my brothers we are in the midst of a Civil War the age-old debate of past versus present has reached critical mass and sides have been taken a revolution is taking place and we're losing good men old school versus new school back in the day versus modern day a story as old as time itself I tried to ignore this bloodbath but just when I thought things couldn't get any worse it all got so much worse we done with the '90s filmm of NBA games from the ' 80s and 90s coming to light showing that the good old days were in fact not that good this whole time the punishing defense of Legend was actually just a bunch of plumbers camping out in the paint looking for someone to hack shots clanking off the backboard players running around aimlessly wreaking havoc and worst of all Michael Jeffrey Jordan the supposed greatest basketball player of all time didn't even have a left hand what is going on have we been lied to about basketball in the ' 80s and '90s are we really done with that era of Hoops or are we being deceived by low lights misinformation and cherry-picked clips well I think I've got an answer and some of y'all ain't going to like [Music] it today's video is sponsored by SeatGeek the NBA season is in full swing the MLB season is just around the corner your favorite artists are on tour and y'all are going to need some tickets now you guys have used my promo code so much that SeatGeek wanted to hook you up with a new promo and a new special offer and it's the best one yet for the rest of the season everyone who uses code Jimmy 10 will get 10% off any tickets on SeatGeek whether you're new to the app or you've been using it for years like me code Jimmy 10 is good for 10% off any order on SeatGeek just get into the app find the best tickets for you by using their color-coded seating map punch in the promo code and you're done take advantage of this deal while it's still around download the SeatGeek app and use code Jimmy 10 for 10% off any order we done with the 9s five simple words that have completely divided fans of the NBA I've seen wellth thought out video essays hard-hitting analysis testimonies from past and present players talking about their experience in the league and how it's changed over the years and none of those things managed to do what these five simple words have done in just a week soon enough the clips came rolling in of players from that era dribbling off their feet throwing up airballs and putting together moves that you might see at your local high school's JV game so for whatever it's worth here is my long-winded take on this whole [Music] discussion I want to begin by saying what this discourse has taught me more than anything else is that NBA fans today never actually took the time to go back and watch games of the past Brothers I have been harping on this for years begging for fans of the game whether you are new or have been watching for years to just go back and watch full games not highlights not clips fulllength games of eras from the past and after seeing this discussion devolve into where it is today it is clear to me that most people never take the time I'm seeing countless fans have this sort of Awakening as they're watching films of these old games as if the footage was buried or lost and it's finally being Unearthed for the world to see it's been right here on YouTube for the past 15 years you mean to tell me the same fans who chime in with a full-blown thesis on the goat debate never spared the time to even watch the games they were referring to I guess that does explain a lot now I'd like to think I'm somewhere in the middle on this whole discussion I have said on multiple occasions that players in today's NBA are simply more skilled than players of the past which has resulted in bigger stat lines and higher Point totals than ever before it's not the defense that has gotten worse it's the offense that has gotten better you know that whole Spiel but I also have an appreciation for the great that came before and how incredible some players of past eras were in fact I almost feel like I'm hallucinating seeing this '90s basketball slander campaign unfold in front of my eyes it feels like everyone's perception on the age of debate changed literally overnight I know that's not the case but after seeing all of this play out it sure feels that way but today I'm not just going to show you some cherrypic clips or unhinge this narrative even further I'm going to show you real film Real data and proof of how we might actually be done with the 80s and '90s and of course if Michael Jordan really had no left hand spoiler he did now I have been an advocate for the modern players are better than players of the past movement for quite some time now in fact as crazy as it is for younger fans to say Michael Jordan was trash it's just as absurd for older fans to say the game hasn't evolved and gotten better over the last 30 years because that's all this debate really is Young fans versus old fans or fans that watched this versus fans that are watching this but objectively players today are much better than they were in the 80s and even the 90s specifically the lower end of the talent pool in the NBA today is vastly better than it was in the past I think great players would be great in any era but with the spacing the shot making the emphasis on offense as opposed to defense has made the depth across the NBA today just way ahead of where it was in the 80s and the90s there was without exaggeration guys in the NBA throughout the 80s and 90s that were on NBA rosters just to accumulate fouls and sit in the paint and be big some of these players were offensively inept and that was okay because their role was not to create offense but in today's NBA where offense Reigns Supreme there is no room for these players now you could and should go back and watch film of games not highlights from this era and see