Sometimes nostalgia can be a nice thing to look back from to remember positive things from your youth and compare to the present day. While it's probably harmless in the grand scheme of things, I do think in the aspect of sports it can sometimes be an overly-negative effect that takes away from appreciating sports you enjoy.

For instance, in basketball there seems  to be many older fans that seem to criticize a lot of modern basketball  from the way the game is played to the overall culture outside the court. They complain about how the game isn’t as physical as before and don’t like the style of basketball being played currently. To add to that, there are also many that like to criticize the current crop of players and always look at the opportunity to downplay certain actions to previous players. 

This isn’t even particularly a fan or media thing, but many players from the past are very prone to come after today’s top stars. For example, many of the notable former player commentators on many of the popular sports programs have become popular voicing out numerous critical comments throughout the years, targeting the top guys like Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, etc. Whether they had a bad performance in a big game or made controversial comments  in interviews; they constantly reiterate how much better older players acted as individuals and played with more “heart and effort” than the players today.

I do agree the new generation of basketball players and athletes  can have problematic tendencies to their approach and that they should take some of these sometimes harsh criticisms in good heart. At the same time, I do think that older fans tend to expect the new generation to simply replicate the mentalities of the best players ever and easily perform them to these perfect levels of criteria that shouldn't be so simple.

Criticism should always be welcome and NBA stars today should respect what older players and  even fans say, but expecting today’s players to behave totally like the past is not understanding how the game of basketball and overall culture is always repeatedly changing over the years.

Regardless of your opinions on sports like basketball, we should always have a level of appreciation of the sports we enjoy. Being too nostalgic of the past can hinder people away from the positive energy of sports.