The NBA has seen its fair share of superstars over the years. Be it the likes of Michael Jordan to that of LeBron James; fans often analyze an era of basketball through its superstars. This has certainly led to fans being divided into two factions.
The ones who appreciate gritty defense with a lot of physical play, tough shots, and mid-range shots are generally the fans of the NBA Old School. But ever since 1995, the game and its rules have changed drastically. Gone are the days of hand-checking, and even the three-point line, which was mostly used by a couple of players, was shortened.
This led to a new generation of superstars and, in turn, a new style of play. Defense was still prevalent in the league, but it wasn’t as prominent. Rather high-scoring games became the norm. Shooting the ball, which was previously a niche, now became a necessity if you wanted to thrive and is rightly known as the NBA New School.
While the debate of whether these rule changes were necessary or not has been a never-ending story recently, fans have had their say on the teams representing the two eras. For the Old School NBA, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar made the list.
For the NBA New School team, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Shaquille O’Neal made up the list. Fans recently discussed which team would have been victorious if the two met each other.
“Everyone on the first team will shut the New School Down defensively.”
“New school dominating”
“Magic and Bird couldn’t guard an orange cone in a parking lot.”
“I got old school. New school doesn’t play defense except for Kobe and Shaq.”
“If you genuinely think the new school would beat the old school… get help”
“New school overall better”
“Depends on the rules, with the 80-90s defense the team, lebron, Curry and Durant will cry.”
“New school and I don’t think it’d be close”
“Old school cuz there’s no good matchup for Kareem”
“Can we replace kd with Giannis on the new school team”
“Old school in seven games”
“Dang that would be close”
“I say new team wins simply because LeBron could facilitate and pass the ball and easily get carried”
“The disrespect on Duncan chai”
“Shaq is from 1992, Kobe 1996. That’s old school. I guess Harden, Embiid, Jokic, etc, aren’t great enough.”
While it’s up for debate who would be victorious in the battle of the two teams, the talent in both teams is undeniably massive, and the result would be somewhat of a coin flip between the two.
Regardless, the NBA is constantly evolving, and this debate between the old school NBA and the new school NBA might be a never-ending one.
