Times Change …

One of the fashionable musings of the moment is to ponder whether the current US Olympic men’s basketball team is equal to – – or even better than – – the Dream Team.  Frankly, I do not care enough about the outcome of such argumentation/analysis to bother with that question for more than a microsecond; but the fact that more than a couple commentators choose to spend time and energy on the subject reminds me that basketball has changed significantly over the years.  And, because the game has changed so significantly, people who focus on the current state of professional basketball may not fully appreciate “the way things were done” in the past.

Modern NBA fans know a few things about Wilt Chamberlain; obviously, his 100-point game against the Knicks in 1962 is familiar to just about every basketball fan.  However, there are other things to know about his game – – and his impact on the game – – that may be lost on current fans.

For example, in 1968 the LA Lakers journeyed to Philly to play the Sixers.  It was late in the season; both teams had excellent records at the time.  The Lakers record was 51-30 and the Sixers record was 61-19.  In that game and against an opponent clearly in the upper echelon of the NBA at the time, Chamberlain had this version of a Triple Double:

• 54 points – – 32 rebounds – – 14 assists
• He shot 24 of 29 from the field (there were no 3-point shots in the NBA then).
• He played all 48 minutes in that game, and he committed zero personal fouls.

Let me present the results of another game.  In 1960, the Celtics came to Philly to take on the Warriors – – before the Warriors went to SF and the Syracuse Nationals relocated to Philly to become the Sixers.  It was an early season game; the Celtics were 10-3 and the Warriors were 11-5.  Here is the Double Double Chamberlain recorded in that game:

• 34 points – – 55 rebounds
• He played all 48 minutes.
• His opponent that night was Bill Russell – – who also played all 48 minutes – – and Russell was and remains the best defensive basketball player I have ever seen.
• Those 55 rebounds in a game still stand as an NBA record almost 65 years later.

In those two examples, note that Chamberlain – – and Russell – – played full 48-minute games; that was not “routine” back in the day, but it happened more than occasionally.  There was no such thing as “load management”.  Consider this next statistical tidbit:

• For the entire 1961 NBA season, Wilt Chamberlain averaged 48.5 minutes per game.
• A regulation game is only 48 minutes; to achieve this, Chamberlain played in all those “regulation games” and then played the overtimes that happened to occur during the season.

So, the game has changed significantly and the only real purpose of trying to make comparisons over long stretches of time is to manufacture a debate that has no real significance.  None of the current US Olympic basketball players comes close to playing 48 minutes a game for a single playoff series let alone for a full NBA season.  If one of them even hinted that he might want to try to do such a thing, I suspect his agent would experience a catatonic state.  The same thing was true of the Dream Team; they were all great players, but none were “iron men”.  And the Dream Team was separated from the days of Russell and Chamberlain by about the same number of years as the current Olympians are separated from the Dream Team.

Switching gears …  There is an adage in MLB that says:

“When you go to a baseball game, you have a chance to see something you’ve never seen before.”

Let me give an example of that adage.  Suppose you had gone out to see the Boston Red Sox/Washington Senators game on 23 June 1917.  Here is what you would have witnessed:

• The Red Sox starting pitcher was Babe Ruth.  You have heard of him in a different context …
• He walked the leadoff hitter.
• That led to a dispute between Ruth and the homeplate umpire; Ruth punched the umpire and was ejected from the game.  [Duh!]
• That leadoff hitter on first base was thrown out trying to steal second.
• The “relief pitcher” for the Red Sox was Ernie Shore and he proceeded to retire the next 26 Senators in a row.

No, that was not a “perfect game” for Shore, but it was the first time a no-hit game was thrown by two or more pitchers on a team.  That baseball adage surely applied on that day.

Finally, here is a perspective on changing times that seems an appropriate way to close today; it comes from political scientist, Charles A. Murray:

“In 1960, it was still – no nostalgia here – an age when you could leave your door unlocked even in urban neighborhoods.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………