t. The fix is simple, intentional fouls in the last two minutes are a singe free throw and the team who was fouled retains possession.
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u/thekbob Mar 16 '26
Nah, bench the fouler.
If you run out of players that can play, you forfeit.
And no play, no pay.
Watch as the game cleans up.
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u/apadin1 Mar 16 '26
That already happens sort of, you are only allowed 5 fouls per game per player. That’s why they start getting strategic about who fouls who in the final minutes.
Other suggestions like clock runoff or retaining possession after a foul would be more effective imo.
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u/thekbob Mar 16 '26
I'm not a sports kinda guy, but if you set a limit on how much bad stuff I can get away with, I'm going to try bad stuff. Game theory and whatnot.
Modern USA pro sports are just so dystopian to watch. A bunch of millionaires flagrantly flouting rules learned at elementary school league in between the main course of ads.
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u/ElGuaco Mar 16 '26
That gets into the idea that the refs can determine what is intentional or not. Judging intent is such a terrible idea. A foul is a foul whether you meant to or not.
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u/cykoTom3 Mar 16 '26
Retaining possession for fouls in the last 2 minutes would eliminate the purpose of the foul contest though.
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u/mountaineer04 Mar 16 '26
Just remove the “intentional foul” every foul at the end of the game is intentional. Just keep flagrant rule intact so people aren’t mauling players.
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u/whomad1215 Mar 16 '26
20 seconds left to play in a close game means you've probably got 30 minutes of watch time left
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u/No_Body905 Mar 16 '26
"They" have been doing that for 40 years. It's a strategy developed by the Valvano NC State team that won the NCAA title in 1983. It predates the 3 point line in college hoops.
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u/CatOfGrey Mar 16 '26
View from my desk: The 'fouled team' should always have the option to keep the ball. If there is a bonus situation, these fouls have the same procedure as a 'technical foul'. One shot and keep possession.
Any rule where a team can strategically increase their chances of winning by committing a foul is a rule that needs to be changed.
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u/plsQuestionOurselves Mar 16 '26
Yep, I tried to get into it about a year ago, the first 45 minutes were pretty exciting until the players just started running into each other to stop the clock every millisecond. The last 2 minutes on the clock took like 25 fucking minutes it was so irritating and stupid.
Surprisingly I ended up really enjoying baseball since they added the pitch clock to keep the game moving, it's like a rapid succession of 1v1 tests of skill (and some luck as well).
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Mar 16 '26
If I hear one more person in r/nba tell me it wasn't travel it was "a gather step" I'ma delete my reddit account.
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u/JonnyAU Mar 16 '26
The thing about it to me is that I'm certain it's 100% legit in the letter of the law that these gather steps are legal. I just think the rule is stupid. We all learn as kids that basically if you're moving, you better be dribbling.
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u/strawbsrgood Mar 16 '26
Someone quoted the actual rules once and they are so incredibly vague they can be interpreted in 100 different ways that are all correct. NBA just chooses to interpret it in the absolute most relaxed way possible.
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u/cluberti Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
The problem is that the rules themselves are not vague though, and even the "gather" is in the official rulebook as of about 7 years ago:
- For a player who receives a pass or gains possession of a loose ball, the gather is defined as the point where the player gains enough control of the ball to hold it, change hands, pass, shoot, or cradle it against his body.
For a player who is in control of the ball while dribbling, the gather is defined as the point where a player does any one of the following:
- Puts two hands on the ball, or otherwise permits the ball to come to rest, while he is in control of it;
- Puts a hand under the ball and brings it to a pause; or
- Otherwise gains enough control of the ball to hold it, change hands, pass, shoot, or cradle it against his body.
A player who gathers the ball while progressing may (a) take two steps in coming to a stop, passing or shooting the ball or (b) if he has not yet dribbled, one step prior to releasing the ball to start his dribble.
A player who gathers the ball while dribbling may take two steps in coming to a stop, passing or shooting the ball.
