Three-time NBA champion BJ Armstrong, a key member of the Chicago Bulls‘ first three-peat in the 1990s, recently shared his critical perspective on modern NBA basketball. Speaking on The Hoop Genius Podcast, Armstrong candidly expressed his dissatisfaction with the current state of the game, likening today’s players to “robots” due to their lack of creativity and over-reliance on three-point shooting and foul-hunting.
“Now we hear NBA executives, personnel, coaches, analytic people, presidents of teams, general managers of teams tell me to my face, they look at me with a straight face and they say the following: ‘A two-point shot is a bad shot.’ A two-point shot is a bad shot now. ‘I’ve made it! I’m shooting 60%!'”
“‘Well, it’s a bad shot, we only want three shots: we want the corner threes, we want layups, or we want to get to the free-throw line.’ I don’t understand.”
“I’ve quietly over the years just said, ‘I’m going to watch so I can understand.’ But all I know is the best players all shoot midrange shots. Why? You have to have an imagination to say, ‘What is the defense giving me or am I coming out to the game with a predetermined mindset to say this is what we’re going to do?”
“When I go watch the game, there’s no more creativity, there’s no more imagination. It’s just that we have basically robots running up and down the court. You run to the three-point line, I run to the three-point line. First, I try to get a layup. If I can’t get a layup, I try to get fouled.”
“If I go to another game and someone drives, and you don’t call a foul, these players go berserk now as if they have the right of passage to go to the basket and look for a foul. What do they call? A swimthrough move? You’re not even going to the basket! They’re not even going to the basket to score, they’re going to the basket to get fouled.”
“This is what’s being taught. I’m not going to be mad at the players. This is what’s being taught. We’ve stripped the players off any kind of imagination, we’ve stripped the players of any type of read the defense or take what the defense is giving you.”
“It’s just now a program. All 30 teams play the same exact way. How? They all got to one big room and got to the conclusion this is the way to play? Everyone runs a five-out offense, everyone shoots 50 threes a night, and whoever makes the most threes, more times than not, win the game.”
“I’m just going to watch, I’m just going to observe, and just say, ‘This is what it is.’ The teachers of the game now have influenced the game so much so that it’s more fun for me to watch a pickup game than to watch the NBA right now”.
“Here’s why I say that. No one plays the exact same way in the pickup game. This guy drives to the basket, this guy has a little shake in his game, this guy loves to post up. It’s fun to watch the creativity or at least the imagination of the game.
“When you watch an NBA game, everyone plays the exact same way. I’ve never seen it. It’s just a program now. I don’t even know. The defense is on you but you still try to shoot a three. The defense drops off of you, you still try to shoot a three. They’re dropping off of you because probably you can’t shoot. But the guys still.”
“When you couldn’t shoot a few years ago, the coaches would teach you to take up the space. Have we stopped teaching that? This is what bothers me because now I’m beginning to question the teachers of the game. I’m questioning everybody now.”
“I don’t try to go down that path, but it’s just so disappointing because these are really, really good players. But the fundamentals of the game are clearly lacking. Everyone doesn’t play or have the same skillset as Steph Curry or Klay Thompson, or Reggie Miller, Ray Allen.”
“Some of the guys have a different skill set which can be highlighted to help you win the game. Every single coach at the collegiate or at the pro level, you know what’s the first thing they ask me? ‘Can he shoot?’ And I ask them the same thing: ‘If I send you Shaquille O’Neal, would you ask that question?’ And nowadays, they probably would.”
“That, to me, is why I’m countering with only terrific. I refuse to believe if Shaquille O’Neal was playing in today’s game, some executive would say, ‘Well, he can’t shoot, so let’s not play him.’ You can’t tell me that! You can’t tell me that the only thing that matters in the game is someone’s ability to shoot the three.”
Armstrong described the modern NBA as predictable, with all 30 teams adhering to a similar formula: shoot corner threes, drive for layups, or attempt to draw fouls. The nuanced, imaginative playstyles that defined previous eras, he argued, have been replaced by a standardized approach.
While Armstrong respects the evolution of the game, he believes the league has overcorrected. He used Shaquille O’Neal as an example, questioning whether today’s executives would value a dominant, non-shooting big man. Armstrong concluded by lamenting the erosion of individuality in favor of a one-size-fits-all approach.
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