There is no question that the NBA has changed immensely since the glorious days of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — and the Los Angeles Lakers legend believes the rule changes are at fault.
The 71-year-old Hall of Fame center voiced his comments on the modern NBA's style of play and correlated it to the current rules that prevent hand-checking and physicality during games. He believes the rule changes have “added to the game,” per Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype.
His comments make it difficult to circumvent the elephant in the room.
“The 3-point shots wouldn't be going in if you could play the type of defense that we were allowed to play,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “That's why they didn't let us shoot a whole lot of them.”
“Making it impossible for anybody to be touched while their shooting has made the 3-point shot drop, and I think that's added to the game, Abdul-Jabbar said.”
Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championship in his tenure in the league, his first came as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks and the remaining five with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The six-time MVP and former teammate Magic Johnson have been considered one of the greatest duos ever to play the game. Both played their prime years in arguably the most grimy era of basketball, where a push or a shove on a shot was about as commonplace as the ball bouncing on a given night.
Nowadays, we live in a world where $10,000 fines are incurred and constant whistles are blown if there's even a speckle of contact.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar averaged 24.6 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.6 blocks in his 20-year NBA career. He is the league's all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points.
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