The NBA Is In An Incredible Spot Right Now And It's Amazing To Watch

In case you weren’t aware, the NBA is in this groove where there's basically a superstar on every team you can think of. Some teams stink as a whole, sure, but there's ridiculous talent everywhere you turn in the league right now. 

I was a product of the 90's so I was able to enjoy Michael Jordan during his absolute prime* in 1995-1998, not to mention the Jordan/Bird/Magic Johnson era just prior. I may be off base here, but I can't think of another era that's as stacked as it is in the league right now. 

* - He released the Jordan XI in 1995, the most perfect basketball sneaker of all time. The Space Jam XI's dropped in 1996 are still my #1. He followed those up with the XII's, a close second. This isn't up for debate. 


There's been a pretty historic stretch of scoring taking place in the NBA over the last 4 days. Over that span, there's been four 50-point games from 4 different players, including Donovan Mitchell dropping 71 points (!!!) against the Bulls and Giannis posting a regular season career high last night. Never mind a slew of ho-hum 40+ point games from other guys that are more or less glossed over, those are getting boring. You can't turn on a game without seeing someone casually putting up schoolyard numbers against the literal best competition in the world. 

Not to brag but I play church league basketball. I'm not "in shape" nor am I "good", in the classical sense. Every game is a challenge from a cardiovascular standpoint and our team can't score, but I think my trials and tribulations on the hardwood have given me a greater appreciation for just how fucking good these guys really are. It's always telling when we're so desensitized to objectively INCREDIBLE highlight reel plays every single night. It just happens so much that we've come to expect it. 

Exhibit A: I'm not the world's biggest Lebron guy, but he "quietly" went for 43 pts/11 reb/6 ast on the same night Donovan Mitchell scored 71. He was completely eclipsed even though he did this wizardry at 38 years of age: 

I know he's Lebron, but you shouldn't be able to almost hit your head on the rim if you're pushing 40 years old. Just shouldn't be allowed. Insane shit like this happens literally every night there's an NBA game, regardless of who's playing. 

Exhibit B: Nikola Jokic is a 6'11" Serbian who looks like he should be working in a butcher shop (no offense to him and his brothers), but he regularly does stuff like this and redefines how bigs can be viewed as elite passers: 

This is the same guy, the back to back NBA Most Valuable Player:


If you're a fan of sports and you're not paying attention to the NBA, do yourself a favor and dip your toes in. It's fun!

 

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