Where is the NBA I Grew Up With?

        It seems that every time the NBA starts to make progress, something happens to set the league back again. After years of being down, guys like Carmelo Anthony and Lebron James came into the league and rejuvenated it. Then, just like that, there was “The Decision” and the realization that superstars could now join up and form dream teams. Now, after the most exciting playoffs in recent memory, there was a lockout and more players trying to join forces in search of a championship.
    

       The reality of today‘s NBA is that there are about five or six teams who can legitimately compete for a title each year. This is due to reasons such as: expansion, players leaving college before they are ready, and superstars playing together in the major markets. Whatever happened to the days where all but three or four teams came into the season with a shot at winning?

       I grew up a big NBA fan in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. I can think back to that time and basically name a superstar from every team in the league. (I dare you to try that with today’s teams) Take a look at the small list I made below, and you will notice that even teams considered to be small markets had a superstar.

Olajuwon - Houston

Malone- Utah

Shaq - Orlando

Miller – Indiana

Kemp – Seattle

Wilkins - Atlanta

         
         These were the days when the NBA was the best game in town. These guys were all competitors. I think the argument could be made that in the late 80’s/early 90’s, the NBA was actually more popular than the NFL.

 I would love to see the NBA that I remember as a kid return. There would be no one just following the money or teaming up just because they can’t win alone. Could you imagine if Jordan would have approached Bird about teaming up together in Chicago? It never would have happened!

 It looks like for now I am stuck with poor quality replays of what I remember on the NBA Network’s Greatest Games.