How old do you need to be to witness a player?

[5 Grand]

11-12 for me. And I was congnizant of Dr J when I was younger but wasn't watching like that

Cosign.

I had an older brother. He is 3 years older than me. So we used to watch basketball together. Growing up in Boston I remember the rivalry between the Sixers and the Celtics and the Celtics and the Lakers.

The finals was always a big deal because it was either the Celtics or the Lakers for about 7-8 years in a row.

I remember being a big Dr J fan but I don't ever remember seeing him do anything spectacular. He was more like a living legend in the twilight of his career.

But I remember vividly when Michael Jordan came into the league. Not because I saw him play but because his sneakers were $60 and my brother had a summer job and bought a pair. $60 for a pair of sneakers was a lot of money back then. I think a regular pair of basketball sneakers ranged from $20-$30. So when the Jordans came out at $60 and my brother bought them, it was a big deal.

I think when I really got old enough to really care and understand the game was around 86/87/88 when the Lakers repeated. That was a big deal, nobody had repeated since the 60s. I was about 14 or 15.

 

[O.G.]

This internet era has it way better than us Dr.J/MJ era kids had it. They have instant access to all kinds of info, games, highlights etc.

 

[bow to royalty]

This internet era has it way better than us Dr.J/MJ era kids had it. They have instant access to all kinds of info, games, highlights etc.

So would you say that makes older people evaluating older talent a little less reliable? Like right now some players will be beasting, but on a squad with no TV time. Or quietly having a good season, but on a bad team. We can miss that now in the era of Redzone, Firesticks, Sports bars, the internet, fantasy football...So how good could you really keep up back then, with players that weren't superstars? I imagine the bias created by sports commentators had to be insanely high if that's all you had to go on with a lot of players.

 

[O.G.]

This internet era has it way better than us Dr.J/MJ era kids had it. They have instant access to all kinds of info, games, highlights etc.

So would you say that makes older people evaluating older talent a little less reliable? Like right now some players will be beasting, but on a squad with no TV time. Or quietly having a good season, but on a bad team. We can miss that now in the era of Redzone, Firesticks, Sports bars, the internet, fantasy football...So how good could you really keep up back then, with players that weren't superstars? I imagine the bias created by sports commentators had to be insanely high if that's all you had to go on with a lot of players.

I would say that a lot of old heads prolly are going off of sport "legend" when they say they saw some players play. For example my older brother is a huge David Thompson fan. Let him tell it Thompson was the best player ever. The problem with him telling it is that Thompson was hardly ever on TV. My brother was a boxscore pimp. Before Sportscenter all most of america had was newspaper scoreboards. Before Magic and Bird made the nba popular you were lucky to catch one regional game a week unless you had a big ass satellite tv. My family did. I was lucky. I still prolly saw Iceman Gervin play live vs the Lakers more than i actually seen him on TV.

Not to take anything away from legends. They are legends for a reason, but alot of "witnesses" didn't peep them night in and night out. Including myself. (with the exception of the Steelers and pre Magic Lakers)

With that said i think a young teen can be smart enough to evaluate players with the info that is there for them. He's 15 now but even at 11 i would bet my son could hold his own in a deep baseball convo with @"Tommy Billfiger" and @ckfree

 

[BedStuy]

I guess i should speak for myself then because i was brought up different and learned how to play ball at a young age. Your parents, brothers, and coaches can have a major influence in making you understand.

 

[5 Grand]

Back in the 80s you had Sports Illustrated. I think they're still around but its not as revenant as it was before the internet. Somebody would get the cover every issue. I think it came out every two weeks.

So you had Sports Illustrated, the local newspaper and sports talk radio. We had cable and that helped as far as watching obscure players from random teams but its not like it is today.

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[goodlookinout]

11-12 range sounds about right. I caught Magic and Bird on the tail end of there careers, saw all of MJ's title wins.

 

[BlackAX410]

I say for me personally age 9, 10 I was one of the only pierce fans when everyone liked kobe,vince, AI, T-mac, etc. It took me a few years maybe 13 or 14 to stop ignoring his flaws (turnovers, forced shots at times) but I learned about basketball with older siblings and played since age 5 or 6 so it's different