Top 10 Misconceptions of the NBA
By “Mr. Basketball” Michael Illiano (SportsGuru33@gmail.com)
The great thing about sports is the endless debating that ensues over certain topics.
Those who know me best know that I love to debate anything about the NBA and its rich history. I do notice however, that there are a good amount of misconceptions about the league and it's players that people fall into--mainly because the media feeds them.
I have decided to analyze some generic topics and arguments and make fans look at them from a different perspective. Let's begin.
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1) The notion that teams are too old to win an NBA Title
This topic is one of my favorites to debate. We are always under the impression that youth and legs defeat age and experience, although the facts show the truth. The truth of the matter is not since the 1981 Boston Celtics has a non-veteran team held the trophy.
The veteran savvy-ness and depth makes champions what they are.
For instance, look at this year’s Dallas Mavericks and their the two core players-- Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd. They are 33 and 38 respectively and past their primes stamina-wise. Despite that, you see the veteran mindset they have to close out games in the playoffs.
The Celtics, Lakers, Pistons, and Spurs of this last decade were all veteran teams.
The 1998 Chicago Bulls’ core players Michael Jordan (34), Scottie Pippen (32), Ron Harper (34), and Dennis Rodman (36) were all past their primes and in the Finals, they faced a Utah Jazz nucleus of Karl Malone (34) and John Stockton (35). This was the Finals matchup in 1997 as well.
Very rarely do you see a young group of players win the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Now I am starting to hear about how the Lakers can’t possibly win next year. Honestly people--would it really shock you if the Lakers won the title next year with the same squad?
The Lakers were exposed due to lack of effort this year and that had nothing to do with their age. The average age of the Mavericks was actually higher than the Lakers, so be careful before you call teams old.
2) Players today are so much better than the players of 15-20 years ago
My first point to this is see above comments about older veterans holding the trophy at end of postseason.
Right there, the argument should stop, but it never does. Before I go on, I must say that any great player in any era could compete and put up numbers, but wins will be different.
