The NBA has started a new golden age. Those words have been said before. They were said when Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, and Allen Iverson and this last batch of superstars were supposed to replace Jordan from the ‘90s.

Those years were squandered by a defense oriented NBA. The game was slowed down and the scoring was shut down, with 100 points a game becoming a rarity. A few teams like the Kings and the Suns could put up three digits pretty regularly, but few others could.

This new move toward a freer perimeter (thanks to new rules from the NBA front office) an influx of young point guards (including Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Tony Parker), and the realization that crowds like offenses like those created by Mike D’Antoni by teams across the league have helped that development.

I think that the most important factor of those three has to be the economics of the situation has to be the most important. With the competition for attention from sports fans moving beyond the big three, leagues have to stay entertaining.

The NBA has been losing fans for years as the league remained in the top three spots, but that third spot has been becoming less and less prestigious. The sudden rise of the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers and their meeting in the championship in 2008 helped give the league a boost, but the players and teams have to do a great deal more than provide one redeeming season to hold off the UFC, NASCAR, Arena Football, and more of these fringe sports that have begun to take some of the average fan’s limited attention.

The NBA is hoping that this season they sell the Celtics tickets and the Lakers tickets, in addition to tickets in every city, that once helped grow the league two decades ago.