mademan wrote:SkyBill40 wrote:thebigbird wrote:The 70s/80s/90s weren't more physical than the NBA today.
So im guessing youre 50+ and watched ball back then and not just selective youtube clips
I'm 54. I first saw Rodman play in the Portsmouth Invitational, which was on TV, prior to the draft.
As far as overall physical play, my recollection is that more physical post defense was allowed, and more hand contact on the perimeter was allowed (although I think a lot of the "handchecking era" hype is overstated). In the past few years, I've also watched a ton of complete "Hardwood Classics" games on NBATV, from various eras, so I'm not just relying on memory.
The biggest difference was flagrant foul rules. It used to be that giving hard fouls, knocking guys to the ground to prevent layups and generally intimidate, was common. It's not like it happened every time -- teams still gave up dunks and uncontested layups. But it was still common and MUCH more prevalent than today. It was part of any good defensive team's persona, and there were lots of enforcer type players whose main role was to bang, give hard fouls and make the opponent feel their physical presence. Hard fouls were definitely part of the game in a way they no longer are.
There was also much more of an offensive emphasis on post play and midrange shooting, so the floor was more congested. More players banging in a smaller area equalled more opportunities for contact. On the other hand, today there is much more of defensive emphasis on getting into shooters on the perimeter, whereas in past eras, it was more prevalent to just sag off anyone who was 20+ feet from the basket.
Just because it happened to you, doesn't make it interesting.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.
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