1. Michael Jordan
2. The NBA on NBC theme song
3. Bill Walton (The Commentator)
4. High Top Fades
5. Broken Backboard Dunks
6. Lil' Penny Commercials
7. The Washington Bullets Logo
8. Detlef Schrempf
9. The Charlotte Hornets
10. The 2000-01 Sacramento Kings (RIP Sacramento, by the way)
In all seriousness, the Top 5 are very dear to me. Their loss has been a little easier to cope with because every few years, one of the Top 5 threatens to make a comeback. Jordan already came back once and is practicing with the Bobcats again. Bill Walton occasionally calls Celtics and Kings games. Brandon Jennings reintroduced the NBA to the high top fade for a short time last year. The NBA on NBC is never coming back, but the NBA on ESPN/ABC theme song is flying under the radar. It's no NBC, but pretty good nonetheless. The current group of youngsters will look back fondly on the ESPN/ABC theme like we do the NBC.
The age of broken backboards however, isn't coming back. I suppose that's a good thing. Raining glass can be pretty dangerous. The NBA also saves time and money -- two of the League's biggest assets at this point.
We all know that the rims and backboards are made sturdier nowadays, but how exactly do they work? Arthur Ehrat is credited with the invention of the breakaway rim as we know it today. Not a fan of basketball himself, Ehrat was contacted by his nephew, an assistant basketball coach at St. Louis University in 1975, about creating a rim that could withstand forceful slams. After a couple failed attempts, Ehrat struck gold -- in the form of a John Deere cultivator. He found that the spring was strong enough to not only withstand missed shots, but dunks as well.
Ehrat's new rim debuted in the 1978 Final Four. Dunking had been illegal since 1967 in the college game, but recently reinstated in 1976, due in large part to the popularity of Dr. J and the rest of the ABA's high-risers.
The NBA followed suit, introducing the breakaway rim in 1979 as a response to Darryl Dawkins, who shattered two backboards that year. While the new rim proved to be more successful than its predecessor, players were still bringing backboards down.
That changed in the early 1990s. NBA rims are now attached directly to the arm extending beyond the backboard. The arm, coupled with the springs on the breakaway rim absorb the force that the glass backboard used to. The video below contains a nice visual of this process, in addition to a disheartening experiment for those still hoping to see another broken NBA backboard in their lifetime.
In 1992, Shaq became the last player to shatter a backboard in an NBA game. The once famous trend lasted for 46 years but will never be seen again, at least in the NBA anyway. In memoriam, I conclude with this:
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