The Greatest Era of Basketball......

Is from 1990-2004. This era was the best of all time for basketball. The level of competition was at it's highest. Guys played with more passion and heart. Players were trying to beat the best, not join them (*cough Miami cough*). You had MJ is his prime with his bulls but you also had other great teams like the 90s Knicks, Rockets, Jazz, Trailblazers etc. There players played hard night in and night out and made the regular season count for something unlike today were most players like to cruise through the regular season and start to play during the playoffs. In this era it was about having skills and mental toughness but in today's game all you hear about is athleticism and "upside". Players from this era dang near hated each other and it showed during the game which made for great rivalries a la Bulls vs. Knicks were at any moment a fight could break out. Now everyone is so buddy buddy that it is sickening. Also the players back in the day were tougher and didn't need to flop every minute to try to draw a foul. In a sense players from back then played with a sense of pride and manhood that wouldn't let them look like a punk and flop all over the court. Heck even the refs back in the day were better too. A hard foul back in the day was just a personal foul now it is a flagrant foul and you might get thrown out of the game. In this era you had the great series of the Bulls vs. Pacers, Jazz vs. Bulls, Portland vs. Lakers, Kings vs. Lakers, Bulls vs. Knicks, Bulls vs. Suns, Pistons vs. Bulls (real physical match-up right there), Rockets vs. Knicks.....and the list goes on. What's even greater about those match-ups was that these just didn't end once the playoffs ended...these carried over to the next season and beyond. Bottom line is that today's game  is slacking compared to this era....the players are not as competitive, refs suck more and David Stern is slowly killing the game even more....(that was more of a personal thing I have my bad). This is why I don't really watch pro basketball that much even more....only a few series in recent memory have actually made me watch them...Heat/Mavs in '06, Both series the Grizzles were in this year.