Is basketball more or less entertaining than it was 15 years ago?

[Kernewek]

I believe it's better now. It opens the game up to real skill and craft over height and size genetics. Someone like Shaq, 20 years ago, almost seemed like a cheat code, that can't happen today.

As per usual, on basketball topics, I agree with JSD - although I think Shaq would have dominated any era, including this one.

But, I think there are some things you could do to adjust toward the middle: get rid of the corner three by extending the 3 line naturally, allow for a little more contact on defense. I have no desire to go back to the days of 'if you want to help you need to send a hard double' because teams are too good at exploiting that kind of thing now.

And that's another part of it. With the absence of significant rule changes, basketball is going to become 'a solved problem' much more than it was 20,30, or 40 years ago. The reason everyone shoots threes is that it's the 'best' shot, even if its an ok (pullup/lightly guarded/early shot clock) three vs a wide-open three.

[Surferdad]

The 3-point shot has not expanded the game, it has distorted it. The 3-pointer is now the #1 priority in every offensive set and everyone knows it.

[ozgod]

I don't think it is more or less entertaining than it was. I'm one of those people that tends to adapt with the times...back in the day I loved it when it was all defense focused, throw it in to the big and let him go to work...I loved it when they cleared one side for MJ and let him break his defender down...these days it's also fun seeing ball movement lead to open perimeter shots.

More than anything it's the advent of analytics that worked out that the most valuable shots to take were perimeter shots. Couple that with the emergence of guys like Steph and Klay and it was just a perfect storm.

[Roy H.]

I tend to find it less entertaining.  I disagree with the league's hypothesis that more offense equals a better fan experience.  It's similar to what baseball did with the juiced baseballs (and juiced players).  More HRs and more scoring didn't necessarily mean a better product.

I find a lot of games to be too close to the All Star Game experience.  Too many 3PTs, resulting in a lot more missed shots.  Very little defense.  Very little physicality. 

[celts55]

Guess I’ll weigh in as I’ve been watching for over 50 years.
I would say I preferred the old days for a number of reasons

Refs let them play. I can’t stand when they blow the whistle when someone barely touches a player 40 feet from the basket. They call so many fouls that we would not even consider when I was playing in an over 40 league. Really weak stuff. I hate all the flagrant fouls. A player goes up to shoot, other guys is on top of him so his elbow brushes his check. Flagrant foul. If that’s not bad enough, they have to go to the monitor, which takes 5 minutes or so. All 3 refs have to take a turn looking. Just make a call and move on. Completely kills the flow of the game.

Also feels like there’s a lot more ISO ball. Used to love the ball movement of the Celtics when Bird and them played. Now it’s watching one guy going one on one too much, in my opinion.

Lastly the over reliance on the 3. I really don’t have a problem with the 3 as a weapon, but when I see a guy has the ball under the hoop wide open and he kicks it out for a 3, it makes me crazy. If it’s open during the flow of the game fine, but don’t give up a layup for it.

Anyway, I still watch, but I do find it less enjoyable than I did

[Celtics2021]

Guess I’ll weigh in as I’ve been watching for over 50 years.
I would say I preferred the old days for a number of reasons

Refs let them play. I can’t stand when they blow the whistle when someone barely touches a player 40 feet from the basket. They call so many fouls that we would not even consider when I was playing in an over 40 league. Really weak stuff. I hate all the flagrant fouls. A player goes up to shoot, other guys is on top of him so his elbow brushes his check. Flagrant foul. If that’s not bad enough, they have to go to the monitor, which takes 5 minutes or so. All 3 refs have to take a turn looking. Just make a call and move on. Completely kills the flow of the game.

Also feels like there’s a lot more ISO ball. Used to love the ball movement of the Celtics when Bird and them played. Now it’s watching one guy going one on one too much, in my opinion.

Lastly the over reliance on the 3. I really don’t have a problem with the 3 as a weapon, but when I see a guy has the ball under the hoop wide open and he kicks it out for a 3, it makes me crazy. If it’s open during the flow of the game fine, but don’t give up a layup for it.

Anyway, I still watch, but I do find it less enjoyable than I did

They call 25% fewer fouls per game today than they did in the 80s, for what it’s worth.

