Where has the Back to the Basket Game Gone?

Back to the basket basketball is a lost art form.  The ability to use size to your advantage does not exist to the extent it did 20 years ago.  Back in the day you had centers that would dominate the game.  Guys like Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul Jabaar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Wes Unseld,  and Shaquille O'Neil could all influence a game with their God given size and their ability to use their size and coordination to their advantage.  There's no debate that these were all world class athletes where the tag "freak of nature" would aptly apply.

However, it wasn't just centers that used back to the basket moves to great advantage, it was great players like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Adrian Dantley, and Magic Johnson that realized that adding a back to the basket game to the arsenal would only help them compete.

Nowadays the big men you see are much more skilled at dribbling the ball and shooting from distance.  They play more like guards and seem to be afraid of mixing things up in the paint.  Along with the big men who helped define the NBA, gone is the skill of playing with your back to the basket.  You don't see turn arounds, jump hooks, or general post up play.  This skill was effective not just for bigs but also for smaller players who wanted to take advantage of a size mismatch.  Today, if you're not dunking at the basket or shooting a three your not playing basketball (those analytics).

To people like me who have been watching the game for a while, today's game feels incomplete.  This is why I still like to teach kids how to play with their back to the basket.  It's an invaluable tool to learn and it gives them another option when they need to finish around the basket.

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