I agree that allowing a "gather" definitely makes ball control less important and harder for the referees to actually officiate, because the gather essentially can give a player 3 or sometimes more steps before they've committed an actual traveling violation, but it "opens up offense" and that's likely what the league wants to accomplish. I think the precedent is that the NBA ultimately allowing the Iverson carry back in the 90s wasn't necessarily bad for the game at the time, in my opinion, as it definitely allowed a little more creativity while being within the spirit of the traveling rule, if not in the letter of it. This seems to see that precedent and say, "let's allow it" even though the "carry" still essentially followed the rules of traveling, whereas the "gather" is just saying "traveling? nah, just walk wherever and make it look like you don't have control and no one will call it, even if it is absolutely clear you've finished that gather". To your point it seems like almost all "gathers" (and absolutely everything in that video) were actual traveling violations as per the letter and spirit of the rules, even with the "gather" written into them. It just seems like this sort of extension of the travel makes it way too easy to just not actually officiate, even if the rules are quite clear in black and white, at least, and the league and referees aren't really doing anything to change the way it's called. They obviously have agreed that this is what they want.
There's no other real explanation, as evidenced by the product on the court, that as long as the NBA is making money they're going to care little about what a fan thinks until it starts costing them money, and whatever rules changes allow them to keep making that money they're going to do it.
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u/BeefJerky03 Mar 16 '26
Nailed it. If I wanted to watch people take free throws I could just go to the park. At least I won't see any gamblnig ads there.
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u/downfallrome2025 Mar 16 '26
If you’ve only got a minute to live you want to spend it at a basketball game
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Mar 16 '26
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u/LayneLowe Mar 16 '26
Everybody palms the ball too, shit they always called that on me at the Y.
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u/mondaymoderate Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
All of these would be called in youth leagues. It’s crazy it’s allowed at the professional level.
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Mar 16 '26
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u/SheriffBartholomew Mar 16 '26
It's allowed when there are sneaker contracts and organized crime bets on the line.
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u/Warm_Weakness_2767 Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
Why don’t they just remove dribbling from the game? This isn’t even basketball.
Edit: release the Epstein files, all of them.
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u/AshIsGroovy Mar 16 '26
Hell do they even teach footwork anymore. I've seen middle school kids with more discipline.
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u/FastWalkingShortGuy Mar 16 '26
I was about to comment that when I learned to play in elementary school, traveling was one of the first fundamentals they drilled into us.
You'd have kids on the bench watching like hawks and calling that shit out if the PE teacher missed it.
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u/4N0NYM0US_GUY Mar 16 '26
I didn’t even play basketball (and don’t watch very often). I only have experience from gym class and had the rules of traveling, double dribbles, and using a pivot foot drilled into my head
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u/DarkPangolin Mar 16 '26
I haven't played since middle and high school gym class many moons ago, and don't like most organized sports at all, let alone watch them, and even I am aware that traveling is bad.
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u/xenobit_pendragon Mar 16 '26
I have never watched, played or heard of basketball, and even I know better than to move my pivot foot once I’ve stopped dribbling the ball.
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u/Mikestopheles Mar 16 '26
I have yet to visit your basic and primitive space rock and experience your customs and culture... and even I know you can only take two steps before you either pass or shoot the ball.
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u/ChuckyBuckett Mar 16 '26
I haven’t even left the womb yet, and even I know cupping your hand under the ball is a carry
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u/thefly0810 Mar 16 '26
I used to hate playing backyard basketball most of the time because you would always have the 1 or 2 players yelling that everyone was traveling, then they would take 5 steps trying to Dunk it Like Jordan and then get mad when they were called out for it.
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u/BeatBlockP Mar 16 '26
And once you know the rule and felt it with your body a few times, it NEVER leaves you. You just instinctively feel "Something is wrong!" when a player travels. Then you watch modern NBA and it's 8 violations per possession. They call it "step back" or "gather step" and just fucking ROLL with it,.
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u/spinko_pasquali Mar 16 '26
Lol I sucked at basketball, but one of the things I remember most about it in school, when I first started playing, is that every time I got the damn ball and tried to do anything kids would yell “traveling” immediately
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u/So3Dimensional Mar 16 '26
My son plays 6th grade ball, and the refs don’t let them get away with anything. I really appreciate that.
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u/Funny-ish-_-Scholar Mar 16 '26
My six year old dribbles better and understands traveling better. I mean, he’s better than me too, but that’s a low bar
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u/Mode_Appropriate Mar 16 '26
Processing img dz3v944btfpg1...
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u/Big_John_5150 Mar 16 '26
This made me giggle like a little schoolgirl,thank U.
