Watched a little bit of NBA action last night, and one of the guys who was there is much younger than me. He is a Lakers fan, and I mentioned to him that the NBA these days was okay, but that the glory days, when it reached it's peak, was the 1990's.
For me, anyway, that is true. Man, there were some incredible teams, some physical teams like the Chicago Bulls, the New York Knicks, the Detroit Pistons, and the Indiana Pacers, and that was just in the east!
There were some incredible rivalries. The best, and most unpredictable (which perhaps made it the best) was between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks. These were physical battles, intense series that usually went at least six games, and which were exhausting for both teams. Plus, there was the wild card factor of Reggie Miller, because you just could never tell when he would get hot, and change the momentum, and even the outcome, of the game by getting hot.
Of course there were other rivalries, as well. The Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns had a great rivalry. So did the Jazz and the Suns, for that matter. The Blazers and Lakers during the first few years of the nineties. The Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons, the Bulls and the Knicks, the Bulls and the Jazz, and for a couple of years, the Bulls and the Magic. The problem with those rivalries is that when the Bulls were at the height of their powers, without fail, they would win. It took them years to finally beat Detroit, but once they did, they remained far better than the Pistons. The Magic took the Bulls out in the 1995 playoffs, but Jordan had just come out of retirement, and was not at full strength. Once he was the next season, the Bulls stomped all over the Magic, sweeping them en route to capping their historical 72-10 season with an NBA title. The Knicks had a decent rivalry against the Bulls, as it provided very tough, physical play, and the unpredictability factor, which might be why one article (Ranking the Best Rivalries from the '90s by Nick Dimengo - see link below) rated it the best sports rivalry of the nineties - even better than the Cowboys-49ers rivalries. Personally, I think he's crazy, because a real rivalry, let alone one of the greatest, would definitely require that it not be so one-sided. The Knicks beat the Bulls once during their playoff meetings of the nineties, and that was the one time that they did not have to face Michael Jordan, so it requires an asterisk.
Yes, those were some great times.
One of the most exciting aspects of those old NBA days of the nineties actually came before the games were played, when arenas would turn the house lights off, music would be played, and sometimes, there would be a short laser light show. These intros were so exciting, I wanted to make sure to get to see this, which was often as exciting as the game itself. They really added greatly to that sense of anticipation!
And so I found myself perusing the internet, or Youtube in particular, as I had gotten myself in the mood to see some of those truly great intros. It seemed like a good idea to share some of these, so here are a few of the ones that I remember enjoying from back then:
The New Jersey Nets were a terrible team in the nineties. But they tried to overcompensate for it by having these dazzling distractions at home, with all sorts of gimmicks and such. This included their lights out player introductions, which varied over the years. The best I could find for these was the one from their Eastern Conference runs in the early 2000's. Enjoy!
Ranking the Best Rivalries from the '90s by Nick Dimengo, December 2, 2014:
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