Vecsey: Pro hoops had plenty to cheer about long before 'The Last Dance' era

Hall of Fame basketball writer Peter Vecsey started covering the NBA long before "The Last Dance" era, and reminded everyone the league was pretty doggone good even before the arrival of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

"To me, I thought the ’70s were damn good and the ’80s were great and the ’90s were great,” Vecsey told Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. “But the ’90s weren’t greater because Michael got six [titles]. I think when you had Magic and Bird and Julius (Erving) and Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) and those three teams and Houston. C’mon, the ’80s were better than the ’90s and the Pistons were in the ’80s. too."

Vecsey spent 50 years covering the NBA, mostly for the New York Post. He truly was the first major newsbreaker in pro basketball, his direct tone and honest writing style earning both the ire and admiration of those he covered. He remains a respected and trusted voice in the game today.

Along with his work at the New York Post, Vecsey was the featured insider on NBC's broadcasts of NBA games. Television undoubtedly played a role in the league's growth, something to which Vecsey alluded.

"NBC kind of lucked into it, they wanted to do it a different way,” Vecsey told Washburn. “I always felt the league was great. The crowds were getting bigger. I was enjoying the hell of out of everything in the NBA. Again, the ’70s was great, the ABA, the NBA, the merger. The talent that came into the NBA at that time, to me, that was the turnaround of the NBA. OK, so it wasn’t reflected in ratings.”

Jordan's Chicago Bulls dynasty teams and the NBA of the 1990s and '80s have come back into focus with the wildly popular ESPN documentary, "The Last Dance."

Vecsey said he never received a call to be interviewed for the project.

"It’s absolutely amazing to me that they could be that stupid," he told Washburn. "I had so many inside stories that were printed that they are not even going to address it. It’s amazing."

Vecsey was inducted into the media wing of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.

Sam Amico covers pro basketball for Sports Illustrated. Follow him @AmicoHoops.

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