just how limited the skill sets of some of these players were the shot making for the most part was limited to set jumpers slashers coming downhill for layups and big men trying to hustle their way to a bucket down low in the midst of what appears to be a wrestling match catch a player off guard with a double team and they immediately pick up their dribble simple things like guards turning their back to the basket 20 ft out instead of creating space off the dribble even players looking down at the ball while trying to get out on a fast break was very common in this era and these aren't low lights or cherry-picked incidences this is just what the game looked like 35 years ago but even without film nearly every metric suggests modern players are more capable of players in the past free throw percentage was worse three-point percentage was worse turnover percentage was higher they used to shoot more free throws but still ended up with far less points now this is not to say that this era of Hoops was trash that's just disingenuous and flat out wrong these were the best players in the world at the time it was just simply not as good as what it is today but maybe there's another layer to this that needs to be factored in to really understand why these players were not as skilled as the players of [Music] today now despite this being a very relevant topic for years the idea of rule changes and how these changes have affected the game still remain a mystery to some players were a product of their era and the rules of their era the first step to discovering greats of the past is to watch film of them play the next step is to gather and understand the context of the film you are watching when you see a 6'9 in Magic Johnson go flying down the court with what looks like kind of a stiff dribble you may think the man has no bag but my friends Magic Johnson did have a bag but the rules in place at the time only allowed him to reach so far into it before he got called for every violation in the rule book consider the fact that any move where your hand wasn't completely on top of the basketball was considered a carry no zero steps no gather steps steps you get two steps and anything more was called a travel no backward shuffles to create separation no lunging into players to draw easy fouls here's a clip of Danny a hitting Kevin mccale with a hesi in the mid 80s and the man thinks he just witnessed witchcraft but when practice sessions were completed some of the most competitive competition began double drible dble double dribble double dribble he did too did here's some more clips of players is getting called for travels and Carries doing moves that are very typical and allowed in 2024 90% of the moves you see today the very method most players generate their offense would be called for some sort of violation 40 or 30 or even 20 years ago and this isn't just some copout or excuse as to why these players of the past weren't doing this stuff the rule changes are real documented pieces of NBA history you can literally look them up the game got looser players grew up and shaped their game around these looser rules and now they have free reign to let their basketball bag run wild but that's kind of the point players of the past didn't grow up practicing 25-footers they didn't work on a dozen moves to create separation they played in offensive systems that focused on the team the collective schemes and sets that resembled something closer to college basketball where ISO possessions were few and far in between so they never developed an Arsenal to counter these situations the rules of the time limited their game which resulted in them having a more limited skill set than players today if Larry Bird grew up with a three-point line he might have been the greatest longrange shooter ever but he didn't and as a result he didn't shoot a lot of Threes And he wasn't as efficient as the best Shooters today we can sit here and assume these players of the past might be as capable as players today if they were playing under the same rules and conditions but they didn't and I don't think we should assume that the fact is they played in a different time and and they became a product of that time but that's not to say the game was trash back then or that the superstars of these eras couldn't compete in today's [Music] League now as time goes by I think it's easy to forget just how long ago 1980 was 44 years ago if my math is correct which is in fact a very long time ago in 1985 Magic Johnson won an NBA title Larry Bird won the league MVP and Michael Jordan won Rookie of the Year that was 39 years ago from today which is the same exact amount of time that has passed from that 1985 season to the year the NBA was founded in 1946 look at these clips do you think these players could compete with the likes of bird magic and Jordan let me answer that for you no but take the best players of the 80s and 90s and could they compete in today's League absolutely give these guys some credit watching this today is the equivalent of watching this in the 8S and yet this product is vastly closer to the basketball we see today than this product was to what fans were witnessing in the80s in fact we can use different Superstars as sort of a cross-generational measuring stick to see just how stiff the competition has been over the years Larry and Magic played Michael who played Kobe who played LeBron who has played the players of today and nowhere down this timeline was there any real jump or fall off in production or level of competition from one era to the next each era had their Stars those stars crossed paths with stars of other eras and no one era was clear-cut ahead of the other if the80s were so bad then why did players of the '90s have to wait for those guys to get old and retire to have a shot at winning and if the '90s were so bad then why did players of the 