Graycap23 said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Marques Johnson and his teammate Sidney Moncrief (along with Bernard King) are probably the most underrated players of the 1980s. If those Bucks teams had the talent that the Lakers, Celtic and Sixers had, and if Johnson and Moncrief never got hit with the injury bug, the NBA would be totaly different right now.

If my memory serves me correctly...............Marques was a coke head more than an injured player.

He did have pretty bad injuries, but whether the other issues may have set his rehab back is a legit question. Has he admitted to having those issues?

namepeace said:

Graycap23 said:

If my memory serves me correctly...............Marques was a coke head more than an injured player.

He did have pretty bad injuries, but whether the other issues may have set his rehab back is a legit question. Has he admitted to having those issues?

I read that he experimented with coke, but I don't think he wasn't a coke head.

namepeace said:

Graycap23 said:

If my memory serves me correctly...............Marques was a coke head more than an injured player.

He did have pretty bad injuries, but whether the other issues may have set his rehab back is a legit question. Has he admitted to having those issues?

http://articles.latimes.com/1985-03-21/sports/sp-20795_1_drug-problem

Bucks were not as deep as Celtics, Lakers and Sixers.

Johnson, Moncrief and thats it. Lanier (who was old and playing on crippled knee's), Bucker and Bridgeman also and that was it. Comapared to the others.

Celtics - Bird/Parish/McHale/Maxwell/Tinny/DJ/Walton/Ainge

Lakers - Kareem/Magic/Wilkes/McAdoo/Cooper/Worthy/Scott

Sixers - Doc/Moses/Jones/Cheeks/Toney/Dawkins

Here is how good those Bucks teams were. The 83 Sixers, swept everyone but the Bucks on their way to the NBA Championship. Those Bucks swept the Celtics 4-0 and lost to Pily 4-1.

I'm going to give a two-part answer, neither of which directly answers the questions (because I can't seem to pick one).

First, for me, I don't believe the NBA has had a downturn since about 1980 (although, in truth, I didn't start watching regularly until 1984). Like many people, I became a hardcore basketball fan because of Michael Jordan. And I listened to all the doom and gloomers predicting basketball would slide back without Michael. Listened to them pontificate about the lack of "star power". Man, nobody was as happy as me to find out that they were ALL wrong.

Second, although it's not a "decade" per se, I think the late 80s to the early 00s represents and incredible period for the NBA. You get players across three "basketball generations" in those years. Some of the all-time greats, and some future all-timers, too. Preceded by the Lakers and Celtics taking five in a row from 1984-1988, starting with 1989 and ending in 2003 you've got two Pistons titles, six for the Bulls and MJ, two for Houston, two for San Antonio and three more for LA.

I still love the league now - in fact, probably as much as I ever have. But that period, for me, was the best basketball I've ever witnessed. It had the most variety as far as players and different playing/coaching styles. And while I agree that the game is faster now, with more raw talent, the guys playing during that time were still allowed to BALL! To actually get out on the court and play hard.