The NBA is the most highly regarded basketball league in the world. Since its establishment in 1946, there have been many different changes to rules both big and small. After 67 years that tends to happen to organizations. The question that has been lurking in the depths of fan's minds for the past two decades, which many knew would inevitably be asked, is whether or not the NBA is becoming a softer league. To answer this question, one must compare the rules, players, and pace of the game today to that of the overall game of the 1990's. In today's era, fans and critics, mostly critics, have begun to discuss whether or not players in this era can compare to players from the 1990's. Some argue that the rules, as well as the players, are softer, that players play differently based on their physical build, and that this era has a different overall focus.
Although the NBA's rules have changed over the years, the game of basketball is still essentially the same; a player's objective is to get the basketball into their opponent's basket for either two or three points until the final buzzer sounds, and to defend their basket from the opposing team without fouling them. The allowance of more physical play, both offensively and defensively, in the 90's caused players to fight harder for layups, dunks, and rebounds. The threat of brute force and physicality caused a lot of smaller players, like point guards or shooting guards, to stay around the perimeter and pass inside to the centers or power forwards. This is a main reason why Centers in the 90's were the superstars of the league, but to read more about this go to paragraph three. .
On defense players could hand check, meaning using your hands, forearms, elbows, and biceps to play defense on a player coming towards you. Not only could you hand check, which is pretty much beating up the offense; you could stay in the low post for as long as you'd like and grab hand check while setting a screen.
