In golf, every course is different - length, trees, water, rough, traps, even Par. Yet we still recognize the 3 golfers who shot 59 in a PGA round.
In football, playing conditions differ in every stadium, dome vs outdoors, grass vs. turf, altitude vs. sea level, etc... Yet, we still keep and recognize records.
In baseball, every field is different, dimensions, altitude, etc... Yet, we still keep and recognize records.
In fact, there was a very interesting TED talk by David Epstein where he attributes nearly all of the historical improvement in 100m dash times to improvements in track surfaces, shoes, etc ...
Conditions change in EVERY sport. But that doesn’t reduce or minimize the significance of record setting accomplishments of today, the past, or the future.
Sorry, but yours is not even close to a reasonable comparison, the situations are entirely dissimilar and you're picking the points that support your argument while ignoring those that do not.
Yes, golf courses have different configurations but the playing and equipment rules remain the same on all courses.
Almost the same with baseball fields, although the outfields differ, the infields, playing and equipment rules are totally uniform. No pine tar bats or spit balls.
With football, the fields, playing and equipment rules are all uniform. When playing in the elements, the weather can never be controlled and made uniform.
The same applies to the NBA, the game is played uniformly regardless of the venue, ball and hoop size and height aren't adjusted for the sake of records.
Of course, over time, rules and playing field changes have taken place, I believe that the NBA hoop height has been changed and the baseball has been rumored to have been "juiced". But at any given point in time the playing and equipment rules, and most field sizes remain uniform throughout the sport. Yet, even with that uniformity, records have, and will, be argued forever, some for valid reasons like longer and shorter seasons, and others emotionally. Such is the nature of man.
I can go on with professional sport after professional sport, and my arguments remain virtually the same until we come to "professional" pool, which, because of the lack of a national sanctioning and governing organization, remains the wild west. Therefore, without standardized rules and organizational oversight, one has to expect rule creativity and the resultant controversy.