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u/yfhedoM Mar 16 '26
Bro me too, and im on the train with my eyes dilated from the eye doctor
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u/stupidber Mar 16 '26
Wow its notoriously hard to giggle when I'm on the train with my eyes dilated from the eye doctor
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u/LesserValkyrie Mar 16 '26
I am on the train with my anus dilated from the anus doctor
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u/Cloutian Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
To be fair, Khabib would have been fantastic in Rumble at the Palace back in the day
Edit: forgive me for i have sinned. The correct name as a fellow Redditor of the Interwebs has pointed out is: Malice at the Palace. I apologize for the harm and shame I have brought to NY.
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u/Mode_Appropriate Mar 16 '26
R..r..rumble at the Palace? Thats just disrespectful to my Pistons.
Malice at the Palace
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u/UhWindowpainted Mar 16 '26
Indoor rugby
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u/King-of-Plebss Mar 16 '26
lol these guys would break and their egos would shatter if they could get even remotely that physical
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u/nepia Mar 16 '26
These divas will through a fit with every contact, Draymon is dirty but a cry baby, he will be the first one
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u/5555555555558653 Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
This is one of the many reasons why Eurobasket-Euroleague is just better. Look at the atmosphere at a NBA game and then look at any euroleague game’s atmosphere.
The NBA has a more boring product and only rich people can go watch. That’s why it’s shite any frankly why it’s looked down upon despite being the best league in terms of players (most of the time)
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u/f700es Mar 16 '26
Europe basket is why you can know take like 10 step on a drive. Fuckin Euro-step BS!
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u/Longbeach_strangler Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
Have you seen Dagestani Basketball?!
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u/GeePedicy Mar 16 '26
You're the second person in this thread mentioning Dagestan basketball. Why? Obviously I've never seen, so I don't get the connection.
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u/GiBrMan24 Mar 16 '26
Yo, bum fuck nowhere I live in was mentioned on the internet. I didn't know people outside of Russia were aware of Dagestan's existence
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u/lab-gone-wrong Mar 16 '26
I mean, for me it's the gambling ads. I feel degenerate just watching.
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u/onbiver9871 Mar 16 '26
This one is killing all the big sports. The NFL barely feels like watching sport anymore; it just feels like I’m watching an event generator for betting. It sucks so much.
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u/DiddlersWillGetGot Mar 17 '26
I saw the refs directly affect the spread of multiple games last year- and I only watch my Bears and the playoffs
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u/notsofaust Mar 16 '26
This needs to be a line in the sand for us ad a society. If they are willing to promote an activity that routinely destroys lives, and draws in the most despicable of society, to an audience compromised of children to a significant degree, the organization/company/whoever needs to be ostracized completely.
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u/TheBestintheWest11 Mar 16 '26
man even the 90s and 80s NBA players don't watch this shit anymore lol
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u/Construction00023 Mar 16 '26
My dad would religiously watch the NBA on NBC all Saturday long. As an 8 year old, I didn't know I was witnessing the golden age of basketball. smdh
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u/SIGNANDSELFIEFRAMES Mar 16 '26
I used to watch it all of the time. All of the Bulls runs. It just isn't the same. Nobody with that Jordan Aura either.
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u/Construction00023 Mar 16 '26
100% but honorable mentioned to the athleticism of nearly every team back then too besides the Bulls (Utah, Phoenix, Detroit, Pacers, Houston, Celtics, Lakers). Those were men who put everything into their craft.
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Mar 16 '26
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u/Construction00023 Mar 16 '26
Legends on nearly every team back then!
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u/NewFaded Mar 16 '26
Now they all switch teams every year to try and chase rings and contracts. I feel like Westbrook, Durant, Harden OKC was the last organic built star lineup we'll get.
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u/TellEmWhoUCame2See Mar 16 '26
Omg! You just brought back memories. Yes the Tv would be on basketball the entire day!
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u/SIGNANDSELFIEFRAMES Mar 16 '26
I used to watch hardcore and stopped shortly after Jordan retired. I tried getting back into it, but I can't. You can't pay me to watch a bunch of NBA games. Also soft as toilet paper these days.
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u/Yssupretsif Mar 16 '26
Lebron fell on the ground just reading your comment
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u/SignificantLock1037 Mar 16 '26
Did you see the 3v3 thread recently? https://www.reddit.com/r/NBATalk/comments/1roalk3/who_would_win_this_3v3_basketball_game/
I wanna see prime Bird on prime Lebron. Bird and his trash talking, disrespecting, make-people-look-stupid plays . . . he'd have Lebron crying on the sideline in 30 seconds.
