NBA Legend Reveals Why NBA is Soft Now
If you speak to most NBA Legends and Hall of Famers, they don't really enjoy what the NBA has become today. It's a league that seems devoid of defense, respects jump shooters more than post up players, and is hyper-focused on shooting threes. One person who agrees with some of that sentiment is NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West.
Jerry West was a guest on Podcast P with Paul George where he explained why believes the NBA is soft in certain respects today.
“Um, [the three point line] makes [the game], I think a more difficult game to coach. It emphasizes a different kind of player. I think crowds have to get used to it. There's some nights I go and it's hard for me to watch. In this sense, I'd rather see somebody make a beautiful pass, go in and lay it up instead of four on one, some guy runs behind the three point line and shoots a three. The game is soft that way today. I don't like it. I don't think it makes for pretty basketball. And I think, unless you have a great, great team late in the game, you're gonna lose games, you're taking points off the board.”
While some may call Jerry West old or disgruntled, many current NBA players agree with his sentiments. A huge portion of NBA locker room talk includes how players can't play defense anymore in the modern NBA because when they actually try to play aggressive defense it's called a foul. This isn't limited to defensive players like Patrick Beverley or Draymond Green either, it's a very common conversation among NBA players. Especially, ones that played in the league over 5 years ago.
It's hards to tell if the NBA will ever become a defense-oriented league that it used to be. Physicality isn't allowed, expressing emotion is considered a technical foul, and it's very clear that Adam Silver prefers players to play in a more robotic way. One where players are breaking records every single game, every single week, so a new push notification can be sent about records being broken. Hopefully, some day in the near future, the NBA can find a middle ground between being a flashy offensive game and a league that players can be proud of.
