But really what I remember is not a more innocent time, but a more innocent me. As a kid, I didn t have the adult concerns I do now. As a teenager, I didn t see what was the big scandal about Prince in bikini underwear, or Darryl Dawkins Chocolate Thunder dunks, or cutting class, or just taking the ball to the hoop whenever I felt like it. Blasts from the Past Let s be honest. If it ain t gangsta rap, it s Nirvana, or the Sex Pistols, or the Beatles, or Ali, or blue jeans, or Beat slang, or Elvis, or Jackie Robinson, or jazz, or flappers.
Every generation sees kids culture as a threat to their authority and dominant values.
This nostalgia and fear is especially acute in sports. Many a newspaper columnist and radio talk show host Pete Rose, for example makes a living by denigrating today s athletes. I mean that they don t play with the same kinds of feelings or for the same objects they used to. And every generation of old folks since has cried the same cry. And right now the NBA s got it bad.