What Happened to Basketball?

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I saw the score of the NBA All-Star game.

211-185

Yeah!

A basketball game with 211 points.

There were highlights, of course…

…guys dribbling down and shooting bombs. The MVP, Dame Lilliard pulled up, at half court, and drilled a shot. It wasn’t because time was running out. He just felt like shooting from there.

And have you seen Caitlin Clark, the great woman’s basketball player?

She can score from anywhere on the court.

The game has certainly changed ever since Steph Curry joined the NBA. There are clips of him practicing his shot from the other side of half court and in the seats.

Kids are now pulling up and shooting NBA 3’s - the kids are about ten years old!

I don’t think the NBA is entertaining anymore.

When I was a kid it was easily my favorite sport because Buffalo had a good team and one of the best players in the league in Bob McAdoo.

(I was also a big fan of Ernie D.)

Dad took us to a lot of games and my favorite ever sporting event - I saw Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and the Lakers - in 1972 - beat the Braves in the middle of their 33-game winning streak (still the longest streak in all major sports).

Now?

Guys flop as a strategy, (see James, LeBron).

They all cry to the refs because they feel they’ve been fouled.

And everyone has the green arrow to put up a shot from anywhere, at any time.

Defense isn’t even optional, it’s frowned upon.

Now that’s not to say they aren’t amazing athletes. Floppy James is defying age - he looks as good some nights as he did 20 years ago.

Curry is certainly the greatest shooter in league history, and I’ve seen videos of the Joker doing incredible things.

He had a game where he had 30 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists in 14 minutes of game action!

Amazing players, but the game has become a tad unwatchable.

Now, as all who knew me as a kid know that I was the original Curry.

I shot from way out there. I even hit a shot, in a game, from the other side of half court.

I never passed the ball.

If a teammate passed it to me, he headed to the basket to see if there was a rebound because it was going up.

(Dad told me: “They don’t put your name in the paper for assists).

Prior to the all-star game former players and the commissioner begged the players to play the game…

…defense and all.

They didn’t.

Two-hundred and eleven points???

1972 was a long, long time ago.

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