[Kernewek]

Guess I’ll weigh in as I’ve been watching for over 50 years.
I would say I preferred the old days for a number of reasons

Refs let them play. I can’t stand when they blow the whistle when someone barely touches a player 40 feet from the basket. They call so many fouls that we would not even consider when I was playing in an over 40 league. Really weak stuff. I hate all the flagrant fouls. A player goes up to shoot, other guys is on top of him so his elbow brushes his check. Flagrant foul. If that’s not bad enough, they have to go to the monitor, which takes 5 minutes or so. All 3 refs have to take a turn looking. Just make a call and move on. Completely kills the flow of the game.

Also feels like there’s a lot more ISO ball. Used to love the ball movement of the Celtics when Bird and them played. Now it’s watching one guy going one on one too much, in my opinion.

Lastly the over reliance on the 3. I really don’t have a problem with the 3 as a weapon, but when I see a guy has the ball under the hoop wide open and he kicks it out for a 3, it makes me crazy. If it’s open during the flow of the game fine, but don’t give up a layup for it.

Anyway, I still watch, but I do find it less enjoyable than I did

They call 25% fewer fouls per game today than they did in the 80s, for what it’s worth.

I'd hazard a guess that the time spent in stoppage in play per foul could be higher, though, given the replay review (which we need because of the improvements in broadcast quality).

[dannyboy35]

   I don’t want the physicality back in the game just because I don’t believe it can be fairly refereed .Refs drive me nuts like everyone else but I don’t think it was ever fair to criticize them years ago for what was or was not enough contact to warrant a foul. It was a mess and a bad look for the players who had every right to throw up their arms in disbelief.
  It was good theatre but it just wasn’t “ on the level” to me. I believe the Celtics lost to the Warriors because the refs just ate the whistle when Golden State started wrapping people up off ball, tangling arms , checking and impeding progress .
  I wouldn’t argue with anyone saying the Celtics shoukd have been able to adjust but it was just refereed different than the entire season and whole playoffs up to that point. Even the conference Finals.
  The celts could t do it back nearly as effectively because Curry is the lead ball handler and so darn hard to catch.

[Surferdad]

Guess I’ll weigh in as I’ve been watching for over 50 years.
I would say I preferred the old days for a number of reasons

Refs let them play. I can’t stand when they blow the whistle when someone barely touches a player 40 feet from the basket. They call so many fouls that we would not even consider when I was playing in an over 40 league. Really weak stuff. I hate all the flagrant fouls. A player goes up to shoot, other guys is on top of him so his elbow brushes his check. Flagrant foul. If that’s not bad enough, they have to go to the monitor, which takes 5 minutes or so. All 3 refs have to take a turn looking. Just make a call and move on. Completely kills the flow of the game.

Also feels like there’s a lot more ISO ball. Used to love the ball movement of the Celtics when Bird and them played. Now it’s watching one guy going one on one too much, in my opinion.

Lastly the over reliance on the 3. I really don’t have a problem with the 3 as a weapon, but when I see a guy has the ball under the hoop wide open and he kicks it out for a 3, it makes me crazy. If it’s open during the flow of the game fine, but don’t give up a layup for it.

Anyway, I still watch, but I do find it less enjoyable than I did

This is the part I miss the most.

As I said before, over-reliance on the 3-point shot has distorted the game offense. The general notion of a great shot is no longer closer to the basket but actually the opposite of that.

[Roy H.]

Guess I’ll weigh in as I’ve been watching for over 50 years.
I would say I preferred the old days for a number of reasons

Refs let them play. I can’t stand when they blow the whistle when someone barely touches a player 40 feet from the basket. They call so many fouls that we would not even consider when I was playing in an over 40 league. Really weak stuff. I hate all the flagrant fouls. A player goes up to shoot, other guys is on top of him so his elbow brushes his check. Flagrant foul. If that’s not bad enough, they have to go to the monitor, which takes 5 minutes or so. All 3 refs have to take a turn looking. Just make a call and move on. Completely kills the flow of the game.

Also feels like there’s a lot more ISO ball. Used to love the ball movement of the Celtics when Bird and them played. Now it’s watching one guy going one on one too much, in my opinion.

Lastly the over reliance on the 3. I really don’t have a problem with the 3 as a weapon, but when I see a guy has the ball under the hoop wide open and he kicks it out for a 3, it makes me crazy. If it’s open during the flow of the game fine, but don’t give up a layup for it.

Anyway, I still watch, but I do find it less enjoyable than I did

They call 25% fewer fouls per game today than they did in the 80s, for what it’s worth.