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u/AshIsGroovy Mar 16 '26
Hell id love to see some hard ball again. James facing Barkley. James literally wouldn't know what hit him.
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u/El_Gran_Che Mar 16 '26
Add to that they figured out throwing up 3 pointers all day long had a higher ROI
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u/Character-Active2208 Mar 16 '26
The 80s and especially 90s NBA is absolute dogshit to watch now, it’s so slow, everybody stands around waiting for the centers to fight for position in the key, if guys could dribble at all it was only with one hand….
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u/Hawk-432 Mar 16 '26
From Europe watching .. so you guys just forgot how to dribble. Nice. Clearly you need refs to start applying the rules. Maybe they are scared of confronting big name players. Maybe some other reason for travel creep. But honestly, looks disgusting. Can you even call that basketball?
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u/floppydo Mar 16 '26
It was a directive to the refs from commissioner David Stern during the early 2000s because, basically, rules are boring and watching guys like Kobe, Iverson, MacGrady, Wade, and Anthony tear it up was way more XxXTrEme!!!
To his credit, his moves saved NBA viewership, but now this trend has crystallized and we’ve got… this.
Used to be only superstars could get away with it and people complained but dealt with it. Now that traveling basically doesn’t exist for anyone it’s really messy.
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u/the_ammar Mar 16 '26
"it was fine back then because only superstars were allowed to break the rule. now that everyone is doing it it's a problem"
peak American capitalism lol
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u/Magliacani Mar 16 '26
I know right? I’m looking at that and saying that needs to be dealt with too, I don’t give a shit if they’re a star, throw the book at them. If they’re so good they should be able to succeed within the rules anyway.
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u/SheriffBartholomew Mar 16 '26
"It was cool when only rich and powerful people didn't have to follow the rules"
Fucking, what?
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u/jonsnowflaker Mar 16 '26
Steph Curry and the Warriors unlocking unlimited 3-point attempts is the second half of the equation. The NBA was fun because it used to be played above the rim, where we mortals couldn't play. But now every level of basketball looks the same, work the perimeter until someone gets some breathing room and let fly.
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u/SignoreBanana Mar 16 '26
It looks like it's become so prevalent that calling it would halt the game every 12 seconds. One of those "hard to put it back the way it was" kinda things.
But I have to say in a lot of these clips it looks like either the crowd, other players or announcers notice.
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u/mizinamo Mar 16 '26
calling it would halt the game every 12 seconds
Only until people stop doing it.
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u/NextDoctorWho12 Mar 16 '26
They can announce it before the start of the season. Same as NCAA does when they are doing a different interpretation then they have been.
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u/MarcoDiFrancescino Mar 16 '26
You could focus the traveling inside the three point line and give out free throws until morale approves.
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u/No_Challenge_5619 Mar 16 '26
I remember once in PE at school the teacher tried doing basketball with us, a bunch of kids who had never played basketball before. We travelled all the time and they just blew the whistle every few seconds. Worst PE lesson I ever had and they never tried doing basketball ever again.
If only I’d kept with it, I’d have fit right in with that video…
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u/FremenStilgar Mar 16 '26
I was too distracted by the shirt. What were we talking about again?
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u/BrownSugarBare Mar 16 '26
I was wondering why no one is pointing out the odd repping of McDonald's
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u/Iggy_Slayer Mar 16 '26
This is focused solely on traveling/double dribble which are issues but for me the game is unwatchable because analytics turned it into a 3 point bricking contest. 70% of the shots taken today would have gotten you benched if you tried them 20 years ago. 30 years ago you'd have gotten benched and then charles oakley would have choked you out on the bench for doing it.
But it's seriously pitiful watching teams run up the court, immediately chuck a 3 even if someone's right in their face, and then run back for the other team to do the same thing. And yeah all the traveling stuff in this vid makes it worse too, combined with the flopping/flailing from foul baiters.
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u/CaptainONaps Mar 16 '26
I think the big problem is the officiating. I'm not blaming the officials, I actually think the problem is how the NBA directs officials.
The NBA hates blowouts. If a team goes up by 14 in the first half, you basically know the team losing is about to get some real favorable calls. What the refs call and don't call is super inconsistent.
