NBA

[Dirtydawg]

Love you but respectfully disagree DD. Now I can't speak on basketball in the 70's but defenses were brutal in the 80's and early 90's. Think about the Bad Boys from Detroit as an example. They did brutal things to MJ and Scottie Pippen in particular that were just called a foul. If those same things were done today it would result in an ejection. There was no hand checking rule while Jordan played. That is one of the main arguments that historians and Jordan fans use against Lebron fans when discussing who is the greatest of all time. If they were not allowed to hand check back when MJ played instead of averaging 33 PPG he might have actually averaged 40 points a night and won a couple more titles. Boston/Phil/ NY/ Milwaukee/ Detroit were particularly rough. VERY physical back then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLMYN...ture=fvwp&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XNqYf03Qk0

I will say this. I did intend to go back and amend my statement that by the late 80s defenses were allowed to be more physical, however, that had more to do with the refs and the league allowing it to happen rather than legislating around it. However, I still take exception to his wording. There were still rules in place that gave the refs the opportunity to stop that. Now, they just change the rules. Besides, they only showed the sensational incidents in that video. I'd bet there were many more mundane games played between 95% of the other teams that didn't involve the top players of the time. Incidentally, that's about the time I quit watching pro basketball.

[JasonNorin]

I do believe that NBA have indeed changed a lot over time..

[TechDawgMc]

Maybe part of the disagreement is that you guys are talking about two different eras as if they were one. The late 70s and early 80s were offense dominant. There were games in the playoffs where teams scored 135 points and still lost. Then, in the late 80s/early 90s, we saw a shift to allowing a lot of very aggressive defense (essentially a lot of fouling). In that time, scoring dropped--The scoring average varied almost 20 PPG over a 15 year period.

[Cool Hand Clyde]

Maybe part of the disagreement is that you guys are talking about two different eras as if they were one. The late 70s and early 80s were offense dominant. There were games in the playoffs where teams scored 135 points and still lost. Then, in the late 80s/early 90s, we saw a shift to allowing a lot of very aggressive defense (essentially a lot of fouling). In that time, scoring dropped--The scoring average varied almost 20 PPG over a 15 year period.

Now, we are in the era where the "superstars" are protected.