Educating #Bronstans & Gen Z who aren’t familiar with rule & enforcement changes over time. This video is ONLY ONE GAME in 1998 finals, game 3. There were 17! offensive fouls & travels called in just that ONE game with up to 14 of them likely not called today... And People wonder why late 90's game were low scoring & didn't look as talented as today. That's because the rules/enforcement HEAVILY favored the defense. 1.There was effectively one less step allowed in traveling AND shuffling your feet was far more frequently called travel than today. 2. They were not allowed to palm the ball anywhere near the amount they do today. 3. Very little movement in screens was allowed while today they allow a considerable amount of moving while setting screens which help players get open 4. Offensive players couldn't push defenders with off arm or lowered shoulder that you see in just about every possession today. The most they allowed in the 90's was when offensive player had his back to the basket and the offensive player could push with his back -- which is what Shaq did as well as many other bigs. That's a reason the 90's was dominated by centers & power forwards. The few instances that they allowed offensive players to initiate contact was in the post but didn't allow it on the perimeter.show more

Just think of all the advantages offensive players have today: 1. They can use off arm or lowered shoulder to push defender to create space or to blow past defender 2. They can shuffle their feet more often on the first step allowing them to more quickly blow past defender 3. Today it's gather plus 2 steps. In 90's it was 2 steps. Effectively a whole extra step & today they often allow gather plus 3 steps so that's the next phase in the coming years. (Note: after allowing gather plus 2 steps throughout the 2000's, in 2009 NBA re-defined the travel rule to add that extra step by acknowledging gather step is not a step then in 2019 rewrote the rule to make it more clear) 4. Players can palm far more of the ball than before. In the 60's it was basically hitting the very top of the ball or near it (think 30 degrees from center of the top of the ball at most). By 90's, they allowed 45-60 degrees on each side or close to it. By 2020's, they allow 90 degrees on each side or even more at times. 5. 3 sec defensive rule clears up the lane more often which is a major factor in fg% 0-3ft sky rocketing 6. Ban on hand-checking before 04-05 season made perimeter game easier & instantly lead to perimeter focused game after a whole history of big men in post dominated game. 7. Related to hand-check ban & other rule changes, the league pivoted to more perimeter players which meant more 3pt shooters which means far more spacing today. 8. Flagrant fouls more easily awarded. More point opportunities and defense can't play as 'hard'. 9. Clear Path to hoop rule have allowed more easy fast break points 10. Far more flopping today to draw foul calls & get free throws. 11. Far more foul hunting today that would not have gotten free throws in the past or rarely used. The biggest is the rip through shot that Duncan first popularized in the 2000's but became normal in the 2010's and after. NBA tries to cut back on this but it still is happening frequently. 12. Unrelated to rule & enforcement, analytics has lead to types of plays, more 3s, type of players to make a team, mismatch/switch hunting, etc. has made it much easier for the individual offensive player (and harder to be a weak defender!).

I am certain I missed many more factors. I plan on making a post with the above and more factors with examples including details on rule changes. In theory, "better basketball players" would mean it is balancing itself out on both offense & defense with some ups & downs. But the constant UPWARD trend has been intentional by the NBA as they wanted faster pace & more scoring.

the shuffling of the feet is a great point. there was a kyrie fall away 3 last night that i def thought was questionable

I brought up the shuffling feet because yesterday's finals game might have been the first one to have it called a travel in several games. If you can shuffle your feet on first step, you can burn past players much easier. I'm going to do a full 98 finals & possibly 97+98 finals vid on offensive fouls & travels/carry.

If they don't get it, they never will. Don't tire yourself out explaining stuff to ppl who don't even know what they're talking about.

I made the video so that people (including myself) don’t have spend lots of time each time explaining how different the rule and enforcement is. Now if they sirio don’t get it after seeing it, they are trolling and not worth my time

This stuff is ridiculous. Hand fully under the ball as he goes to change direction. Luka is doing this on every possession in the finals. Defense is basically impossible when the offensive player can do this.

They will never understand