There are times when I forget how great the NBA was in the early '90s. I was watching the '93 All-Star game on ESPN Classic this afternoon and was blown away at the number of future Hall-of-Famers in the game.
There were Isiah Thomas and Dominique Wilkins past their primes. A 23-year-old Shaq O'Neal was there. But it was the amount of great players, in the primes of their careers, that drew me away from my computer and to the TV. Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Hakeem Olajuwan, Scottie Pippen, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone and David Robinson were all there.
It reminded me of all the great players the NBA has now. Even without in-their-prime superstars like Tracy McGrady and Gilbert Arenas absent, and an end-of-his-prime Kevin Garnett out with injury (not to mention Shaq missing the game), just look at all the possible future Hall-of-Famers playing today: end-of-their-prime guys like Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd and Steve Nash, in-their-prime guys like Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Dwayne Wade, Dirk Nowitski and Yao Ming and then the just-entering-their-prime guys such as LeBron James, Chris Paul, Carlos Boozer, Amare Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony, Brandon Roy, Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard.
The NBA might still have an image problem, but there is no doubting the league has just as many talented players now as it ever has.
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