One of the cool things about the NBA is that they allow You Tube to carry a lot of old games. Recently, there have been a ton of old ’80s Celtics clips posted.
Dig this sample of artistry from the one they called Larry Legend.
Witness the crazy nice behind-the-back pass 1:45 in.
And here’s a couple three more:
Check this one out and skip ahead to the 2:16 mark.
And finally, dig the ill outlet pass at the 4:00 mark.
I had nothing to do tonight and came real close to getting Knicks tickets for $7 on StubHub...I couldn't find anyone else that thought that sounded like a sane way to spend a Friday night
It's just mind-blowing how many white guys the Celtics had. I certainly noticed it at the time, but it seems even more striking looking at the old footage.
Oh, and yeah, Bird was good. God how I hated him.
Here's the deal, grasshoppers. The game of basketball was evolving in a powerful way in the early 80's with Bird and Magic. Then MJ came along and ruined it all. Look, it's one thing to dominate a sport when you can simply run faster, jump higher, and overpower your opponent. For me, it's far more entertaining to watch someone outplay people who have more raw physical ability.
The NBA (and it's farm system, college basketball) made the decision to market the raw, isolation, one-on-one, take it to the hole and jam it in your face game. So be it. I couldn't be more bored by anything. I'll watch clips of Bird all day. Would rather be waterboarded than watch todays game.
I disagree that it's Jordans fault- he was as fundamentally strong as anyone that has played the game on both sides of the ball. The problem would be that people took the most exciting aspect of his game- the high flying- and ran with that while missing the fact that he was All World as a defender and complemented his high flying with the fade away. That said, I still enjoy the NBA and think it gets a bit of a bad rap- Tim Duncan is up there with Jeter when it comes to class, for example.
[4] Blame SportCenter and the millions of idiots who helped make it successful. It's our own fault when something becomes popular beyond reason >;)
"The Houdini of the Hardwood".
"Mr. Basketball".
"The original Human Highlight Film".
"He was magical before there was 'Magic'".
Any guesses?
Anybody?
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He was "The Cooz."
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Watch any game from the '50s or '60s and you will notice what makes today's game radically different from the game of the past.
In the past, there was a rule against TRAVELING.
In the past, the was a rule against PALMING the ball.
When today's player 'Fly', they almost always Travel.
When today's player drive past 3 guys to the hoop, they almost always Palm the ball.
I don't think you can watch a single game today where the ball goes from one end to the court to the other, without one of these 2 rules broken.
I don't think the definition of these 2 rules has changed since Cosey's day. There are just not called anymore, and haven't been for a while. If Traveling and Palming were called the way they were 40 years ago, it would be a totally different game.