Kareem jokingly shades Steph for changing basketball originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar changed basketball when he played and now, he has noticed that Steph Curry has done the same in today's game.
The NBA legend was speaking to the girls of Oakland Tech and the boys of Oakland High School, the recent high school state champions, and jokingly explained why he had an issue with Curry.
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"They've forgotten about anything that does not say three points on it," Abdul-Jabbar told the crowd. "And I got to go across the Bay and slap Steph Curry for changing everybody's mind about how to play the game."
It is fair to say that the Association that Abdul-Jabbar played in and its most current iteration are almost two different leagues altogether.
Back in the '70s and '80s, teams played at a much slower pace and relied on big, lumbering big men with finesse to score around the basket and the mid-range game was alive and well.
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These days, gone are the big men with hook shots and post moves along with any mid-range jumper, and in are hyper-quick guards that can penetrate and hit the 3-pointer with ease.
It also was Curry, Klay Thompson and Warriors coach Steve Kerr that introduced the 3-point revolution to the NBA, focusing on shooting and making an incredible amount of 3s per game.
In the 2022-23 NBA season, teams shot 34.2 3-pointers per game, hitting 36.1 percent of them. Back in 1988-89 -- Abdul-Jabbar's final season -- teams shot 6.6 3-pointers per game with the New York Knicks attempting the most (14.0 per game).
With teams focusing more on high-percentage layups and open 3-pointers, it is not outside the realm of possibility to believe that days of skilled big men with the Sky Hook in their arsenal are gone.
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As the NBA continues to evolve, there is no doubt that Abdul-Jabbar and Curry both changed the game.
To what extent and how detrimental it is to those watching, however, remains to be seen.
