Rondo impresses Gary Payton but dislike everything about the NBA

[Clench123]

    "Basically everything. It's no defense, it's just run and gun. To me, there's only three point guards in the NBA that impress me; I got Chris Paul, Rondo, and another kid that I like a lot and I forgot his name right now. Oh, and Tony Parker. That's only three NBA players in there.

    There's too much touch fouls. Every time you touch and they stay on the free throw line. That's no way to watch basketball. When we were playing, it was rough and tough. Even superstars like me fouled out a lot. That's because they let people play, and if you do something then you call it. But nowadays it's not like that and this is the era.

This is what kids want to see. You see these Playstations, they scoring 50 and 60 with one player, that's what they want to see on TV and I don't go with that. My era, give me one-on-one with somebody and stop him and right now you can't do that with a player because if you touch him he's going to the foul line and you're fouling out. Let him be rough. If he got an opportunity to go at you in the offensive end, let me go at him on the defensive end and rough him up. So that's the way I like basketball and I don't think it's like that."

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/gary-payton-don-t-modern-nba-payton-basically-175801742--nba.html

I had to post this just because he name dropped our one and only as being one of his three favorites.  It means a lot coming from a him.  Appreciate what you have, Celtics fans.

Now that that's out of the way, I agree with everything he said about the league.  I became a true Celtics fan in 2007 but I've been watching basketball for a while before that.  Some of these games today are tiring with foul calls almost every play.  It robs people of its enjoyment.

[mmmmm]

That article would have been much better if it had stuck to just being about what Gary Payton had to say.

Instead, it quickly took a hard turn into a spew of Kelly Dwyer's view of the league.

Kelly:  Next time, put the truth of what you are writing about in the headline.

Or at least put a caveat after the Payton quote so we know to stop reading since after Payton's quote you don't really talk about him or what he had to say.

Congratulations, though, you got the page hit count.

[CFAN38]

agree with payton 100%. This is what pushed me to watch more college. Now they are getting soft.

[Donoghus]

He's pretty much spot on with the PGs although I'd add D-Rose when he was healthy too. 

I think NBA now is a lot better than it was at the turn of the century (late 90s/early to mid 2000s).

Still prefer it to the college game.

I agree with part of what Payton says but also see some "old man, everything was better in my day" slant to it which is pretty unavoidable anyways.

[GreenWarrior]

the defense they could play back in the day was better. he's right about that.

but the things he's complaining about all boil down to one thing and I've mentioned this before. the nba refs suck, they are the worst officials in all of sports.

and that is not the worst part. the worst part is they are the only full time officials in all of sports.

how is this possible? shouldn't they be the best officials? during the off season what exactly are they doing outside of collecting a check for no reason?

the officiating is such a joke that last yr they implemented that rule where "if you flop, you'll get fined"....

sooo, they acknowledge that players flop so they confound the situation by adding another rule instead of just fixing the real problem - DON'T BLOW THE WHISTLE, OR CALL IT ANOTHER WAY.

it's the officiating to me that leads credence to stuff tim donaghy was claiming.
 

[D.o.s.]

I wonder what Dr Naismith would've said about Peyton's era. Or Bird's. Or Cousey's. Or Russell's.

Probably something like "what the hell is that thing they're doing, pushing the ball up and down with one hand?"

Sports change.

[Onslaught]

The NBA was 8 million times better in the 80's and 90's. I still watch it but it will never be as good as back then.

[Timdawgg]

The NBA was 8 million times better in the 80's and 90's. I still watch it but it will never be as good as back then.

I agree..It just felt like there were so many superstars back then..It does not feel that way anymore..There only a handful of players that are currently superstars in my opinion. Back then, the NBA was littered with them...

[Vox_Populi]

I wonder what Dr Naismith would've said about Peyton's era. Or Bird's. Or Cousey's. Or Russell's.

Probably something like "what the hell is that thing they're doing, pushing the ball up and down with one hand?"

Sports change.

This deserves a TP. 

[Onslaught]

The NBA was 8 million times better in the 80's and 90's. I still watch it but it will never be as good as back then.

I agree..It just felt like there were so many superstars back then..It does not feel that way anymore..There only a handful of players that are currently superstars in my opinion. Back then, the NBA was littered with them...

You had less teams back then. So you had more talent on most of the teams. I can name almost every player from every playoff team from back then. I can't tell you half the names on any team other then the Celtics now. And I don't want to know them either.

[freshinthehouse]

A lot of looking at the past through rose colored glasses  in this thread.  In the 80s the league had a serious drug problem and was full of guys who could care less about D.  In the 90s a lot games were devolving into 5 on 5 wrestling matches. 

The game has some flaws now, but IMO it's as good as its ever been.

[Celtics4ever]

The 80s was a great basketball and still had good athletes.  Guys could shoot and had skill across their positions.  Nowadays too many guys are in the league who are not ready.

[Celtics17]

Its not just that there were fewer teams back in the 80s its that the talent pool was much better. Think about it, you have the baby boom generation which started in 1946 and ended in 1964 and the players playing in the 80s were baby boomers. That means that there were around 4 million people in each age group.

Then you get into the 90s and that number drops significantly down to maybe 2.8 million. Combined with more teams it's no wonder the league is watered down. Does anyone think the Heat of last year would have beaten the 80's championship teams? Not likely!

[freshinthehouse]

Then you get into the 90s and that number drops significantly down to maybe 2.8 million. Combined with more teams it's no wonder the league is watered down. Does anyone think the Heat of last year would have beaten the 80's championship teams? Not likely!

To be fair, the 80s championship teams wouldn't exist today because of salary cap restrictions. 

[Onslaught]

A lot of looking at the past through rose colored glasses  in this thread.  In the 80s the league had a serious drug problem and was full of guys who could care less about D.  In the 90s a lot games were devolving into 5 on 5 wrestling matches. 

The game has some flaws now, but IMO it's as good as its ever been.

Much better then the stuff we have now. When they show or talk about games of the past do they not show all the fights and hard fouls? Is that not what they show when the Lakers and Celtics play each other? Heat and Knicks? Like it or not it's the stuff that stands out and people remember. And we have nothing like that now but dunks. Dunk after dunk after dunk.

The Celtics or Pistons of the 80's would put a stop to all those easy dunks they have today.