It\u2019s hard to talk about the aesthetics of basketball without sounding corny (\u201cbasketball is jazz!\u201d) or silly (\u201cthat tall strong dude sure dunked real hard!\u201d), so let\u2019s get that out of the way. We\u2019re going to talk about basketball the way theorists debate the merits of Fitzgerald vs. Pynchon, but there\u2019s gonna be some Sports Talk while we do it. Basketball is beautiful, and that beauty is expressed with sick passing, honey-butter jumpers, and big ol\u2019 hammer dunks. <\/p>
People say \u201cyou can\u2019t compare across eras,\u201d but they\u2019re usually talking about ranking. I like comparing the game aesthetically across eras. 1990s NBA, much like grunge, is awesome, paradigm-shifting, but surprisingly disappointing when you get past the hits. 1950s NBA, much like British poetry during the Restoration, is boring and bad. The 60s game is fast-paced, full of legends, and suffocatingly white. The early aughts is full of really cool players who didn\u2019t do much and looked like they were wearing cargo pants. Every era in the league is interesting in its own right (except the 50s). It\u2019s no secret that since 2015ish, we\u2019ve been watching a new aesthetic of basketball being born.<\/p>