re: NBA only suspends JR Smith two games for punching Crowder in the face

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I do miss old school playoff basketball though, back when every hard foul wasn't reviewed to see if it was a flagrant. I miss when they wouldn't let anyone get a easy basket in the paint.

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When was this time exactly? I hear people talk about it all the time, and often reference the 80s. Yet, when I look at the data, I see they shot free throws at a much higher rate, even after accounting for pace. They must have been calling a lot of fouls, and not all of them could have been those "hard" fouls. I'm beginning to think that like a lot of historical trends, the toughness of that time is overstated and is partially a result cognitive biases.