Were you less of a fan during the 'dynasty days'?

[mmbt]

Disagree, the 90s was the NBA at its peak, the bulls may have dominated but the rest of the NBA was as strong as it ever has been. And many of those titles involved a lot of moments where we could've seen a different champ if only one play had gone differently...and not just in games involving my knicks

The 90s was the NBA peaking in a popularity sense. But the move towards individual isolation plays rather than the more ball movement oriented style of the 80s great teams, and the lack of a true challenger for MJ (compared to the great Magic-Bird rivalry) meant the quality of play suffered. Well that and Pat Riley's adoption of ugly ball (though you can also blame the Pistons).

And besides its not like those dynastic teams never lost. But it meant more when they did get upset. Nowadays upsets are commonplace. It loses something.

 

[Butch 19]

Yes but the sports geeks had Usenet. alt.sports.hockey.nhl.* anyone? I remember some great discussions on various team groups back in the day. And most posters you got to know by real name in those days since accounts were generally school or work based.

I have no idea what that was ^^^^. That answer your question?

I used to follow the 4 sports equally, pretty much in this order: football, hockey, baseball and basketball. Well, the Rams left town, and the internet made it possible to follow the NHL 24/7/365; so basketball is now out, and baseball is much smaller than it used to be.

It 's kinda funny, a few weeks ago I watched 5 minutes of a basketball game - wow, that was painful!

And I no longer have the patience (or time) to sit down for 3 hours of baseball.

 

[cgf]

The 90s was the NBA peaking in a popularity sense. But the move towards individual isolation plays rather than the more ball movement oriented style of the 80s great teams, and the lack of a true challenger for MJ (compared to the great Magic-Bird rivalry) meant the quality of play suffered. Well that and Pat Riley's adoption of ugly ball (though you can also blame the Pistons).

And besides its not like those dynastic teams never lost. But it meant more when they did get upset. Nowadays upsets are commonplace. It loses something.

Oh you don't have to convince me of how much isoball and moving away from playing through big men has negatively impacted the game, I was a diehard knicks fan despite growing up in chicago, and now a days I don't even follow the league. But to me that only became problematic after Jordan, during the Kobe-Shaq days when the handchecking rule changes came to make wing players more effective.

The Bulls may not have lost when Jordan was in his prime, but they came so damn close (i'm still mad at starks and smith's exploding knee...and bernard king's exploding knee) and watching the Dream operate was just beautiful. Hakeem will always be my favorite non-Knick and even though he beat us in the finals and embarassed Ewing in the process, watching those Rockets was just a blast.

 

[mmbt]

I have no idea what that was ^^^^. That answer your question?

Yeah I figured it'd be before a lot of people's time. There were team specific ones, and a rec.sport.hockey group for general discussion. And less dumbass behavior since everyone had to use their real name despite the lack of moderation on most groups. I was posting back in the early 90s but it was around before then.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Yeah I figured it'd be before a lot of people's time. There were team specific ones, and a rec.sport.hockey group for general discussion. And less dumbass behavior since everyone had to use their real name despite the lack of moderation on most groups. I was posting back in the early 90s but it was around before then.

Last night after talking about it, I took a stroll down memory lane and visited the old newsgroups I used to follow (they're indexed in Google Groups).

My flawed/human memory says those communities had less dumbass behavior, but looking at them now... wow. The Internet had a dark underbelly even then.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Do you like the 'new age' of hockey where the league is set up so that everyone gets a chance?

Everyone doesn't get a chance to win. Everyone has more of a chance to potentially win if they're competent. No team is guaranteed a turn to win.

Sather in Edmonton, no matter what he did as GM, had little chance of winning. He put out a decent team on a limited budget, but they weren't going to win. Sather in NY without the cap, terrible. Somehow couldn't get a team into the playoffs despite no financial limits. Sather in NY with the cap, he's more like he was in Edmonton, but he can keep and get additional players.

With players signing these longer deals and staying with their teams, it's more like it was back before free agency really entered the equation after that first lockout. The core of teams stay together. More organizations have a chance to keep the core of their team together. But there is the cap and free agency, which doesn't allow for super teams for a decade. It's a balance of the two worlds.

 

[mmbt]

Last night after talking about it, I took a stroll down memory lane and visited the old newsgroups I used to follow (they're indexed in Google Groups).

My flawed/human memory says those communities had less dumbass behavior, but looking at them now... wow. The Internet had a dark underbelly even then.

Ah, so you admit you were hanging out in the seedy dark underbelly of Usenet then, eh? Alt.sex.* ?

The greatness of Usenet can be demonstrated by the mere existence of a group dedicated to Don No Soul Simmons.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Ah, so you admit you were hanging out in the seedy dark underbelly of Usenet then, eh? Alt.sex.* ?

The greatness of Usenet can be demonstrated by the mere existence of a group dedicated to Don No Soul Simmons.

LOL, I'm just talking about the hockey groups. The adult-oriented spam alone...

 

[mmbt]

LOL, I'm just talking about the hockey groups.

Hmmm ... Don't remember alt.sex.hockey ... But whatever floats your boat man.

The adult-oriented spam alone...

The one downside of a lot of real names being used happened when a friend of mine discovered someone with the exact same name as him peddling porn on groups that some of his colleagues frequented. "10 dollars is a great deal for 500 megs of porn!".

 

[starling]

I enjoyed more 1920s, when there were just 3 teams in the league. Good times.

 

[Leafs87]

How many people here were alive or old enough to remember the dynasty days to be able to compare

 

[RangerBlues]

Islanders and Oilers.
Redwings and Devils might be the next closest thing since.
It will be hugely difficult now unless you can draft consistently.

 

[madmike77]

I was more of a fan, but mostly because I was younger and had more time to follow hockey. Now that I've got a wife, kid and job, I still love hockey, but I don't have the time or energy to follow it like I used to.

 

[Ogopogo*]

I was more of a fan, but mostly because I was younger and had more time to follow hockey. Now that I've got a wife, kid and job, I still love hockey, but I don't have the time or energy to follow it like I used to.

Completely agree. When I was younger, I lived the game - soaked it up every minute of every day, as much as I could.

I now have a wife, kids and busy career, I haven't got the time anymore. Even if I had the $3,000 for a season ticket in the nosebleeds, I don't have the time for it.

Combine that with the fact today's game is such garbage hockey and, I don't watch a helluva lot of games. Being an Oilers fan, I haven't even paid attention to the playoffs that last two years. I'll still watch the Oilers play but, more like 15 - 20 times per year, not 82. Too busy living life, not enough time to watch others living life.