I have a long standing ‘argument’ with a fellow basketball fan in my hometown that revolves around whether the modern basketball player would be able to compete against the legends of old. The conversation usually evolves (or devolves) into a philosophical basketball discussion on physicality.
Primarily, would today’s player be able to compete against the physical play of the 1980’s and early 1990’s? Of course there is no way to prove either side of this argument, and thus the conversation continues, but the reality of our current state of roundball is that physicality has been de-emphasized at the expense of game flow and floor spacing.