80's

    As said before, the NBA is at its lowest ebb at the dawn of the 80's, and there seems to be very little chance for it to continue to prosper. We will however see in this post how a rivalry between two players and an almost miraculous alignment of the stars turned the league around.

The 80's

    To get back to the origin of this story we have to go back to 1979 in the finals of NCAA, the college tournament (which is modelled on the NBA) and which pits Magic Johnson's Michigan States against Larry Bird's Indiana State. This match marks the first of many at the highest level, the game is won by Magic but the foundations of a solid rivalry are laid between these 2 players that everything opposes. Bird is a rather reserved white man from rural Indiana, while Magic comes from a rather violent black neighbourhood in Detroit, but he always keeps a great energy and is a source of good humour. It is time for these 2 players to return to the NBA, Magic to the Lakers, under the sun and Hollywood, Bird to the Celtics where the game is known to be rigid and where the antics are not too much appreciated, here again they're opposed and in the two most historic franchise. Their rivalry will be the center of the mediatic development of the league, public is coming back in the stadium, TV shown more matchs... In the decade, the lakers have won 5 rings (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1888) and the Celtic's 3 (1981, 1984, 1986) and they met each other in finals 3 times (1984, 1985, and 1987).

    But if the two players and their competition are the main factors, there are other peoples who helped to develop the league, in 1984 David Stern became the new commissioner (the boss) of the league he is the basis for the construction of the league as it is today. First of all he will severely punish all drug offences, sometimes banning players from the league. Then he will take care of the internationalisation of the NBA, he will broadcast the games in the 4 corners of the world all this in order to incite the non-American players to come to the draft. Talking about the draft, this year 1984 was one of the greatest year of the history, several players will have a huge impact on the NBA, John Stockton will become the most prolific passer of the history, Charles Barkley will become an important figure of the league still today, Hakeem Olajuwon, first African player first of the draft who will impact the game of the whole league and finally come from North Carolina with his number 23... 

I am of course talking about Mr. Michael Jordan! Who as you can imagine will have his impact but I'll talk more on that later...

    The draft 1984 was the first of Stern but he bring the idea of the lottery the following year the principle is simple, envelopes are in a ballot box, there is one for each team, each envelope drawn corresponds to a choice in the draft. It is thanks to this that the draft is now one of the most watched shows every year in the US which brings even more interest from the public, this process still takes place today but has changed in order to give more chance to the less good teams to have better chances for their picks.

                        

    The last things I wanted to talk about this decade is the Detroit Pistons, this team is perhaps the most hated in the history of the NBA for several reasons, the players didn't like them because playing against them was synonymous with potentially ending up in hospital, the league authorities didn't like them because they gave a bad image of the league and the public didn't like them because they prevented their favourite teams from winning, hence their nickname: the Bad Boys.

Indeed if you probably haven't heard of them it's because this team, although twice champion (1989 and 1990), was expensive and not very flashy and prevented young stars like Michael Jordan to go high in the Playoffs. 

Links:

Bad Boys Highlights fight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSPIQiFAe6U

Documentary in the 1884 NBA Draft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zUMIE8BOE8

Documentary on the Magic/Bird rivalry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axbIoHqFaa8&t=30s

But let's talk about one of the greatest dynasty of the sport's history...