2000s not win until those guys retired we don't need to assume that adjacent eras could compete with one another because we actually saw it MJ struggled with some of the guys that came before him Shaq struggled against hakee and Kobe struggled against MJ LeBron struggled against guys like Duncan and Durk and players of today have struggled to get past some of the older players in the league who are a product of the previous era now what we shouldn't do is jump three or four eras at a time ignoring entire Decades of evolution and saying the game back then was better or even as good as it is today at a certain point the knowledge and wisdom that comes from actually witnessing Decades of NBA history like some older fans have become skewed and watered down by Nostalgia and a generational bias Superstars are superstars because their game transcends the era they played in but they also played in an inferior League these two ideas are not mutually exclusive and although generational talents of the past would do just fine today this same logic does not apply to the vast majority of the league throughout the 80s and '90s [Music] [Music] so if the80s were inferior to today's league and the '90s were inferior as well when did the NBA become not trash well it depends on how you look at it ironically I think there's a pretty clear distinction to the skill set of players before Michael Jordan hit his Peak and and after for example the early '90s and late '90s although being in the same decade were massively different in play style and skill set think for a second about the fact that Magic Johnson was still in his prime in the early '90s and Alan Iverson was entering his Prime in the late '90s in less than 10 years basketball became a massively different game by the late '90s the players who grew up watching Jordan fly through the air and slice up defenses were in the league and were reshaping the Ro that perimeter players played guys like Kobe Bryant Allen Iverson Ray Allen Stefon Marberry Grant Hill Tracy McGrady Vince Carter all these guys came into the league around the same time and were products of what they saw MJ do throughout his career players with a skill set that more closely resembles what we see today than it did to the skill sets of players of the 80s and even early '90s this is where I think most fans might make the distinction of wi the league really took a leap not in competitiveness but rather play style you can go back and watch these guys play and it's not too different than watching an NBA game today or you can point to the shift in play style that happened in the late 2010s after Steph Curry redefined what makes a great Championship caliber player and the league adjusted to this new three-point heavy perimeter Focus style of basketball similar to Jordan the kids who watched what Steph was doing in the mid-20s emulated that style of play tailored their games to it and are now in the league doing things that only Steph could do a decade ago so if we're done with the 80s and 90s where can we look back and no longer apply this airack on these players I think most fans would agree that the turn of the century is where the modern era of hypers skilled players began you can say objectively that this era was not trash and most players of this generation would do just fine in today's league but if that is the case then modern NBA fans are holding a ticking time bomb and they might not even know it [Music] when we are older and a new generation of NBA fans claim our favorite players the guys we grew up watching are not as good as the players of the future what will you have to say right now there is no one in the world who can shoot like Steph Curry but inevitably there will be and eventually there will be many players who can shoot like him his record records will fall his percentages won't look as good through the lens of 2040 and although his legacy will be cemented his actual game will be put into question and based on the arguments I'm hearing today on why past players were trash we will have nothing to say that will change their minds we know that Curry was the first to do what he's doing he is a pioneer of the modern NBA we have context to back up our claims but if we aren't willing to hear older fans out today what makes us think younger fans will hear us out in the future mark my words there will be a day when young fans will go back watch film of LeBron and say he couldn't compete with players of the future in fact it's already happening fans saying he has no bag younger players putting up bigger numbers than he ever did skill sets a bit deeper with games that look more polished it's all fun in games now to crack jokes about past Arrow but our day will come too and it ain't going to be pretty but Unk Giannis could only run and dunk you're was trash y'all had a dude who couldn't get 2T off the ground running the whole league you can scramble to pull up clips and show the numbers but their minds will already be made up this is why I think it is so important to have genuine thought out discourse about the game if you're truly a fan of it but to all of the older fans out there you kind of started this whole thing for years we heard y'all badmouth modern players saying the league is soft players today couldn't compete back then back in my day real men played the game y'all cannot be mad that some fans are done with the ' 80s and '90s when y'all never even gave modern basketball a chance sure a lot of fans never took the time to go back and watch the greats of the past but let's be honest for a second older fans don't watch games today they catch a stray clip on Facebook of LeBron flopping and like an echo chamber of disgruntled old men they just start firing away in the comments agreeing with one another y'all asked for this I've been watching the NBA since the mid 2000s Kobe dwade Grady Iverson Shack Nash those