NBA not what it used to be?

No, the NBA isn’t what it used to be—but who is? Professional basketball has changed, indeed, but whether for better or worse—well, that depends on one’s prejudices, of course, and also on one’s experience and perspective.

Those who decry, for example, the violence in the NBA as alarming and unprecedented should read Terry Pluto’s estimable “Tall Tales,” a chronicle of the early days of pro basketball. Pluto interviews players who recall that games would erupt in fights more often than not, slugfests that sometimes would spill into the stands, where drunken fans taunted the athletes who had to play a whole game of basketbrawl before they could start drinking.

Pluto also touches on the racism that was de rigueur in those days. Black players, no matter how gifted, were systematically blackballed for years, and finally admitted into the league only when a few owners grasped the economic imperatives of it.

Soon, unhappily, the sport got too black for America’s liking. For that reason among others, NBA games were seldom shown on television in the ‘sixties, and when the ABA came along and offered players another marketplace and bargaining power against tight-fisted owners, those that signed aboard toiled in even greater obscurity.

After the leagues merged, the NBA reached its low ebb in the 1970s. Even in 1980, when Magic Johnson beat Philadelphia with his sublime performance in the final game of the season, interest in the sport was so lukewarm that the game was shown on tape-delay late that night.

Magic and Larry Bird did spark a revival that swept the NBA into its Golden Age, which lingered through the Jordan years—but those three players were anomalies, maybe three in the top five of all time. What else did we have during that era? Dennis Rodman, the Bad Boys (with two of the most craven athletes ever, Bill Laimbeer and Isiah Thomas), Jordan going off to play baseball, Shaquille O’Neal showing his astounding lack of basketball skills as Hakeem Olajuwon tap-danced on his head in the NBA Finals.

Today’s NBA players are bigger, stronger and faster than ever, and none of them has green hair. They play above the rim, with breathtaking grace and speed, and every time down the court one of them—often Lebron James—is apt to do something you’ve never seen before. Ninety-nine percent of them would rather win a championship than be an All-Star. Yes, some of them are surly and selfish. But given the incredible scrutiny and ceaseless criticism they all undergo, not just from the media but from every casual and ill-informed observer with a beer or a blog and time on his hands, it’s a wonder that each and every one of them doesn’t snap and run amok in the stands.

We all remember a time when things were better—it was back when our parents were shaking their heads over how much worse things were than in their day.