Toughness is not Important in today's NBA?

Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
about 3 hours ago
Draymond Green just gave a speech on The Jump that toughness is not important in today’s NBA with the way defense is played.
reply retweet like


bob
MY NOTE:  Those little specks of gray and white you see on the walls are what's left of Cowens' head after he read this.

What is interesting here is that it comes from a DPOY, perennial All-Defense team member and a fairly tough guy and NOT from a defensively-challenged player who will never earn defensive awards nor even be given difficult defensive assignments..


.

He's right. Look no further than how they officiate defense these days.


KJ

Forget defense, it's the entire game, and the delicate little flowers playing it.

I'm with Charles Barkley on this one. Today's players are wimps, sorry to say, compared to those of a couple of decades back. You're talking about an entire league of players that can't play back-to-back games any more. God forbid, they may get tired.

Toughness - Wimps - and what are the characteristics that would lead to a conclusion, either way, in any given generation comparison?

swish

NYCelt wrote:Forget defense, it's the entire game, and the delicate little flowers playing it.

I'm with Charles Barkley on this one.  Today's players are wimps, sorry to say, compared to those of a couple of decades back.  You're talking about an entire league of players that can't play back-to-back games any more.  God forbid, they may get tired.

I think the refs have contributed to this, as well as the NBA's leadership. The league wanted more offense to make the NBA a more attractive product, and refs began to penalize defense.

I don't think it's all the player's fault if the culture of the league changed before they even got there.


KJ

It's also money.  Owners don't want to see assets they have under contract for 5 years to the tune of $130M getting hammered.


bob


.

hey, when did Green turn 50?


isn't that when we all start to complain about how those kids today are all a bunch of lazy, softies?

I agree that the physical toughness may not be the same as it used to be in the NBA, but there is still a degree of toughness that must be achieved to be a really good team.

I personally think that mental toughness is at a premium these days with the every present (and growing) media attention that is on each and every professional athlete. It seems that they get criticized for such things as burping in public, and can not have a private life even in their own backyards.

I really  think  it's a byproduct of today's society,   we live in a much less masculine, go in there and get the damn job done even if your hurt, even if your tired, even if the job is going to leave you bruised  bloodied and taking 10 years off your life type mentallity. 

 Besides we're talking "basketball tough" which a lot different than regular old fashioned tough. 

 I once knew an old fella who used to laugh at how many times he got shot back in the 1940s, seems every time he went visiting a new country a nazi would shoot him, somewhere in africa, in Italy, in France and in germany.  Most were minor irratations, but one he claimed really hurt, so he shot that guys buddies, then  beat up the for shooting him.  

 Then realized he was stuck with a bloody pulp of a prisoner, and ended up having to carry the sob a ways to leave him somewhere as a prisoner-while wounded.

  When I was little I'm not sureally I believed gramps 100% but when at age 69 he fell off a roof and broke his neck I do know he hated missing work so much he got out of hospital and went right back to roofing, with a halo screwed into his head.

 Nowadays we are having conversations  about wether we need toughness on basketball courts..  different times I guess

The game changes as individual skills and strategies change - and often times discussions, like this one, are just a lot of talk with a "good old days" bias.

swish

swish wrote:The game changes as individual skills and strategies change - and often times discussions, like this one, are just a lot of talk with a "good old days" bias.

   swish

And to add there is so much more $$$$$$$$ on the line than ever.  Playing a bit reckless and diving for balls ( aka like Bird did and Cowens prior to him) cuts short one's career and cuts shorts the $$$ too.

beat

beat wrote:

swish wrote:The game changes as individual skills and strategies change - and often times discussions, like this one, are just a lot of talk with a "good old days" bias.

   swish

And to add there is so much more $$$$$$$$ on the line than ever.  Playing a bit reckless and diving for balls ( aka like Bird did and Cowens prior to him) cuts short one's career and cuts shorts the $$$ too.

beat

beat

That's for sure.

swish