Adrian Fedkiw
Different era, different times, a different brand of basketball.
But if this year’s Golden State Warriors team clashed against the NBA Champion Philadelphia 76ers of the 1982-83 season, who would win?
Julius Erving told ESPN 710 LA that not only would his Sixers compete with the Warriors, they’d beat them.
When you have a team with the makeup of our team back then, we could play slow, we could play fast. Moses (Malone) was such a dominant force. I have visions of him grabbing the rebound a few times and taking it coast to coast … You know we had four centers, four guards and four forwards, so a lot of the parts were interchangeable. We had a guy like Bobby Jones coming off the bench.
And when Dr. J says his Sixers could beat the Warriors, he means no disrespect.
They are a phenomenal team. They can put up points. And they do play team defense. They hustle. They scrap.
This year’s version of the Warriors went 67-15 compared to the 65-17 mark the Sixers put up. Philadelphia went 12-1 in the postseason and swept Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals. Golden State, meanwhile, is a perfect 15-0 so far in this postseason run and one game away from potentially going “Fo, Fo, Fo, Fo” as the late Moses Malone would’ve put it following Wednesday night’s thrilling 118-113 Game 3 Finals victory where they scored the final 11 points.
Erving’s comments came after Magic proclaimed that the “Showtime” Lakers “would probably sweep” the Warriors.
They’re too small.
Who are you, LaVar Ball?!
When asked about Johnson’s comments, Warriors forward Draymond Green initially chuckled before answering.
Draymond Green responds to Magic Johnson saying his Showtime Lakers would sweep these Warriors pic.twitter.com/8NIH47nkZy
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) June 6, 2017
The game is completely different than it was back then. Nowadays, if you can’t shoot a 3, you are a liability on the floor. That wasn’t the case back then. I never understand when people try to compare eras and say this team could’ve beat that team or they couldn’t have beat this team or this player was better than that player. Doesn’t make sense to me, talking two different games for real. They were great in their time. We are great in our time. Respect that.
I can definitely respect the greatness of all three of those teams, but if the Warriors go a perfect 16-0 in the 2017 NBA Playoffs, they’re the greatest team ever.
That’s my opinion.
What’s yours?
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