I'll say this since you're younger than most of us and probably didn't watch the 80s NBA with any real level of perspective, the 80s NBA was the golden age of basketball in the sense that it launched the sport into the American zeitgeist in a fundamental and inextricable manner. Teams were diverse in their style of play and perfectly fit the makeup of their cities. You had teams like the Lakers, Nuggets, Sonics, Mavericks, Warriors, and even the Celtics who pushed the absolute mess out of the ball up and down the court. You had Houston and Atlanta who were perpetual brides maids despite overwhelming athleticism. Then on the other end of the spectrum teams like the Pistons, Utah, Cleveland, and Knicks who would routinely force opponents into rock fights.
Also like @longhornmatt mentioned there were true characters back then who weren't obsessively worried about their image and focus testing their every utterance. Plus these guys in the 80s came up before the commodification of basketball so unlike today with AAU and data driven strategy forcing everyone to play within a narrow set of stylistically parameters, players back then had a diverse array of playing and shooting styles. Magic shot the ball like a shot put. Kareem had his famous skyhook. Mark Price had absolutely flawless fucking form. Bird cocked the ball behind and slightly to the right of his head. Dominique shot with the palm of his hand and kicked his legs out in a very specific way. If a kid mimicked a player on the court absolutely everyone knew who he was. Even the announcers were characters. Freaking Tommy Heinson sounded like Fred Flinstone was broadcasting a game alongside Dick Stockton. All this added to the texture and overall enjoyment of the league during an era that essentially introduced the game to the country. Even though the 90s brought us Jordan's peak I'll contend that much like some would argue with Steph today, his success altered the style of the game for the worse and ultimately stagnated the NBA once his star was no longer around to blockout the banality his presence brought upon the league.