Isiah Thomas enjoyed the prime of his career in the 1980s, and thus it is understandable if he doesn’t particularly enjoy the new era of the NBA. He spoke about it too, when he appeared on Mark Jackson’s Come and Talk 2 Me podcast. The two didn’t hold back when discussing the state of basketball in the modern era.
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The pair first discussed the All-Star Game, which has changed formats this year to try and liven up what has become an embarrassing affair. They bemoaned the fact that nobody plays defense anymore in the All-Star Game, which is supposed to be a showcase of the very best players in the world. Jackson summed it up well:
“My problem in today’s game is, if you have the All-Star Game, I can go get the highest-jumping, most athletic dude in the streets, and he can get 40 in today’s All-Star Game, because he’s going to catch lobs, and he’s going to get dunks. And he’s a fool if he thinks he can compete with those guys, but we’re allowing it to be a sideshow instead of a platform where the best in the world put on a performance.”
Thomas agreed, and he pivoted to wondering how LeBron James is allowed to dominate in the league even though he’s 40 years old. “If I’m 22, and I’m playing against a 40-year-old, dude, he got no shot.”
Thomas mentioned how the older guys from his era used to come up and say, “Hey man, take it easy on me tonight.” Jackson added that the old guys from his day used to come on the court and just hope to get one shot up because they couldn’t hope to dominate or be one of the top players in the league.
Would a 40-year-old LeBron James be able to dominate in Isiah Thomas’ era?
On the one hand, LeBron is the ultimate outlier in sporting history. This is a guy who has spent millions of dollars to maintain his body, whereas players back in the day used to smoke a pack of cigarettes on the commercial flight from game to game. LeBron deserves credit for how he’s been able to keep up his level of performance well into his twilight years, even if there have been signs this year that Father Time is finally catching up.
Still, Thomas and Jackson aren’t wrong. Thomas was the leader of the Bad Boy Pistons, the toughest team in league history. Chuck Daly’s team used to employ “The Jordan Rules,” which basically meant hammering Michael Jordan any time he came into the paint, and for a while, it worked. MJ is arguably the toughest player to ever play, and even he wasn’t able to overcome the Pistons until 1991, his seventh year in the league. Today’s players aren’t allowed to be as physical, which has made it easier on LeBron.
LeBron might think twice about putting his head down and driving into the lane if Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn were waiting there to clothesline him. He deserves his standing as one of the greatest to ever do it, but critics online point out very frequently that LeBron acts like he’s been shot even on common fouls. Getting roughed up for 48 minutes at a time by Thomas’ Pistons, Jackson’s Knicks, or the McHale-Parrish Celtics would have been a lot different than what he deals with now, and it might hasten his retirement.
Would a 40-year-old LeBron James still be able to play in a rough and tumble era? As someone who’s averaging 23.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 9.0 assists even at his advanced age, the answer is yes. Would he be one of the best players in the game? There’s no way. Give this one to the old heads.
