This video to me sums up how ridiculous people have gotten about the past. You can see how much space players have on the perimeter when you watch the game of the late 80's through the 90's. The only period when basketball had tipped too much towards the defenses was 99-03 when they allowed illegal defenses but didn't adjust for pace. They fixed it with defensive 3 seconds and increasing the pace and that fixed things. Hand checking was never that big of an issue.
When they talk about 'physicality' What they are referring to is defenders being allowed to place their hands and forearms onto offensive players chest or hips for the sole purpose of impeding progress. The impact of that in the league is undeniable
As much as I respect Jordans game, many NBA players insinuated the hand check rule only applied to him. You could not touch Jordan out on the perimeter. It was written off as star treatment.
Luckily games were recorded so myths like this can be put to rest. Hand checks aren't something you don't see, they are pretty obvious. Personally I just searched a few of Jordans greatest games on youtube and just browsing through them he was hand checked frequently, just as much as anyone else.
Listen, I think the video is conflating some issues. Of course, people weren't mauled in games back in the 80s, but there was the idea that if you come down the lane and you were a pg, you better be prepared to be put on your back. Players don't do that today because it would be an immediate ejection. Also, when people talk about physical basketball sometimes it's the idea of hand-checking, which you can no longer do. Hand-checking isn't "physical" per say, it was just a more aggressive style of defense that you can no longer play in the nba. That's not to say that basketball isn't physical today, it certainly is. It's just that nowadays the stars are catered to way more than they ever were in the past, and players like mahorn in todays nba can't even get on the floor because it's a: "everybody can and is a star's league."
Was one on one defense more physical? Yes. However, with hand checking came illegal defense. Basically any excessive help defense was illegal. So the idea that it’s easier to score today when you have the complex coverages that teams are rolling out, as opposed to just one dude trying to man handle you, is asinine. There’s a reason it took so long for scoring to increase after the outlawed hand checking. Allowing “illegal defense” opened up the game defensively. It allowed teams to do more than just trust one guy to stop superstar offensive players. Every aspect of the game to today is more difficult than it used to be, that’s just a fact!
Saying every aspect is a little hyperbolic, but yes you make a solid argument. I also think the charge is called a lot more frequently nowadays and is employed more as a defensive tactic whereas it used to be mostly a college thing. I don't have any evidence for that statement though.
Can’t have it both ways. If the league has changed as much as stated then today’s players are much better defenders since they aren’t allowed to do as much.
The official rules are different for defense above or below the free throw line, and illegal defense is now allowed. That's what has shifted the game to a perimeter style. This video doesn't mean much, as NBA officiating is quite subjective and you can cherry pick examples from any era.
I have a disagreement with the assertion at 2:40 that excessive contact was always called a foul in the 80's. It is that way now because of technology and instant replay. It wasn't always that way in the past. Sure, some fouls were caught, but as a former watcher of ESPN Classic (is that channel still around), I vividly remember blatant no-calls on rough fouls. You can't cherry pick a called rough foul and say 80's hoops, without instant replay and rules that triggered reviews, called rough fouls as much as they do today. Also, with the implementation of the flagrant section, once again, they are cherry picking flagrant calls in the video. It's not an old-man lost memory thing when people say flagrant fouls are more easily assessed today than in the 90's. Sure, there were many weak modern flagrants called in the 90's and even 2000's, but it wasn't nearly as consistently called as it is today.
There is more contact now than there was in the 80's. It really wasn't until 1997 that you saw a lot of perimeter contact be allowed. This idea that Kenny Smith had to deal with more contact than Curry is largely a myth
This post made me look up hardest fouls in the nba and i found this. The softness is really about what's a common foul and what's a flagrant.
Obviously no one around here remembers the time Charles Barkley shot Michael Jordan with a pistol in the knee and it was ruled only a common foul. Like a boss Jordan stepped up, hit those free throws and then proceeded to put up 50 on the Suns before going to the hospital.
I remember when Carl Landry was literally shot in the leg and had his teeth embedded in Dirk's arm and missed like one game each time.
