Where are the facts you speak of?
I donât have a âdog in this fightâ because I donât watch the NBA anymore, either, but having more skilled and athletic players doesnât necessarily make the GAME better unless all one cares about is skill and athleticism. Now, that COULD make the game better if they all played together as a team, and maybe they do. Since I donât watch anymore, I donât know, and I guess that makes this comment (my comment) pretty worthless! What else is there to do on a rainy Saturday morning bored and stuck in the house! 
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Here are some facts you can read that supports athletes actually being more athletic in earlier years. Wilt the Stilt would dominate todayâs NBA players. If we are strictly speaking being athletes certainly vertical leap has to be considered as a main criteria.
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Well the late 90s objectively played at a painfully slow pace. And scoring efficiency reached a low since the 70s in that era. They were probably right in the early 90s to say its much better than the 70s as well. Bird and Magic brought the NBA back. Then the NBA had to make a lot of changes to their reputation again to bounce back from the post-MJ era. Yes its impossible to prove the entire statement because some of it is subjective, but there are some objective parts as well.
As for Wilt âdominatingâ todays NBA players: Itâs silly to think todays players arenât better overall. Society as a whole is always improving, makes sense sport would as well. That doesnât take away from their accomplishments since prior era players could only be as good as their era would allow them.
And that 48" vertical claim is laughable.
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Wilt had a 48 inch very just like Nolan Ryan threw 108 MPH lol.
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Tell my why a new world record is being set in every Olympic sports every few years. You have to be intentionally ignorant to not recognize that the athletes of today are superior to those of 20 years ago.
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Society always improving? Not really a laughable statement but considering whatâs happening to society it almost makes the generations before winner by default. Unless youâve lived under a rock society has degraded I can only assume by your logic athleticism has as well.
Todayâs athleteâs have access to more training and technology than athleteâs from the earlier years. That has to play into any significant increase in measures.
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Mostly due to playing surfaces, equipment used and changing distances. Tell me why there are records still standing 20 - 40 years later? Long jump was set in 1968 over 50 years ago whereâs the great athletes of today?
There are definitely other âtechnologicalâ factors involved when weâre talking about Olympic sports. Almost certainly sports like basketball as well just due to money involved, though I try not to think about that.
I donât think athleticism necessarily explains the difference between the NBA of yore and of today. Jordan led everyone to seek dribble penetration, and then hand-checking was eliminated, and then we got a critical mass of stretch 4s, and then Curry came along, etc. etc. The game just changes. Is what it is. Goes through phases.
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Traveling calls also became lax for MJ and beyond. Stern made his decision, choosing to put all of his chips and influence behind helping/making Jordan the face of The NBA. It worked $-wise, not sure about the way the game is now played.