The NBA has 75 years of history now. Stop judging, and start marveling.

The game’s memory is too long for so many lives now. Many of the folks who hated Dr. J’s list haven’t seen old videos of him playing, let alone the older ballers who mesmerized him. The legends are ancient to them, but that doesn’t automatically make them haters. The NBA has had many phases of life. It’s better to give each phase the space to breathe on its own, to appreciate the massive library of styles, to resist condensing an impressive body of work to center Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jordan, James or whomever as the prevailing standard for NBA stardom.