Kobe Bryant is one of the elder statesmen in the NBA now which makes me feel old but he was asked about the differences between the NBA when he came in in 1996 and now. One thing that really bothers him is how soft the game is now:
“It’s more of a finesse game. It’s more small ball. Which, personally, I don’t really care much for,” Bryant said. Like so many from the old-school – even at 35, Bryant qualifies – he is befuddled at the soft stuff now that passes for physical play. “Makes me nauseous,” he said. “You can’t touch a guy….
“Nowadays, anybody can get out there and get to the basket – you can’t touch ‘em,” he said. “Back then, if you have guys putting their hands on you, you have to have the skills to be able to go both ways, change directions, post up and have that mid-range game, because you didn’t want to go all the way to the basket because you’d get knocked [down].”
The movement to take hand checking and physical play out of the game was really born out of lower scoring in the 90s that resulted in David Stern wanting to open the game up to make it more offense driven and exciting.
I guess that worked but Kobe has a point and tough defense with a few hard fouls wouldn’t be the worst thing for the stars of today.