It is truly evident that in the NBA, the game is changing. Old timer's of the game have feared it for years, the kind of game where there is less focus on team and a more run-and -gun style of individual basketball. If you follow the game on any level, you know that everything starts with the point guard. The point guard is the general, the control the balance, and the flow of the game as a whole. The leaders. Now this is by no means saying that the point guards of today don't fit these characteristics, because many of them do. But the fact remains that the style they go about doing it is without a doubt changing. When you think of the traditional point guard, names like John Stockton, Pete Maravich, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Bob Cousy, Oscar Robertson, Nate Archibald, and the list goes on. Those guys set the standard for what a point guard should be, the orchestrator of the offense. Today?? hmmm. There might be one guy in the league right now who resembles the traditional point guard style of play, and thats Steve Nash. Jason Kidd was definitely one of the best point guards ever to lace up, but his time has passed. Oh I could throw Chris Paul in there too. But that's only two. TWO! The game used to be filled with guys like this. Today, the prototypical point guards are guys like Deron Williams, Derrick Rose and Rajon Rondo. It used to be absurd for any point guard not to be able to make a jump shot, even more a free throw. Anyone in my COMM 410 class can probably do both better than Rondo. Now I love Williams and Rose, they're all-stars and the faces of their franchises. But they are the proof that the game is for sure changing. Again I'm not necessarily saying for the worse, well, yea I kind of am I guess. I love the NBA and always will. But is there really a question why the game has continued to drop in popularity since the 90's? The game is different, and people had been used to a much different game for such a long time. And it all starts with the point guard.
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