The NBA of Yesterday and Today The National Basketball Association (NBA) has been around for several decades. The old-school NBA is best known for the big man dominating, getting to the basket, and taking hard fouls. If players could not take a hard foul or an occasional fight, they would not last long in the old era of basketball. The new era of basketball is all about stretching the floor and small ball lineups. The new era is dominated by the guards and the three-point shot. Over the last several decades, the NBA has changed in extraordinary ways. The old-school NBA’s defense consists of much different play than that of today’s NBA. Players were once allowed to hand check other players. Hand checking means that when the defender was guarding the ballhandler he could use his hands to slightly push him so that he could not drive around the defender (Solache). Players were also not able to play “help defense” or double team a player that did not have the ball (Hornback). This rule made it very hard to stop people like Michael Jordan and Larry Bird because they could not double team them off the ball and prevent them from getting the ball as much. A zone defense was also considered illegal for these teams (Parker). One of the major differences between the old-school NBA …show more content…
People enjoy watching the NBA for the outstanding shooting behind the three-point line and the vast number of points scored by each team and player. Unlike the teams back in the 70’s and 80’s, teams today shoot more shots behind the three-point line than inside it. Great shooters are now a must for teams to compete with other teams in the NBA, whereas a few decades ago each team might have just a few players that could shoot well. Today almost all the players on the team are great shooters inside and outside the lane (Mather). Without great shooters, teams may not be very competitive and have as many