Basketball fans who were born in the mid-1960’s and prior have seen the evolution of the sport in ways we never thought possible. We may like some of the changes and dislike others, but at the end it’s still basketball. It’s not until we reflect back on what we used to see, or try to recreate things ourselves — there’s usually physical pain involved — that we can appreciate just how much things have changed. And though we didn’t all start watching the game as kids, you know you’re a basketball baby boomer when…
You remember when college hoopsters weren’t allowed to dunk the basketball.
Presumably to prevent Lew Alcindor from becoming even more dominant than he’d eventually become, college basketball banned the dunk in 1967 after Alcindor led UCLA to an undefeated 30-0 season as a sophomore. Perhaps he doesn’t perfect the “Sky Hook” without that rule, who knows? He still shot over 60 percent from the floor during his final two seasons with the Bruins.
The rule would stay in effect until 1976. This means players like David Thompson, Julius (Dr. J.) Erving, Bill Walton, Bob Lanier, Artis Gilmore and others had to find other ways to score around the basket as collegians, even if their heads were already above the rim.
The attempt to neutralize the effect of the low-post player continues, from widening the lane (Wilt Chamberlain) to banning the dunk to not allowing them to touch the ball at all (three-point rule).
The day finally arrives when you’re watching a college basketball game and the announcer mentions that the grandfather of one of the players is a former professional basketball player. Not only do you recognize the grandfather’s name, but you actually saw him play.
Oklahoma University’s Khadeem Lattin just finished his four-year run and is the grandson David Lattin, the starting center for the historic Texas Western (now known as the University of Texas El-Paso) squad that won the Division 1 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament championship in 1966. Dave Lattin’s professional career spanned six seasons (1967-73) split between the NBA and ABA.
I remember watching Dave Lattin play several times when he was a member of the Pittsburgh Condors of the ABA; hearing of that family relationship made me feel…not young.
You find yourself calling a player ”old”, then you realize he’s young enough to be your kid.
I started doing this as a frustrated Knicks’ fan back in the late 1990’s, around the time their anchor on both ends, Patrick Ewing, began to slow down and the hopes of him leading New York to a title were dwindling. In conversations with friends and co-workers the word “old” would come up on occasion, but we were only slightly older than Ewing — in our late thirties — ourselves.
Now that we’re in our late fifties, those conversations haven’t changed much. Teams with multiple players over 30 are still referred to as “old” — this season’s pre-fire sale version of the Cleveland Cavaliers comes to mind — even though we’re talking about young men in their early-thirties. And yes, assembling too many important players in that age group makes a team relatively old in a league dominated by twenty-somethings.
Then when a player reaches his mid-thirties and the basketball skills start to decline, we start planning his “retirement” for him.
We should all be so lucky.
