Are True Rivalries Dead?

Big fan of the Celtics/Lakers games in the 80's. However, I watched the ESPN special on it (2 nights) it was way to long. Plus, I can't stand Ice Cube, his whole "tough guy" act kind of ruined the 2 part series. NBA just hasn't been the same from LA/Boston, Sixers/Rockets, Pitons through Jordan and the Bulls. I didn't watch one NBA Finals game last year or this year.

College football and basketball still has great rivalries.
 
SteveGarvey1 said:
Well the Celtics and Lakers really did hate each other. Plus there was the racial aspect as the Lakers were regarded as more of the black team while the Celtics were regarded as a mostly white team. Not my opinion, btw, it was discussed in the 30 for 30.
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You're right - if I recall Robert Parish and DJ were the two black starters out of five for Boston. Bird, Ainge and McHale, right?
Isn't it Amazing how random sports facts stick in your head from 30+ years ago!
Like the hometowns of Iowa's starting five way back. Steve Carfino = Bellflower, CA - Michael Payne=Quincy, IL - Todd Berkenpas = Mapleton/Maple Valley . Good grief, time for bed.
 
Back in the late 50's and early 60's Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa had healthy rivalries. Then Wisconsin and Minni dropped out for decades. Now, the Goofs are still out,...... but not in their eyes. That always makes them dangerous. One day they might find the right combination of all things college football and then they are going to be very dangerous to two teams in particular, Wisconsin and Iowa.
 
Unknownbadger said:
Back in the late 50's and early 60's Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa had healthy rivalries. Then Wisconsin and Minni dropped out for decades. Now, the Goofs are still out,...... but not in their eyes. That always makes them dangerous. One day they might find the right combination of all things college football and then they are going to be very dangerous to two teams in particular, Wisconsin and Iowa.
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The holy triad of college sports, to me. The B1G really messed things up when they put Wisconsin in the Leader's division. Having them not play Iowa for a few years was just dumb, given their records in Football and basketball were a game or two from even in the W/L columns.
 
thetrza said:
The 30 for 30s follow a very familiar pattern.

Narrator in promo reads "What if I told you...."

Music starts, archival blurry sports footage plays.

Talking head "No one had ever seen anything like this before...."

Montage of newspaper headlines with music in background.

Second talking head "It was LARGER THAN LIFE!"

Soft focus present day footage of current subject matter or setting.

Cut to commercial break with directors commentary on importance of the documentary you are watching.

Final talking head "You just don't get things like that today...."
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You forgot the part bout Michael Wilbon knowing--personally--every black athlete that was murdered between 1960 and 2008. Every. Single. Fu&&ing. One.
 
Mademyaccount4u said:
The holy triad of college sports, to me. The B1G really messed things up when they put Wisconsin in the Leader's division. Having them not play Iowa for a few years was just dumb, given their records in Football and basketball were a game or two from even in the W/L columns.
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I've come to believe that however the B1G is split it will be wrong. It got worse with the expansion. I just don't see how it can be balanced without one of the Michigan schools moving to the West. I don't know how we can expand west and add a "elite" team to balance the league. Texas is a royal pain in the behind and Oklahoma always wants Okie State to come along with them (and Neither have AAU credentials). If we add, IMO the teams will be from the southeastern part of the country. Then Delaney will have a real mess on his hands.
 
Unknownbadger said:
I've come to believe that however the B1G is split it will be wrong. It got worse with the expansion. I just don't see how it can be balanced without one of the Michigan schools moving to the West. I don't know how we can expand west and add a "elite" team to balance the league. Texas is a royal pain in the behind and Oklahoma always wants Okie State to come along with them (and Neither have AAU credentials). If we add, IMO the teams will be from the southeastern part of the country. Then Delaney will have a real mess on his hands.
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I always thought Missouri was going to end up in the BIG. Surprised when they left for the SEC. They would have brought some viewers, I would think.
 
Yeah, I thought it was strange when Delaney passed on Missouri for Rutgers and Maryland, but it gave him a reason to build his ivory tower in NY. The results, a mess we've currently got these next two years in scheduling our basketball seasons over a no-brainer in Indy or even Chicago.
 
EstronHawkKing said:
85/86 Celtics, greatest NBA team of all time. Amazing that they only lost one home game that season.

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It's amazing that they took the Lakers to 6 in the finals the following season with all the injuries they had. McHale played on a broken foot, B. Walton's feet issued re-emerged and other injuries.

And had not Len Bias tragically decided to celebrate with too much coke after being drafted by the Cs in '86 they would have had a few more banners to put up in the rafters.
 
I think it’s an ‘era’ thing. Players now were all brought up in the AAU circuit. They hop around to 2 or 3 Highschools. They throw a huge production for when they choose their college all while only staying there a year or two before transferring or going pro. There are no ‘teams’ anymore in a way. It’s groups of individuals trying to better themselves the best/fastest way they can. You could almost mark it back to when Duke started to have kids leave early for the pros instead of staying all 4 yrs. They were one of the last ‘blue blood premier’ programs to begin embracing kids leaving early for the pros. But when that happened is when this shift was really noticiable. Was Elton Brand like the first one? I could be wrong.

But to me players make so much money now and only care about making more of it that winning at all costs to the point that they’d fight and have hatred towards a rival is just not worth it to them. They’d have to care about winning more. Now the only time you see anything heated is when there’s a cheap shot thrown by a guy like Draymon Green. He doesn’t do it for the same reasons Lambeer did. I think Green is just a douche. Put him on a lessor team and he’s just a role player who’d stay in his lane. He wasn’t like that in college I don’t remember. I think he’s doing it to stand out. I dunno could be wrong about him too I’m no quack either. Lambeer usually had a message with his shots there was nothing subtle about it. He wasn’t trying to get away with anything. He wanted to not only take the other teams good players out of their games but hurt them and make them change their line of thinking about driving inside. That’s not at all what Green has been doing.
 
I know people don't like it when I say things like this. But we live in a world of social media, where communities of people interact electronically in worlds they create and practically no rules. What used to be fought in the streets or debated in public now happens on social media between Snaps, Insta, 'grams, yo's, slacks, and most importantly LinkedIn invitation emails.

Just last month as the NBA Playoffs were coming to their most dramatic moments, it all happened in real time interactions between fans sharing vines and emojis without any regard to history, precedent, and only a tangential relationship to the actual playoff games going on . It was glorious.
 
I’ll give an example of a player to which I kinda was referring to with my earlier post. Dwayne Wade. He has what most would say is a ‘no brainer’ of a decision to make. He has a player option to stay with the Bulls next yr for 24 large. Or he can be a FA. So could a guy like him chase another ring somewhere else? He sure could but market value for a 30 something yr old shooting guard that’s as beat up as he has been isn’t very high. He’d have to take a huge pay cut to do that I’m sure. He hasn’t decided yet I don’t think but I don’t see him turnin down 24 guaranteed million bucks to stay on the mediocre Bulls to go chase another ring anywhere else for less than half that probably… And this is a guy that’s already made a ton of money. Now granted he’s already won rings perhaps the argument could be made if he hadn’t that he would jump ship but even then I doubt it… Would a guy like that care about rivalries? The money/culture in which they come up is what it is…
 
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