Turnaround and you’ll see another star go down to injury in the NBA Playoffs. For some strange reason, it feels like past teams didn’t deal with this.
As hardened NBA Playoff basketball fans, we remember the great calls throughout history.
The classics. Legendary voices from the past that’ll forever be etched in our hoops memories.
For example, when brilliant Boston Celtics voice Johnny Most decided to put his finishing touches on one of the more remarkable plays of all-time:
Another classic is, of course, Marv Albert’s spec-tacular call as Michael Jordan split the Los Angeles Lakers defense en route to the hoop:
Alas, nowadays the voices at ESPN and TNT are more likely to make a call that involves an ankle sprain, knee tweak, or even broken facial bones.
It’s like boxing, but instead of “down goes Frazier,” we have “to the locker room sprints Love,” or “let’s hold our breathe for D-Rose.”
The brittle nature of today’s NBA player has never been put more in question than right now. Seemingly, another guy succumbs to the dreaded injury bug each and every game.
It brings us a plethora of interesting questions pertaining to this sport.
Is it possible our NBA athlete doesn’t possess the heart he once had? Could the money and off-court friendships that water down competition be carrying over to health as well?
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Listen, nobody is an advocate for on-court fighting. But at the same time, where is the fire, heart and especially the toughness that the NBA Playoffs used to stand for?
Even John Wall and Mike Conley gutting out pretty serious injuries hasn’t overcome this new feeling surrounding a lesser competition level come second season.
Make no mistake about it, this competition level goes hand in hand with nagging injuries and consistent setbacks, whether it’s fair or not.
The reality that we are now living in an NBA world of carnage continues to carry on, regardless of whether the level of talent remains high.
Remember a simpler time, when the teams were rough, physical and absolutely in your face?
These are the teams who knocked you down and smiled with great pleasure while you remained on your back squirming in pain.
Rarely would a nagging injury get in the way of success, and never would a lack of talent stop them from advancing as far as humanly possible.
Sure, the NBA will always be filled with a ridiculous amount of talent. These guys are, perhaps, the best collection of athletes on the face of the Earth.
And yes, much of this softness falls on the league’s shoulders. Unlike past generations of ball, today’s NBA has completely cracked down on physical play. It feels like a blank stare in the wrong direction warrants a flagarant foul. Hand-checking is now gone, and the perimeter players dominate more than ever before.
Whatever the reason for the change, the association is very different than what we witnessed decades ago.
What we’re after today are those NBA Playoff teams who were both physically and mentally tougher than their competition. The teams who would stand their ground no matter the consequence and love every minute about the way they played.
These are the guys who knocked you down and smiled with great pleasure while you squirmed in pain. These are the teams who loved having that mental edge after the physical dominance had already been dished out.
These are the 5 toughest teams in NBA Playoff history:
Next: Honorable Mention