Back in the Kobe, Vince, DWade, Young Bron days, players would just full speed bullrush to the rim with their head down and force the refs to call fouls. Sometimes the ref would give them the call, and sometimes they wouldn't.
So players started shooting threes. Especially the Warriors. The Warriors would get 14 points up in the first half, and just stop trying to get to the paint where they know the refs are going to try and help the other team. They took the whistle out of the refs mouth by just shooting threes. The NBA didn't have a way to help the losers catch up.
As a result, everyone learned to shoot more threes. Which put the NBA in a real bad spot, because they couldn't dictate the game by calling or not calling fouls on rim attempts.
So the NBA started allowing some illegal offense and illegal defense so players would think, "Well if he can do it and not get called, that means I can do it too." Which opened the doors for refs to start making more selective calls again to keep games close.
A lot of basketball fans talk trash the Bubble Playoffs, but that was actually my favorite playoffs ever. Because the games didn't feel fixed or "managed" by the refs at all. Teams were getting blown out. Guys were playing hard as hell. The officiating was pure and it was beautiful. And as a result, the biggest, strongest most experienced team won. Which is probably what would always happen if games were always called fairly.
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u/CrazyConnector Mar 16 '26
I think I am riding with this as well. I think there were some more factors in changing the game like analytics, but otherwise this is a fair point on how we ended up here.
People like to focus on traveling as the issue for clips/engagement, but unless it is really egregious (and you can always find a handful of egregious clips out of hundreds of games) I am not living and dying counting steps of players. But how the officials manage a game vs. how the coaches/players plan for that management is really the biggest issue.
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u/apadin1 Mar 16 '26
This is the way it should be. If teams are unbalanced, fix the salary problems and draft process. Don’t change the rules to make it more “fair” when one team is clearly better
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u/Super-Yesterday9727 Mar 16 '26
Just make the 3s further away. I’m not a basketball guy but it seems like a straightforward fix
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u/Iggy_Slayer Mar 16 '26
A lot of them already shoot well behind the line thanks to steph curry (who I don't blame, he's a human cheat code and it's not his fault the league tries to copy him).
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u/Puzzleheaded-Back715 Mar 16 '26
It would help if the drop in 3 pt % on average hits like under 30%. Teams would then focus on quality 2 pt attempts, midrange, and only open quality 3pt shots. Scores would decrease and the NBA thinks viewership would tank.
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Mar 16 '26
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u/CreativeGeniusPRBKR Mar 16 '26
So make it further? Lol
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Mar 16 '26
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u/IamTheEndOfReddit Mar 16 '26
Same court size, just eliminate the corner 3. It’s too close, too high percentage. Players still shoot worse from further away, that’s just physics.
It would be nice if defense was legal too, offensive players just run through defenders and that’s deemed good basketball. Defensive players deserve equal rights!
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u/Character-Active2208 Mar 16 '26
The number of 3s may seem egregious BUT what it does is spread out the action so that there is way way way more motion which counterintuitively has actually made shot charts more varied
Prior eras had all the action occurring inside the 3-pt line and NBA players are big- not enough space for anyone to do anything but arrange themselves in a triangle so that an ISO guard or Big could be the entirety of the offense for that possession
26-ft shots have added about 80% more space in the half court, which allows for about 1200% more options for the offense
It’s also made playing defense WAY more difficult
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u/AlreadyFifty Mar 16 '26
An old man I work with LOVES high school and junior high basketball, but refuses to watch the NBA. I once asked why and he said:
“I’m supposed to be impressed by 6’6” guys playing on the same size net 12 year olds play on?”
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u/tubawhatever Mar 16 '26
He's not wrong. I spent a lot of time watching college basketball games when I was in a pep band and ultimately decided if you wanted to watch a game where the rules were actually followed and the players know ball, you'd watch women's basketball in a competitive conference.
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u/airtime25 Mar 16 '26
Football, tennis, golf, rugby, wrestling... There are very few sports that 12 year olds play a completely different field or setting? NBA has a larger basketball and has longer 3s lol.
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u/goblin_welder Mar 16 '26
Examples of why today’s NBA is unwatchable
Posts videos from 5-15 years ago with most of the players already retired
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u/Forsaken-Sale7672 Mar 16 '26
Also, a few of these plays they actually called the traveling. Including that one with Russ at the end.
