I love collision sports. I love wrestling and judo. I also love the creativity of soccer and basketball, but enjoy it best with a strong physical element.

I wont say that the game isn't more skilled than its ever been. but I also wont say its automatically an improvement in enjoyability for me. you don't have to be strong physically to succeed in the NBA today, so it honestly lacks a little something for me.

would todays rules have made, say, the 1987 ECF more enjoyable? scoring margin of 113-109; 8 HoFers combined (3 with legit cases at positional GOAT (Bird, McHale, Zeke), and even the "goons" (Laimbeer and Mahorn) combined for 21 & 21 on 60% shooting). would less physicality have made that more or less fun? is that worse basketball than what we are watching now? no...its just different. because if you think these two teams would clean up against the 87 Pistons, Celtics, or Lakers - even under today's rules - youre mistaken. and even under today's rules, KNOWING the consequences, each of those three teams has a dude who would dot Draymond's eye during a damned live ball situation if he tried some nonsense. and what people leave out now is illustrated by what people are saying about Matt Barnes up above. hes a chump stashed on the bench, Chief and Laim were allstars that year.

so this isn't really "better" for me. its just different. obviously its basketball, which I still love, but I would certainly appreciate a rougher game.