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For someone who is in their middle ages, the NBA action that was played in the 80s and 90s is considered a nostalgic age of basketball, particularly because of the physical nature that saw hard fouls as the norm. Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant wants the masses to know physicality still exists in today's game.
Durant is part of an era of players that are bigger, faster and stronger than ever before, but there are those that say the wide-open pace has turned the league into something that's a little softer, to put it mildly.
Speaking on his Boardroom podcast, Kevin Durant says just because there are more rules to limit hard fouls doesn't mean physical play is non-existent.
“They played physical, but I just think they got away with a lot of flagrant fouls and I think that's why they call their era more physical than ours,” Durant said.
To be fair, Durant probably has a point with the contrast of flagrant foul calls. How many times have we heard the older fans and players complain about the minimum contact that's called? It's not odd to hear people say touch fouls would be a play-on back in the day.
On the other hand, it goes with the direction most sports have gone in recent years, which is one that favors the offense. The physical play that was part of the culture in the 80s and 90s was something defenses could use to neutralize the offenses, which resulted in 100-point games being more of a anomaly than the norm.
Ultimately, nobody wants to see injuries take place, but clean, physical play never hurts. No harm, no foul, right?
