The NBA is so Buddy-Buddy and watered down. Where's the good old fashioned hate?

[D.o.s.]

Oh.

[Greenbean]

I cant tell if you are being sarcastic, or double sarcastic but I think I agree

On court rivalries and heated playoff battles have always been the breeding ground for sports "hate".

Guys can be friends off the floor and still wildly competitive on the floor.

I think what skews the NBA fan's opinion is the face of the league, Lebron, doesnt outwardly show the same crazy competitiveness that past legends have.

[D.o.s.]

Glad you enjoyed it.

That photo reminded me that there's a lot more WWE style posturing on behalf of the good old days, when men were men crowd than they might want to admit.

[Mazingerz]

KG, Pierce and Rondo still sport this attitude. I miss the good ol' days.

[Clench123]

Those two would run circles around Jordan, Kobe, Lebron, and any star of today.

[Eja117]

It's a little easier to be buddies when you're livin the good life 30 years removed from your careers

[slamtheking]

good old fashioned hated rivalries are mostly in the fan bases now (and losing ground even there when in a number of threads here C's 'fans' think anyone other than the Lakers is the C's biggest rivalry). 

rivalry between the players on franchises started waning when the big name players started moving to other teams via free agency (or through forced trades).

[DraftSmart33]

Hating someone on the court or when your competing in a work environment is different from hating them as a person.  I'm pretty sure Chamberlin and West hated every player on the C's after being shut down by them year after year.....and who would of known that Larry and Magic would hang out in Indy in the offseason.

I do wish we had more hate on the court though...love KG intensity, and Rondo for that matter (I clearly remember him giving $h!t to Chris Paul a few years ago)

[Celtics4ever]

Plenty of guys hate us and Celtics Nation, rest assured.

[D.o.s.]

It's a little easier to be buddies when you're livin the good life 30 years removed from your careers

Good point, but by all accounts Wilt and Russell were always relatively close.

Also, if anyone hasn't read The Rivalry, they absolutely should.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Rivalry-Russell-Chamberlain-Basketball/dp/0812970306/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405520823&sr=8-1&keywords=Bill+Russell+Wilt+Chamberlain

[mgent]

Who the heck said it was hate that made the NBA so good?

It was competition.

Wilt and Russell were the best competitors of all time, and they LIVED to compete against each other.  How can you call yourself the best if you're not competing against the best?

The insinuation that Wilt and Russell ever would have teamed up is both sad and beyond ignorance.

[mgent]

Also, I wouldn't say Wilt and Russell were "Buddy-Buddy" so much as I would say they were family.  They were thrown together and forced to stay that way just like siblings.  You love your brother, but you always want to beat him.  They would even eat at the same table, all the while thinking "I can't wait to kick this guy's butt."

The entire NBA was an extended family back then, Russell himself has said that.  Not everybody realizes how much smaller it was.  Wilt would score 100 points on the Knicks, and then get a ride from their players after the game.  If that's not family then I don't know what is.  I think he apologized to them for scoring 100 too.  Sooo much different than today; no point in comparison.

[D.o.s.]

[D.o.s.]

Which is to say, you're not wrong -- almost every rivalry in the NBA has been between guys who were, more or less, friends at the end of the day. Bird echoed your "competition" bit exactly on Letterman a couple years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oShf9yw7leg

edit: the rest of the interview is so good, parts 2 and 3 added:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHW6v3jewZI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7rGMVp_RpE

But, again, not really the point.