Karalis: Want to compare eras? Do it right and maybe you'll find a deeper appreciation for the game

The passing of Bill Russell, as well as some higher profile debates, has amplified the discussion about comparing eras. Draymond Green has been taking this conversation further through his podcast, and in a new episode with Kyle Kuzma, compared the past to AOL dial up internet, while the current day is high-speed broadband. 

Green simply can’t resist the temptation to call his team the best ever. Since the Warriors reached the Finals, Green has been talking more and louder about his team’s greatness. 

We get it. To the victors go the spoils and when the victors include a talker like Green, the spoils will be on display like a float at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. 

Everyone knows the comparison of eras is a fool’s errand. There's just no equating the different styles and circumstances across the decades. JJ Redick caught some heat for belittling Bob Cousy’s era by saying Cooz played against plumbers and firemen. And to some degree, he has a point. 

The league was only just starting to integrate with the drafting of Chuck Cooper the same year Cousy entered the league. Some of the best players in the world were on barnstorming teams like the Harlem Globetrotters, who at the time were making headlines doing things like winning the World Professional Basketball Tournament and beating the Minneapolis Lakers in an exhibition. In fact, Cooper was playing for the Globetrotters when he was drafted, and Russell was on the verge of joining them when a contract dispute sent him to the NBA instead. 

So circumstances were different for the stars of the early 50s. Does that mean that someone like Cousy, with his now awkward looking dribbling style, should be dismissed when it comes to the discussion of all-time great point guards? 

No, because there is a way to actually look at each era and visualize how things might go. But it takes true critical thinking, and the ability to project how eras impact players. 

For example, if Kyrie Irving were to be magically transported to the 1950s, he wouldn't dominate right away. He’d actually fail miserably at first because every one of his dribble moves would have been a carry back then (we can argue that some of them should be right now, no matter how permissive the league is). 

But beyond that, the magical time machine argument is the wrong way to look at how Irving would fare in that league. Firstly, we’d have to imagine a world where Irving was born on March 23, 1926 instead of 1992. That means he’d have to grow up as a Black kid in segregated America who turned 13 when the Great Depression ended. 

There wouldn’t have been AAU teams or the opportunity to transfer high schools. He certainly wouldn’t have gone to Duke and his early basketball opportunities would have lacked significantly compared to what he had in today’s modern era. 

But he’s a talented basketball player, so we can assume he would have found the sport and flourished in it because that's what he was born to do, but he would have done so under different rules, and even if it was in the NBA, it would have been in a much different style. 

He wouldn’t have learned to shoot with the same technique, and with his ability to handle and pass the ball, he would have been coached to be a distributor first. He could have become great, maybe even the best of his generation, but he wouldn’t be the same player. 

Meanwhile, give Cousy a chance to put his hand on the side of the ball and turn it over for inside-out dribbles and who knows how he would have flourished. Remember, his first contract negotiation as he was going through the draft process included money to compensate for the loss of his driving instruction school -- and the owner balked! 

A guy like LeBron James, who famously spends $1.5 million on health and maintenance of his body, wouldn’t have the same resources if he was playing in the 1960s or 70s. Tommy Heinsohn sold insurance as a side hustle to make some money to supplement his basketball income, so he wasn’t going to spend any of that on any fancy trainers or equipment. 

We have to imagine James being born in the 30s or 40s, maybe being drafted to go to war, and certainly not having access to anything besides Chuck Taylor sneakers, a medicine ball, and some pulley-based Charles Atlas fitness program. He probably would still be a beast, but would he have this same frame and longevity? 

Meanwhile, what if Russell had access to every medical advantage James had? What if the greatest team player of all time had full-time trainers, masseuses, hyperbolic whatevers, and medical advances like Platelet-rich plasma therapy? Russell lasted 13 years playing on inch-thick rubber and thin canvas tied to his feet, what would he do with shoes specifically built for his feet? 

It is silly to compare eras because rules and circumstances are too different to make an apples-to-apples comparison. To use Green’s analogy, AOL used dial up because that's the technology they had at the time. If it wasn’t for someone doing that and someone else wondering “how can we do this better?” we wouldn’t make any progress. 

Comparison of eras does a disservice to the teams and players in the past because they did what they could with what they had. Today’s Warriors wouldn’t be the Warriors in the 1980s because the emphasis and coaching was different. Bill Fitch yelled at Larry Bird for taking 3-pointers, which is about all you need to know about how Steph Curry would have fared. 

I prefer to look back at previous eras with reverence, because the more comparisons you try to make, the more you should realize how much the decks were stacked against those players in the past. Rather than look back and laugh at Cousy and his competition, I wonder how great he could have been had he had 2022-level freedom. 

The greats would be great in any era because they have the ability to rise to whatever limits exist at the time. We shouldn’t be looking at it as a different kind of basketball, just the same basketball in a different stage. 

1950s NBA basketball is a sapling. 2022 NBA basketball is an oak tree. It has simply grown over the years. 

You can compare the eras if you want, but to do so accurately you have to take yourself back to that time and put the players you want to compare in that time. Don’t take prime Shaquille O'Neal and teleport him to 1965, imagine him growing up in that era, going through post-World War II America, and then trying to play basketball in the civil rights era. If nothing else, it will force you to really take a hard look at the obstacles the sports forefathers faced, and maybe create a deeper appreciation for how they achieved greatness despite it all.