A major gripe that the older generation of NBA players has with the current landscape is that everybody’s too friendly with one another. After all, the ’80s and the ’90s were famous for some of the most bitter rivalries the NBA has ever seen. Magic v Bird, Isiah v Jordan, Jordan v Ewing, they had it all. Alonzo Mourning revealed that the desire to get one over on others ran so deep that Michael Jordan wouldn’t even shake his hand before games, something that players usually do as a sign of respect to each other.
Advertisement
On Shaquille O’Neal’s ‘Big Podcast’, Zo recalled how in the playoff series he played against the Chicago Bulls Jordan and Scottie Pippen would refuse to acknowledge him before the jump ball. He said players would usually just shake hands or bump fists, and not hug like the current players.
“Scottie and Michael wouldn’t even shake my hands at jump ball. They refused. They looked at me and I went in and they walked away. So now everybody’s hugging, Kumbaya, ‘Hey man, good to see you’ and all that. We didn’t do all that. It was a fist bump and keep it moving.”
In a way, the league has lost part of its marketability because of the lack of a clear on-court rivalry. The ’80s were hugely successful for the NBA as they were able to build storylines off the rivalries that they had. Because of the anticipation of seeing two players with intense on-court distaste for one another, fans would tune in by the million.
People claim to this day that the fierce competition and the rivalries were what made them fans in the first place. Furthermore, the new direction that the players have taken is not something they enjoy seeing.
Nobody did rivalries like the NBA in the ’90s
The rivalry between MJ’s Bulls and Ewing’s Knicks in the late 1990s was very well documented. While the duo and many of their teammates would regularly eat dinner together, Michael Jordan once claimed that it didn’t stop them from competing on court.
He used Charles Oakley as an example and said, “I actually do like them. Oakely almost tried to take my head off every time we played, and we’d go get dinner afterward.”
Even this simple interview reiterates Mourning’s point about rivalries.
The fact that players in the ’90s were able to compete with each other fiercely on the court and still stay friends off it was what made that era of basketball truly special, and what most fans believe is missing in today’s game.
