I stopped caring about other teams outside the blazers after the players from the "golden age" started retiring. I would always watch the Bulls with Jordan, or when it was the Lakers/Sixers with AI vs Kobe.... I loved watching the Pacers with Reggie Miller. The Knicks/Pacers rivalry was extremely fun to watch. I hate the league now. I hate the players, I hate the marketing, I hate the refs, I hate Stern, I hate what the NBA has become. It's a shadow of the sport that I truly loved in my youth. Blake Griffin is a perfect example of why the league sucks now. The guy comes in and is instantly untouchable because of his highlights. Stern needs his Sportscenter team and Blake is the MVP.
During the golden era, there had been two leagues that competed and they merged. The result was a concentration of talent and an exciting brand of basketball. The ABA brought flashy dunking style of basketball to the NBA along with the 3pt shot. It also brought in a variety of stars, like Dr. J, David Thompson, George Gervin, Moses Malone, Artis Gilmore, George McGinnis, and others. The 76ers were the Heat of their era, combining 3 of those ABA stars (Dr. J, McGinnis, Bobby Jones) to form a contending team.
The NBA was mostly a white man's league with a stodgy, coached style of play.
The year following the merger, the Blazers won their championship. They added Maurice Lucas and Dave Twardzik from the ABA.
Just a couple years later, the ABA/NBA dichotomy reemerged with the Bird/Magic draft. Bird was the prototypical NBA player - solid fundamentals and lilly white. Magic was the prototypical ABA player - flashy, athletic , and highly entertaining. The flashy/athletic style won early, as Magic led the Lakers to 5 championships, the Celtics (who refused any ABA players) won 3.
The thing about Dr. J and Magic/Bird is they were the ambassadors of basketball. They changed the league from something to watch between MLB and NFL into an exciting sport to watch in its own right. Michael Jordan was the logical next ambassador type and propelled the league to the last of its truly great years, IMO. The Blazers spent a lot of money and put a team on the floor with impressive talent, but they did not win championships. Still, they were one of the elite teams.
In my view, the league has become more diluted. The talent is just spread really thin. The CBA has made trades about money and not about talent. It's been really hard to assemble anything resembling those great Lakers or Celtics or 76ers teams. The influx of Euro players has brought the game down to the level of European ball, and I think we all feel the league is about using that caliber of player to save money rather than entertaining us with awesome basketball.
