Layups: A chance to educate
Posted by Neil Paine on July 21, 2011
Here's a great post at TrueHoop by Zach Harper, about NBATV's lockout programming schedule.
Oddly enough, one of the few silver linings of the labor dispute has been the fact that NBATV can't show any current players. Why? Because in the scramble to fill airtime, we've been treated to a number of classic games with great historical players.
A few weeks ago, it was Michael Jordan & Karl Malone. Last week, Bill Walton and Charles Barkley. And just last night, we got to watch Larry Bird's 50 greatest moments, a Celtics-Bulls game from 1981 (Artis Gilmore!), and Game 4 of the 1984 Finals. It was because of the lockout... and it was great. Since I don't have ESPN Classic, I've probably watched more old NBA games in the past 3 weeks than I had in the previous 3 years.
I'm sure that if NBATV had its choice, it would show nothing but the usual offseason talking-head commentary about free agency and the like, but for now I'm actually enjoying the absence of that. Who needs Dirk & LeBron when you have Magic & Larry?
July 21st, 2011 at 12:17 pm
You're not missing out on much with ESPN Classic. You'd think the NBA wasn't one of the 4 major sports leagues with how little they show NBA games on there. Doesn't make a lick of sense.
As for NBA TV, it is pretty enjoyable. They finally stopped showing the same 4 drafts like 150 times in a row. Watching some old classic games at least mends some of the withdrawal i've been having.
July 21st, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Absolutely agree! NBA TV programming is much, much better than it's ever been at this time of year.
July 21st, 2011 at 1:27 pm
I'm loving the classic games. Revisiting Game 4 of the 1984 finals was a joy. In addition, it's interesting to watch not only how the game was played, but how the game covered by ABC and CBS during the 70s and 80s.
July 21st, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Isn't this a great time to start analyzing how much better or worse players were back then?
July 21st, 2011 at 6:28 pm
I love the old-time games. What I hate is turning to NBATV and hoping to catch one, only to see a WNBA game is on.
The '84 Lakers team on earlier this week was sick. Everyone remembers Kareem and Worthy and Magic and Cooper and Byron Scott and Rambis, but they also had Bob McAdoo and Jamaal Wilkes and Swen Nater. Teams would kill for that kind of depth now.
July 21st, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Speaking of ranking the old-timey players, how the heck did Wilt fall to number 15? Has there been some sort of conspiracy to lift Karl Malone to number 2, by downranking better players?
July 21st, 2011 at 6:34 pm
I hope the NBA notices the ratings are better, and shows more old games than repetitive analysis shows all year long.
July 22nd, 2011 at 12:15 am
My DVR is full of Classic games right now. I'm actually watching Game 4 of the '84 Finals as I type.
July 23rd, 2011 at 9:14 pm
I'm watching the 81 Celtics-Bulls right now, my DVR is also full of these classic games. If anyone feels like checking out my youtube account (Imadoggydogg), my recent uploads are all highlights cut from old games on NBAtv.
The only bad thing is that when we're not watching Hardwood Classics... it's all WNBA.