In the early 1970's, NC State had, IN MY OPINION, the greatest leaper to ever play the game in David Thompson... But the NCAA probably could have kicked itself from the standpoint of snuffing out entertainment for the fans as the dunk was outlawed so the Alley-Oops from Monty Towe(NC State PG) to David Thompson were high wire layups and not dunks.. The entertainment of the dunk was being experienced in the ABA with Julius Erving, Larry Kenon, and Darnell Hillman plus the addition of Thompson, who was drafted by the Nuggets. Dr J vs David Thompson's dunk contest was epic, at the time. Then the NCAA allowed dunks where Louisville with Darrell Griffith had a team full of dunkers called the "Doctors of Dunk". The NBA took upon the franchises from the defunct ABA with all the dunkers so the dunk became the prominent exciting play in basketball. CBS had head to head dunk contests at halftime of the NBA games they broadcast with judges Mendy Rudolph, Hot Rod Hundley, and former head coaches.
It literally became ridiculous as all recruiting publications were publishing a player's vertical leap out of high school.. Street and Smith would write the vertical leaps for everyone that had a 36 inch vertical or higher. Extreme exaggerations to the point that the highest vertical leap of a player that I had read was the late Dennis Johnson's brother had a vertical leap, SUPPOSEDLY, over 50 inches. Of course the early to mid 80's had some of the greatest dunkers alive.. Houston matched Louisville's "Doctors of Dunk" with the ficticious dunk fraternity, Phi Slamma Jamma with Clyde Drexler, Michael Young, Bennie Anders, Akeem Olajuwon, etc. The culmination was the 1983 semifinals between Louisville and Houston but it was Houston's show that night. In the same years, you had Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins as well as the small players like Spud Webb, who was incredible for his size.. Of course, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Kobe Bryant came down the pike but the game was evolving in other ways..
You started seeing guys 6-8 on up playing on the perimeter in the sets. You had Larry Bird, Robert Reid, James Worthy, Karl Malone, Danny Manning, Dirk Novitski play away from the basket..Much less low post lumbering though you stiill saw it prominent with teams like the Rockets with Olajuwon, Knicks with Patrick Ewing, , Celtics with Parish and McHale.. But equally bigs coming into the league like Vlade Divac and Bill Laimbeer, who liked to face up from the perimeter to shoot. The last dominate big that exclusively went to the low post was Shaquille O'Neal and by that time, he really had no peer and the bigs were getting used to playing face up on the outside including Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace. Guys 6-10, 6-11 that had good skill on the perimeter. The foreign bigs all had that outside skill as they learned those skill playing against older players in their early youth. Kids coming out early in the draft did not allow a lot of those young bigs the time to develop the low post skills for the NBA either. The game was moving to the outside and getting smaller, as a result.
Jordan and Lebron really transitioned the game. The Cavaliers tried to combine Shaq at the end of his career with LeBron, trying to get a championship. The problem was LeBron was used to a pick and pop center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who kept the lane open as he hung out on the perimeter.. Shaq clogged the lane for LeBron so it was a failed experiment for LeBron and the Cavaliers. The game went to more of an open post game even for the Spurs who had one of the best fundamental bigs ever in Tim Duncan. Increased foreign bigs with perimeter skills, big US players wanting to play face up instead of 'back-to-the basket', and coaches wanting the lane open for more motion offense so bigs played out high. You saw all the offenses like the FLEX, where you have a lot of screens on the baseline, become prominent. Or invert the post like the triangle offense did with Jordan and Kobe. Bigs were setting high screens for the guards so much more, then spotting up for the jumper..... Hence where we are today.
