Here's an interesting story about Phil Jackson bemoaning the state of modern basketball-
Jackson, in an interview with Bleacher Report from May that was published Monday, said the current "individualized" style of the NBA isn't disciplined and -- even more so -- just isn't pleasing to the eye.
"When I watch some of these playoff games, and I look at what's being run out there, as what people call an offense, it's really quite remarkable to see how far our game has fallen from a team game," Jackson told Bleacher Report. "Four guys stand around watching one guy dribble a basketball.
However, the ugly game seems to work well. Jackson's Knicks weren't exactly setting the world on fire, finishing next to last in the league this most recent season; a mild dose of bad luck dropped them to 4th in Thursday's draft.
A more disciplined offense might appeal to the old-school Jackson, whose favored "triangle" offense features a more scripted approach than the dribble-drive approach that looks to draw multiple defenders to a spot in order to find an open man left by the helping defenders, with the free man often setting up shop just outside the three-point line.
The modern game is more chaotic, but more effective. If the triangle worked as well as Jackson thinks it does, more teams would be running it.
Modern economics might look that way, too. A largely free-market economy is often uncoordinated and individualized, lacking in structure. It's not as much of a "team game" as more communitarian folks would like, but it tends to be more creative and more responsive to people's needs and wants than a structured, centralized, communal economy.
It does have its downsides; the misfits of society can fall through the cracks and the responsiveness of the system only works if you have the disposable income to take advantage of it. However, the upsides of more creativity and getting what customers want rather than what the powers that be want outweigh those shortcomings; that is the job of the charitable sector (especially the Church) and government to patch over those cracks without stopping that creativity in its tracks.
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