You Can Actually Hear The Fart Sound During This Quote - Penny Hardaway Says College Hoops Isn't As Good Now As It Was In The 90s

“The basketball is kinda watered down a little bit more now. Because the substance is gone. Guys aren’t staying 2-3 years. And I get it, you gotta go get that money. There’s a ton of talented players, but the 90’s was just better because the guys stayed in school longer. Even though you’re still getting good basketball now, it was just better basketball back then.”

God. Damnit. I'm so sick of this fucking bullshit. Everything now thanks to The Last Dance is 'the game isn't as good as it was in the 90s.' As someone who LOVES the 90s and grew up watching hoops both in the 90s and now, let me tell you. It sure is just fine. It's a completely different game due to skillset. You know what you saw in the 90s? A lot of 2 bigs sets, clogged lanes and driving. That's fine, that was the game then. But go rewatch a game from the 90s and I mean really watch a game from the 90s. It's not some amazing game compared to now. 

And I know what 90% of people are going to say. The one-and-done ruined college hoops. First, that's an NBA rule. It's not like college went, go ahead and give us this, you're not allowed to go to the NBA out of high school. So be mad at the NBA if you believe that. Second, the one-and-done has given us more talent than ever in college hoops. We got to see Zion, Anthony Davis, Derrick Rose, John Wall, Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, etc all play in college hoops for a year. And let me tell you, IT WAS AWESOME. 

Advertisement

Finally, it's not the one-and-done that's hurting college hoops. It's the guys that are juniors leaving for the two-way contract or international money. That didn't happen in the 90s. If you were in college for 2 years, you were likely there for four. There was limited money to be made at the pro level. So you stayed in college for four years to try and improve your draft stock. 

It's also hilarious that Penny - who is trying to recruit as many one-and-dones as possible is saying this. If he truly believed you need guys to stay longer, go recruit four year guys. But the fact is even Penny knows you need top end talent to win in the NCAA. You need the mix of one-and-dones with a couple upperclassmen. That's typically the best recipe to have. 

This also just sounds like Penny doing the 'my era was better.' It's not just Penny, everyone does that, but almost no one more than 90s basketball players. They love saying how things are watered down now - there's also more teams than ever. They love saying how their era was better. It's just different. But, again, you drop some of these guys from this era into the 90s and they look like aliens.