Were those fouls "40 feet from the basket", though?  I'm guessing there were a lot more fouls in the post back then.  And, perhaps counterintuitively, when you allow teams to play defense, there are going to be more fouls as players push the limits of what's acceptable.  In today's league, everybody learns that physical defense is strictly forbidden, so they back off and don't foul.

[Celtics2021]

Guess I’ll weigh in as I’ve been watching for over 50 years.
I would say I preferred the old days for a number of reasons

Refs let them play. I can’t stand when they blow the whistle when someone barely touches a player 40 feet from the basket. They call so many fouls that we would not even consider when I was playing in an over 40 league. Really weak stuff. I hate all the flagrant fouls. A player goes up to shoot, other guys is on top of him so his elbow brushes his check. Flagrant foul. If that’s not bad enough, they have to go to the monitor, which takes 5 minutes or so. All 3 refs have to take a turn looking. Just make a call and move on. Completely kills the flow of the game.

Also feels like there’s a lot more ISO ball. Used to love the ball movement of the Celtics when Bird and them played. Now it’s watching one guy going one on one too much, in my opinion.

Lastly the over reliance on the 3. I really don’t have a problem with the 3 as a weapon, but when I see a guy has the ball under the hoop wide open and he kicks it out for a 3, it makes me crazy. If it’s open during the flow of the game fine, but don’t give up a layup for it.

Anyway, I still watch, but I do find it less enjoyable than I did

They call 25% fewer fouls per game today than they did in the 80s, for what it’s worth.

Were those fouls "40 feet from the basket", though?  I'm guessing there were a lot more fouls in the post back then.  And, perhaps counterintuitively, when you allow teams to play defense, there are going to be more fouls as players push the limits of what's acceptable.  In today's league, everybody learns that physical defense is strictly forbidden, so they back off and don't foul.

Were players threats to take shots 30+ feet from the basket back then, however?  The offense starts so much further from the basket than it used to, so it stands to reason that there will be more contact out there.  And I will say, I think whistles are swallowed much more than there are soft fouls  being called too much on the perimeter.

[dannyboy35]

  It is shocking to look back at the 80’s and see a defender 2 or 3 feet off the point guard not even considering he’ll just pull up and shoot a 3.

[SHAQATTACK]

  It is shocking to look back at the 80’s and see a defender 2 or 3 feet off the point guard not even considering he’ll just pull up and shoot a 3.

Yeah ….the 70’s and 80’s they played off the three point area, they d give you that free look,  players worked for a 15-18 foot jumper . Closer in 30 -40 years ago and your got nervous. They intended on ruffing you up. BAD . People did not shake hands and hug ….till the season was over.

But….dare you to try and take a ball into the paint ..LOL ….the bigs were serious big, bad anttidus , ball then wasn’t about little kids watching and they would work over smaller skinny players trying to score on their part of the hard wood.  Buckets inside came a cost to the human body ….very costly in the Cowan and Bird era …..a form of rugby basketball.

[tenn_smoothie]

You're kidding, right ?

The game has deteriorated into a chaotic mess played on the edge of a foul or a turnover in which every team plays the exact same way.
There used to be different styles according to a team's personnel. Some played a more physical, inside game, others were built on speed and athleticism and others were a mix of skilled shooting and ball movement and a few played more to their defense's ability to shut down the opponent and win lower scoring games. The ball used to be moved much more by the pass and not the dribble. What a beautiful game it was. This variation was even more pronounced in college back in the 70's & 80's before the dribble-drive 3-point offense and shot clock started the movement towards the homogenous product we see now from the pros all the way down to the high school level. If not for my life-long love of the Boston Celtics, I wouldn't watch the game at all now days.

[Big333223]

I started watching basketball around 2000. I can say that the game today is much, much better than it was in the early and mid-00's. The game at that time was slow and entirely predicated on isolations. Today, the ball moves around a lot more, defense is a lot more interesting, and the emphasis is on basketball talent not just size.

But I dot think the league has over-corrected. It's not about how the defense is officiated, it's about the offense is officiated. Offensive players have too much leeway now to create contact with bumping and hooking that used to not be allowed. What it created, to my eye, is a league where almost every possession is a judgement call for the refs. Because offensive players can create more contact and get away with it but defensive players have to be allowed to hold their position there's enough contact to reasonably make up a foul call on every drive.

It's left the league in a place where it isn't clear what the rules are anymore because refs don't actually follow the rules. Tightening up the leash on offensive players would help the league.