Can’t Be Compared

In the world of the NBA, there is a never-ending debate on who the GOAT is or who you would rather have on your all-time team. A lot of people use stats as their basis, some use moves and some use success. Quite simply, there is no way to judge this accurately. The game has changed and evolved- into something much different from what it was.

Even in the past ten years, the game has changed a lot. It’s all about flash and scoring nowadays. The league caters to that, so of course, players are going to put up higher averages. There are many more shots being taken, and there’s an almost embarrassing amount of rebounds where every other player just turns around and goes back down the court while just allowing one guy to grab the board.

The rules have made it to where scoring is at its easiest with having to allow so much air space for shooters, physical play is a huge no-no, and worst of all, traveling is looked at as a great move. When you go back to previous years, the rules were air-tight, which always made it more difficult to score and made it all that much more impressive when players scored.

How many more points would Jordan have been able to score if he was allowed to take one more step? Hakeem Olajuwon spent years perfecting his post moves to now watch players shuffle their feet any which way and later social media to rave about how ‘they cooked‘ their defender. The great shooters from back in the day would also have loved not being roughed up so much and given extra air space. When viewing these changes, it is nearly impossible to compare players nowadays with players in years past.

The 2000s Pistons would likely be fouled out of every game in today's NBA, so how do you compare them with the top defenses in today's NBA? When really looking at it, it all seems to be a waste of energy because, in actuality, it’s just a completely different game at this point.