LeBron James had a 2-5 record against 1990s all-star Reggie Miller. Photo courtesy of CavsNation.com. 

DAVID JACOBS | STAFF REPORTER | drjacobs@butler.edu 

Despite being the breeding ground of the three-point shot and the bridge between the old-school styled era of play in the 1980s and the modern era, the 1990s have garnered a load of discredibility from modern NBA fans. 

Just 45 years after the league added the three-point arc onto the court in 1979, the reality is that the players in the ‘90s were the guinea pigs of the three-point arc. It took five years of their struggle for the NBA to move the arc nearly two feet closer to the basket in 1995 where it still stands today. 

That switch enabled Mitch Richmond, Glen Rice, John Starks, Reggie Miller, Mookie Blaylock, George McCloud and Dennis Scott to become the first players to reach 200 three-pointers made in a single season. 

At the end of the 1990-91 season, the league average for three-point attempts was 7.1 on 32% efficiency. That number grew to 36% on 16 attempts once they moved it closer. 

This number that has grown into 35 attempts per game on the same efficiency leaves games feeling stale and dry to certain fans of the league. 

Despite it being the more efficient shot, first-year marketing major Austin Hosier-Hartman believes that the high usage has made the game rather stale in terms of entertainment. 

“I think teams rely too much on the three-point shooters to score points,” Hosier-Hartman said. “It makes the game less interesting and makes the game less diversified in terms of gameplay and strategy.” 

Although the three-point shot has blossomed thanks to the likes of Steph Curry, it was the shooters listed above in the ‘90s that proved to the world that the three-point shot could be a lethal weapon for any offense. 

Outside of the perimeter shooting, the main difference between the two eras are the offensive skill and defensive effort. Those who grew up in the older eras believe the game has grown soft, while those who are growing up in the modern era believe the offensive skill was laughable. 

The truth is, both trains of thought are right — to a certain extent. 

The modern era of basketball is the most skilled it has ever been, and reasonably so. With players like 7’4” Victor Wembanyama shooting step back threes and becoming one of the league’s top defenders at age 20, no wonder the offensive output is at an all-time high post-merger. 

Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo stands at 6’11” and has become one of the league’s best all-around players, averaging 30 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists per game. 

Fellow two-time MVP Nikola Jokić is nearly seven feet as well, weighing 285 pounds and has averaged a 25 point near-triple double each of the last four seasons. 

Outside of being three examples of the freakishly tall and athletic players that dominate the league currently, these players have one other thing in common: all being foreign-born athletes. 

As the game of basketball continues to grow, more non-American players are entering the league which has never happened before. 

Of the five main statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks, Tyrese Haliburton and Domantas Sabonis are the only American-born players who lead the league in one of the categories this season. 

In the 2003-04 campaign, not a single foreign-born player was leading the league in a major stat, while Andrei Kirlienko, Steve Nash and Peja Stojaković were the only foreign-born stars to even be in the top five of any of the major five categories. 

Junior strategic communication major Hannah Baer thinks the increase of foreign-born athletes correlates with the high usage of the three-point shot. 

“You look at these [foreign] players and most of them [end up] being all-stars,” Baer said. “I think it does force [the rest of the NBA] to play better and have an individualized mindset to be one of the best, which is where the three-point emphasis comes in.” 

As for the defensive effort and physicality that is so coveted by the older generations, it is all relatively the same given the allotted rules and game styles. 

In the ‘90s, the league saw slightly more steals, blocks and turnovers per game, but actually saw a bump in fouling and free throw attempts compared to the current landscape of the NBA. 

There is plenty of correlation between poor shooting efficiency and the amount of offensive rebounds per game, ultimately leading to more free throw attempts per game in the 1990s. However, the current era of 2020s basketball is actually eerily similar to that of the 1980s.

So far in the 2020s, the average point scoring has been 113.1 points per game, while in the 80’s, it was just a few points lower at 109.6. 

The ‘80s had the same amount of field goal attempts per game at just over 88 per game as the 2020s, and although the three-pointer was nearly a non-factor with an inefficient 3.8 attempts seen, the decade actually had a higher pace rating than the current NBA. 

The pace rating metric is an estimation of the amount of possessions per 48 minutes. Although not a direct correlation of the speed of the game, with the field goal percentage being higher in the ‘80s it resulted in more successful possessions per game than what the league sees today. 

It should go without saying that the modern athlete is faster, stronger and more athletic than they were in previous decades. 

First-year sports media major A.J. Marcinko saw this first hand during his experiences coaching high school basketball. 

“We had a designated person just for physical training,” Marcinko said. “She was crucial to us being successful. She did not know much about basketball, but she knew how to keep our players healthy and physical throughout the season.” 

Player health and recovery is at an all time high, even at the high school level. Teams and players are realizing 82 regular-season games is a heavy toll on a body, and are adjusting their numbers of games played accordingly. 

The use of load management and its inept ability to help athletes with recovery and high schools like Montverde Academy, that operate to help send athletes to the Division I level and eventually the pros, make it inevitable that the modern basketball player will be more skilled. 

So, are we still done with the ‘90s? I sure hope not. Although the decade saw a dip in offensive production, it was not without reason. The defensive production was improved and defenders had more range of freedom with the use of hand checking still allowed. 

At the end of the day —  just like everything else in life — the game of basketball will continue to mature and grow even more than it already has. 

Thirty years from now, I am sure I will be writing this same opinion about not being done with 2020s basketball.