were my guys but I can acknowledge those greats and say they were incredible while also acknowledging that that version of the NBA as a whole was not as refined or as good as it is today now will I be able to make that distinction in 20 years when some snot-nose brat tells me my glorious King was trash I'm not so [Music] sure now it's time to once and for all take a real close look at this accusation that Michael Jordan did not have a left hand I felt like I was having a bad dream when I first saw this claim but unfortunately I was not I feel like no one actually believes this this is just some highlevel trolling but in an effort to stop this nonsense from spreading any further I have no choice but to take these accusations seriously so I selected eight random games ranging from Michael Jordan's rookie season all the way up to the mid90s and play byplay gathered all of his possessions throughout these games charted when he went to his right when he went to his left and what those possessions resulted in and here is what I found Jordan made a move with his left hand or his right hand 227 times of those 227 moves 121 of them were with his right hand and6 of them were with his left hand of the 121 right-handed moves he passed up got fouled on 54 of them so I didn't bother charting those 65 of these moves resulted in a shot in which he made 63% of them and only turn the ball over two times now moves that he made with his left hand resulted in a pass or him getting fouled 45 times while 55 of these left-handed moves ended up in a shot in which he made 51% and six moves resulted in a turnover so based on this data Jordan was definitely more comfortable going right especially near the rim and even on mid-range jumpers he struggled a bit in comparison to his right whenever he pulled up off of a left-handed dribble but overall Jordan went to his left 47% of the time and although it was his weaker hand he was still above League average even while going to his left but eight games in 350 minutes of basketball is a relatively small sample size so I looked into it further and found this a detailed breakdown of Michael Jordan's shot chart and shot tendencies in three Seasons from 1990 to 1992 126 games and over 4,800 minutes in total tracking exactly what Michael did on the court for three seasons and here's what the data shows in total Michael made 174 moves in isolation going either to his right or to his left hand 48% of those moves were with his right hand and 52% of those moves were with his left hand when going to the right Michael shot 61 1.7% on 4110 shots with 15 turnovers resulting in 1.38 points per possession when going to his left Michael shot 61.3% on 421 shots with 36 turnovers resulting in 1.31 points per possession so even with a much larger sample size Michael not only had a left hand he went to it just as often as he went to his right and was nearly as proficient with his left as he was with his right now for some context throughout this three-year span Michael made on average 4.4 left-handed isolation moves or in this case isolation possessions that resulted in 1.31 points per possession now here are some prolific scores from this season and their overall Tendencies and efficiency in isolation keep in mind this data includes both right-handed and left-handed moves from these players and now here is Michael Jordan with just his left hand so uh yeah I'd say contrary to what has now become popular belief Michael Jordan had a left hand and I cannot believe we had to dig into the data to come to this [Music] conclusion I think the overall idea that the 80s and 90s were a far less skilled time in the NBA compared to today is probably fair I mean you'd be crazy to think the game hasn't evolved in four decades but to say the league was trash back then is just wrong I think more than anything it's the style of play and the way basketball games would unfold back then that really throws some fans off when they go to watch film of these old games it's like looking at a box score from the mid 2000s and thinking everyone sucked because the game's finished with final scores in the80s but the players weren't bad it was just a different game back then it was slower more methodical more team and scheme based than it is today and similarly I think you could say the ' 80s and 90s had its fair share of bad basketball but that doesn't mean all the players were bad especially the superstars of those eras that was just the state of the game they were playing in I think some older fans have a skewed perception of how good the game was back then but I also think they just genuinely liked that style of ball regardless of the evolution of the league in 20 years there could be a dozen players around the league that shoot like Steph Curry but I doubt we will hold the same appreciation and affinity for those players as we did to the guy who pioneered this style of play and did it during the good old days in the '90s no one looked back at how the league was in the 60s claiming it was better and so realistically we shouldn't be looking back at the 80s and 90s claiming the league was Superior than it is today or even just as good for that matter a lot of these ideas that favor modern basketball are becoming more mainstream as fans dive deeper into these topics and add context to narratives that have been floating around for decades but I think this push to be done with the ' 80s and 90s is a bit Overkill we want to add context and nuance and knowledge to these discussions not remove entire decades from it altogether sadly I don't think any of this has or will change anyone's mind this revolt against old school ball was either confirmation of what you already thought or this entire discussion is just blasphemy to you are we done with the 80s and 9s maybe but for the sake of the game and the greats that paved the way I sure hope [Music] not