I had this all done about a week or so ago right after the warriors won but forgot to send it to myself so it's a little old but still relevant:
Sports media and fans alike always want to compare current players or teams to the past ones. Though it makes for good banter and discussion there is no way in holy hell that many of these arguments would hold if the teams or players actually played. The one thing I will say will actually hold is if these teams or players participated during that time period but since they can't we will never know. Here is my analysis on why this is the dumbest conversation in sports today.
Babe Ruth- though an incredible talent and outlier during his time, he would be garbage now. Facing dudes that throw 90 mph splitters, relief pitchers, specialists, advanced scouting and statistics, coaching strategies, the players themselves (Dominican, Cuban, Japanese, African American) etc. Baseball players in general, outside of the steroid era, haven't gotten so proportionately larger that it's so hard to compare, just the way it is played. Yes freaks like Trout and Harper are out there but there were also huge talents in past decades as well. We should just appreciate the players baseball has given us and stop trying to compare, the way the game is played is completely different outside of the basic fundamentals
Jordan/Lebron- I actually think Lebron all in all is a better basketball player than Jordan was. He's bigger, stronger, quicker and plays in an era where the game is less physical and superstars are given much more preferential treatment than they did in the past. It's the intangibles, the arguing to the refs, etc that separates them. Jordan and Lebron played close enough that a comparison of the two is relevant and valid. However when you are comparing teams that played in the 50s, 60's, 70's and early 80's to teams now that's when it falls off. Basketball teams didn't have foreign players, 7' players that can shoot threes. Offenses that run the triangle and other offenses that are complex. I heard some commentator make a statement that this golden state team was the worst team to ever win the championship because they have no hall of famers as of right now on the team. Please. I just don't understand how anyone could keep their job after making a statement like that.
Football- haven't heard this scenario too much in football. Wide receivers are the size that linemen used to be and that's just one aspect. So i wont dwell into this other than to say 99% of sports fans know that a current nfl team would absolutely destroy any team from 2 or more decades ago.
The point i'm trying to make, lets just live in the "now." Stop trying to compare everyone to past players or to teams in the past. For some things, statistically speaking makes sense but even that is going away slightly. Just appreciate greatness now and stop trying to say this player is the next other player. Stop it!
Yeah, it's ridiculous. It's a fun discussion to have, undoubtedly, especially because there's no way to prove anybody is right. Joe Posnanski likes to make this point regarding baseball players--he points out that Baseball-Reference Elo-Rater has all these old-timey players as the best of all time, but he pretty consistently argues that he thinks Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, peak Pedro, etc, among others, were tons better than guys like Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and Walter Johnson. Anyway, your more important point is that we can appreciate both without comparing them, and I couldn't agree more (but that approach, and me agreeing, doesn't make for good talking head debates on ESPN and the horrible talk radio shows, or good listsicles on obnoxious websites, so it ain't gonna happen).
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