What I learned from watching hours of old NBA games

Larry Bird and Magic Johnson tangle in a 1984 game.COMMENTARY

As someone who savors the modern NBA — well, except for James Harden’s sideways moonwalk that flouts the travel rule; a moonwalk is still a walk — I have to tell you something that has become clearer in these hours spent socially distancing by watching old-school sports.

The old NBA was better.

Trust me, this is not a curmudgeonly, back-in-my-day take. I am not shaking my fists at the clouds. I love this league as currently constituted, and dearly miss it, among many other things right now. Players today are more well-rounded, fit, and skilled than they have ever been. They shoot the ball better than ever from the outside, and yet…