MrDollarBills wrote:The Malice At The Palace is what changed everything, after that the NBA went out of their way to "soften" its image (meaning, make it more appealing to the racism of mainstream white america) and here we are today. In hindsight, that incident was horrible especially when you have fans and players fighting each other...like its a BASKETBALL game. I have never gone to a sporting event wanting to throw something at a player or wanting to get into a fight with a player over 2 hours of entertainment.
Mind you, I have no problem with the NBA today and I think Adam Silver is doing a fantastic job. But there's a reason why the league is looked at as softer now compared to the old days and it stems from general ugliness of our society.
Hockey is trying to clean up their act as well but you had a time where fighting in hockey was looked at as normal, and yet in the early 2000s the NBA players were demonized for doing the exact same thing at a way lesser rate. I still remember the racist comments being made about Carmelo Anthony after the Knicks and Nuggets got into a fight (where Nate Robinson ate JR Smith's lunch).
But yeah I kind of miss the old days where a fight broke out. I don't condone what Rondo or Brandon Ingram did but it did add some excitement that night
Hockey fights are for the most part still normal really. There's one nearly every night somewhere around the league. With the enforcer role gone though, star players can't talk out of their asses anymore since they don't have that one goon who will have his back and take the fight. Unwritten rules are still in play too.
I will agree with NBA haters about flopping though. It's always existed, but now multiple star players do it on a near game by game basis and that doesn't look good at all for the NBA.