I watched Reggie Miller, Ray Allen, Dale Ellis and others but have never seen anything like Stephon Curry.. he is absolutely amazing.. Now, in college, you have to be able to shoot the 3 ball to be competitive with the best, in most cases... A seriously undermanned team, athletically, can beat a better team in the NCAAs if they get hot from the 3-ball area. Game has gotten smaller and the 3s are raining at both the college and pro level as well as seeped into the HS ranks.. Its hard to find a big with good low post fundamentals in the US anymore. Its a different world on the court... After watching Curry last night, I think we have seen the complete evolution of the game though I still think that will cycle again, over time.. Will be interesting to see if that changes the distances of the 3 point line in college. In pros, with Curry I don;t think it makes any difference.. I find it very interesting for the future of the game though good passing, defense, rebounding and not turning the ball over will always be important, regardless of style. The dunk was shown not to be dead at the NBA all star weekend but the long distance shot is now much more on center stage than ever before.
It literally became ridiculous as all recruiting publications were publishing a player's vertical leap out of high school.. Street and Smith would write the vertical leaps for everyone that had a 36 inch vertical or higher. Extreme exaggerations to the point that the highest vertical leap of a player that I had read was the late Dennis Johnson's brother had a vertical leap, SUPPOSEDLY, over 50 inches. Of course the early to mid 80's had some of the greatest dunkers alive.. Houston matched Louisville's "Doctors of Dunk" with the ficticious dunk fraternity, Phi Slamma Jamma with Clyde Drexler, Michael Young, Bennie Anders, Akeem Olajuwon, etc. The culmination was the 1983 semifinals between Louisville and Houston but it was Houston's show that night. In the same years, you had Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins as well as the small players like Spud Webb, who was incredible for his size.. Of course, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Kobe Bryant came down the pike but the game was evolving in other ways..
You started seeing guys 6-8 on up playing on the perimeter in the sets. You had Larry Bird, Robert Reid, James Worthy, Karl Malone, Danny Manning, Dirk Novitski play away from the basket..Much less low post lumbering though you stiill saw it prominent with teams like the Rockets with Olajuwon, Knicks with Patrick Ewing, , Celtics with Parish and McHale.. But equally bigs coming into the league like Vlade Divac and Bill Laimbeer, who liked to face up from the perimeter to shoot. The last dominate big that exclusively went to the low post was Shaquille O'Neal and by that time, he really had no peer and the bigs were getting used to playing face up on the outside including Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace. Guys 6-10, 6-11 that had good skill on the perimeter. The foreign bigs all had that outside skill as they learned those skill playing against older players in their early youth. Kids coming out early in the draft did not allow a lot of those young bigs the time to develop the low post skills for the NBA either. The game was moving to the outside and getting smaller, as a result.
Jordan and Lebron really transitioned the game. The Cavaliers tried to combine Shaq at the end of his career with LeBron, trying to get a championship. The problem was LeBron was used to a pick and pop center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who kept the lane open as he hung out on the perimeter.. Shaq clogged the lane for LeBron so it was a failed experiment for LeBron and the Cavaliers. The game went to more of an open post game even for the Spurs who had one of the best fundamental bigs ever in Tim Duncan. Increased foreign bigs with perimeter skills, big US players wanting to play face up instead of 'back-to-the basket', and coaches wanting the lane open for more motion offense so bigs played out high. You saw all the offenses like the FLEX, where you have a lot of screens on the baseline, become prominent. Or invert the post like the triangle offense did with Jordan and Kobe. Bigs were setting high screens for the guards so much more, then spotting up for the jumper..... Hence where we are today.
I watched Reggie Miller, Ray Allen, Dale Ellis and others but have never seen anything like Stephon Curry.. he is absolutely amazing.. Now, in college, you have to be able to shoot the 3 ball to be competitive with the best, in most cases... A seriously undermanned team, athletically, can beat a better team in the NCAAs if they get hot from the 3-ball area. Game has gotten smaller and the 3s are raining at both the college and pro level as well as seeped into the HS ranks.. Its hard to find a big with good low post fundamentals in the US anymore. Its a different world on the court... After watching Curry last night, I think we have seen the complete evolution of the game though I still think that will cycle again, over time.. Will be interesting to see if that changes the distances of the 3 point line in college. In pros, with Curry I don;t think it makes any difference.. I find it very interesting for the future of the game though good passing, defense, rebounding and not turning the ball over will always be important, regardless of style. The dunk was shown not to be dead at the NBA all star weekend but the long distance shot is now much more on center stage than ever before.
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