You're missing my point. I was not trying to say that there are more of those athletic freaks today or that the outliers are more incredible today. My point is that the average athleticism in the league has increased quite a bit and you shouldn't be looking at the extreme outliers to disprove that point. Look at the average.
I still don't agree with you... and even if your premise is valid, what does it matter when you start looking at elite players guarding and scoring on one another.
Actually, Blake Griffin's game is almost exactly the same as Barkley's. Same aggression, ballhandling, and finesse.
I wasn't looking at elite players guarding one another. I was looking at the difference in athleticism between the elite player and the average guy guarding him. Most games, an elite perimeter player is not going to be going head-to-head with another elite perimeter player (unless you water down the definition of "elite" to the point that every team has 1-2 "elite" perimeter players).
