re: Bust a sports myth

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This is nothing but nostalgia for old timers. There were more “hard” fouls but these type of plays were happening maybe 1-3 times a game. People like to act like anytime you went to the hoop you were being guillotined. Watch some of those games in entirety. Some players of today would be even more dominant because of the zone defense rules.

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Stockton dished out more sharp elbows than anyone.

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Stockton would go at it with the best of them..

LINK

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That Coach K is nothing but class and runs a clean program.

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I don’t really think people think this anymore
Ever since probably the 2014-15 season

1994 Penn State did not drop in the polls because they let off the gas against Indiana. Penn State, Nebraska and Colorado were all getting first place votes Nebraska had 24, PSU 19 and Colorado 16, but the rankings were PSU, Colo, Neb the week of 10/25/94 Nebraska and Colorado played 10/29 and Neb won 24-7 and moved to #1 with 33 first place votes. PSU picked up first place votes but "fell" to 2. Penn State played and destroyed Ohio State that week, they didn't play Indiana until the next week.

10/25
11/1
Penn State Schedule
Nebraska Schedule

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Absolutely false. They allowed handchecking so guards wouldn’t be able to drive to basket unhindered. They actually called traveling so the walks and crab dribbles and euro steps are gone. Plus if you were a starter you were playing man on man defense for 36-40 minutes a night, not this sissy half arse zone they play for 30-32 minutes a night with 2 days rest.

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Players from today would be monsters in 90's NBA games.

In 91-92, Vernon Maxwell led the NBA in made 3's. He made 162, and shot at a .342%.

In the last full NBA season, 162 made 3's would have been good for 32nd best in the NBA. .342 would tie him for 103rd best in the NBA.

90's NBA did not have defenses built to stop some of the shooters of today who can convert around 40% at high volume while still being threats off the dribble.

In 91-92, you could make less than one three a game and be in the top 20 in the league in total made 3's.

Another modern myth

Here is the number of players from 94-95 and 19-20 who hit at least 40% from 3 on at least 2 attempts a game:

95: 22.
20: 24.

45% or better:

95: 4.
20: 3.

50% or better:

95: 2.
20: 0.

I think the myth of Craig James killing 5 hookers is a myth because it’s definitely more than that.

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Here is the number of players from 94-95 and 19-20 who hit at least 40% from 3 on at least 2 attempts a game:

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You got your result by setting a low bar for attempts. When you only take 2 a game, you can have both be open shots in rhythm.

To use your 94-95 example (which I'm assuming you picked because it was the first year the NBA experimented with a shorter 3 point line and thus had a massively inflated # of attempts) only 15 players shot more than 400 threes. Again, that was in a year the NBA had shortened the 3 point line from where it is now to encpurage more threes.

This last full year, 43 players took more than 400 threes.

So, today, more than 3x three pointers are taken than the most inflated year in the 90's. The league as a whole shot .359 in 18-19. In 94-95, with a shorter line, teams also shot .359.

Teams averaged 2625 3's on the season in 18-19. It was 1255 in 94-95.

So again, you have literally 3x the number of players able to hit 3's today and teams are shooting more than twice as many as in 94-95. You'd expect percentages to be higher because of better shot selection and a shorter line in 94-95, but instead it's the same.

Maintaining the same efficiency at a much higher volume is a huge deal. It's what separates stars from role players. Heck, I could probably be a half decent shooter if I only had to take one open J a game in the NBA. Ask me to do it 15 times a game and you'd see I'm nowhere close to NBA level.

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To use your 94-95 example (which I'm assuming you picked because it was the first year the NBA experimented with a shorter 3 point line

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This is a great point that I didn’t even consider.

If you look at his same exact criteria for the 1993-94 season,(which didn’t have the shorter 3-point line), only 7 players shot over 40% with greater than 2 attempts per game.

And if you look at 1998-99, after they got rid of the shorter 3-point line, it was only 8 players.

TheRealCarolina was trying to pull a fast one.


Also, another point. Why arbitrarily cut it off at 40%?

If you look at players who shot 37% or better on at least 2 attempts per game, there were 18 players in 1993-94 who did that.

In 2019-20, there were 74 players who shot at least 37% on 2+ attempts per game.

Not even taking into account that players today take way more attempts and more difficult shots, they still have way more players shooting a good percentage from 3 compared to the 90’s. It’s a fact that shooters are better today.

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If you look at his same exact criteria for the 1993-94 season,(which didn’t have the shorter 3-point line), only 7 players shot over 40% with greater than 2 attempts per game.

And if you look at 1998-99, after they got rid of the shorter 3-point line, it was only 8 players.

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The rule change itself even tells you about the quality of shooting over time.

The shorter line in 94-95 was prompted by the NBA thinking there weren't enough shooters who could hit from further away.

Nowadays, the talk is about extending the line further away because too many people can shoot from that distance.

I don't know how old RealCarolina is, but I grew up with that NBA, and even my nostalgia goggles...it used to be ok to be a guard on a championship team and not be remotely a threat from 3.

Vinnie Johnson was a scoring specialist for the Bad Boy Pistons. He shot 327 threes in 14 seasons, made .254% and never took more than 60 in a season. And he was a 6'2 scorer and shooter. That was his thing.

He was basically Lou Williams's role, and couldn't shoot 3's and wouldn't unless he was wide open.

You just can't get away with that today. 90's defenses wouldn't be ready for guys like Dame and Steph drilling 30 footers without hesitation.