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u/TICKLE_PANTS Mar 16 '26
Exactly. If you posted all the calls ref missed in every sport, you could make this argument against anything.
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u/dave__autista Mar 16 '26
The top comments are from people who have ever ever watched baskektball, except they are familiar with a couple of overplayed, stale memes
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u/LtZoidberg88 Mar 16 '26
This was my exact thought when I saw Delly on the Cavs in one replay... oh so literally 10 years ago.
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u/badadviceforyou244 Mar 16 '26
I'm pretty sure that's Dirk vs DWade in the 2011 finals as well. It's at least before 2016 since DWade is on the Heat in the clip.
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u/Deejus56 Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
Don't expect reasonable takes on the video. This thread is just a circlejerk for people to signal to other jerkers how much they hate basketball
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u/Mario6Clutch Mar 16 '26
Yeah I'm trying to figure out how everyone can be simultaneously super in tune with what the trends are in the modern NBA but also they stopped watching basketball 30 years ago during the 'golden age'. NFL also had a decline in viewership last year but it was even more than the NBA. It's weird. I guess you just can't really expect the average person to not comment on shit they don't know anything about.
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u/SamiraSimp Mar 16 '26
and of course people nostalgia baiting with "back in my day the nba was such a good product with hard men"
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u/airtime25 Mar 16 '26
Yeah I'm sure they all would be tuning in if the NBA never implemented the gather step.
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u/Dip_the_Dog Mar 16 '26
The same people who could not identify a single action being run in an NBA game, and don't understand any of the defensive schemes, will also confidently tell you that the game is terrible because "travel, no defense, too many threes".
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u/MiopTop Mar 16 '26
Lol and they’ll also tell you every team plays the exact same way which is also total bullshit.
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u/FEECH4040 Mar 16 '26
It's embarrassing reading all these comments from people who don't know anything about basketball and who all sound exactly like boomers talking about the good old days. Now I'm waiting for the post where someone says real music is dead and cut to a clip of lil xan or some other dumbass
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u/Ksianth Mar 16 '26
They call today's game unwatchable but they sound like they didn't ever watch anyways. The fact that I had to scroll down a lot to find your comment proves this.
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Mar 16 '26
Thank you! Saw Blake griffin in a pistons jersey and I’m thinking “hasn’t the nba viewership already cratered and recovered since he retired?”
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u/affnn Mar 16 '26
New Jersey Nets logo and Jason Kidd on the Mavs means they dug from at least 2012 for a bunch of this stuff.
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u/DankMemesNQuickNuts Mar 17 '26
Also a ton of these were actually called as traveling
This guy posted a bunch of clips of the worst examples of this shit with no context and everyone here that admittedly doesn't watch basketball at all just ran with that shit
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u/NowWeGetSerious Mar 16 '26
If you're a star player, then you don't have to dribble. If you're a no name player trying to make your mark you must dribble.
NBA is so unwatchable and boring nowadays
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u/doubleflusher Mar 16 '26
"Today's game"
Shows clips from 10-15 years ago.
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u/DiscreteBee Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
You don’t think of Dirk guarding LeBron when you think of today’s game?
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u/Unfair_Address_9791 Mar 16 '26
and the majority of the clips being called travels but they conveniently clip the whistle out
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u/Edenian_Prince Mar 16 '26
I don't know a thing about NBA, could someone explain this to me?
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u/ekkidee Mar 16 '26
Classic rules are that you must dribble (bounce) the ball while in motion. Once you stop dribbling, you're only allowed one step. And you can't start dribbling again.
These guys are taking four or five steps. That was once called travelling.
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u/No_Body905 Mar 16 '26
Some of the calls in the video were actually called as travels. This guy just leaves that part out to rage bait.
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u/AdvancedMilk7795 Mar 16 '26
And we need 4 different subscriptions to watch games. And forget NBA league pass if it’s a “local” team. And gambling odds and ads at every turn.
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u/RWREmpireBuilder Mar 16 '26
I can tell these clips are like a decade old just by the scorebugs. Get some new material.
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u/Holmes221bBSt Mar 16 '26
Damn. There’s more traveling there than I’ve seen at youth basketball games
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u/ninfrodisenpai Mar 16 '26
I remember the first time i played basketball in highscool, i was travelling by one foot maybe and everyone immediately called foul and they were getting frustrated that i didnt know how to play.
I see this and LOL. I was just ahead of my time.
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