New Orleans Pelicans: 3 Ways the NBA Changed after The Last Dance

Rivalries have disappeared since The Last Dance

If you’ve been watching The Last Dance, the plot is like a video game where Jordan has to overcome lesser opponents before defeating the Final Boss.

He had to go through brutal losses to the Detroit Pistons, beat Magic and the Lakers, Patrick Ewing and the Knicks, Reggie Miller and the Pacers, Shaquille O’Neal and the Magic and even Clyde Drexler and his Portland Trail Blazers.

Part of this was because players had longer contracts, spent more time on the same team and had a chance to actually build drama over many years.

The NBA had real rivalries back then, teams that hated each other and fans that felt the same. Go to youtube and search for Pistons vs. Bulls fights and see what I mean.

Jordan delivered more punches to his own teammates in The Last Dance than are thrown in “rivalries” in today’s game. In fact, it’s hard to even name a rivalry.

Who is the New Orleans Pelicans’ biggest rival for example? The Lakers? The Grizzlies? These are more pen pals than rivals when you compare them to the teams from The Last Dance.

Why the lack of rivalries is good

It’s not.

Watching players laugh and joke with their BFF’s on the other team has made the game less fun to watch. The game needs more hate, more intensity and more players who don’t hang out together in the offseason.

Fans used to be the one constant in rivalries. Even if the players no longer cared, the fans would always hold it down for their squad.

Now there are many fans who follow players as much as teams, who care more about LeBron’s social media posts than his rivalry with the…. who? Warriors? I’m not even sure who his biggest rival is. You could never say that about Jordan, who always had an enemy.

Why the lack of rivalries is the worst part of the modern game

Part of the reason NBA ratings have gone down is because fans have tapped out during the regular season.

Are you really tuning into to watch the Knicks vs. the Bulls on a Tuesday night? Ask yourself why. Part of the reason is that both of these teams currently stink, but the other reason is that there are no rivalries anymore.

Even though the games were often played in the low 80’s, they were a lot more intense and fun to watch in the 1990’s, even if the teams weren’t good.

I don’t miss all of the overly physical play (more on that later) but I do miss teams that actually had palpable dislike for one another. Michael Jordan still holds grudges against Isaiah Thomas NOW, nearly 30 years later.

It’s hard to imagine anyone from the current NBA hating another player enough to call him out when they are both in their 50’s.

Pistons vs. Celtics, Bulls vs. Pistons, Knicks, Pacers and Magic, Lakers vs. Celtics, Magic vs. Larry, Michael vs. Charles, rivalries were what made the NBA of the past great.

Please name one real rivalry in today’s game. In my opinion, it’s the single biggest reason for the lack of regular season ratings. The players don’t care, so why should the fans?