re: A current all-NBA team would wreck the dream team

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But the post play is more physical now due to the rules.

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Bill Laimbeer says hi. Actually, so do all of the Pistons.

Frankly, post play is not nearly as physical these days for a rather obvious reason: no one wants to cost someone else $20 million.

Defenses are more sophisticated today, no doubt. But teams in the 90s were far more prone to cheating, and dirty play. In today's game, LeBron is allowed to go the rim, and he knows for a fact that no one like Rick Mahorn is going to undercut him so he can't land properly and blow out his knees. Players can do things today because, well, the game is less prone to thuggery. This is a positive development, by the way, but if we're talking, who wins? The 90s players are used to playing by a different set of rules. They will waste a few dirty fouls in order to get a point across.

I equate it to hockey. People joke that defense had not yet been invented in the 80s (the scoring was almost twice as high then as now), but there were far more goons and dirty hits. Today's players are better defenders, but they would get their arse kicked by Scott Stevens and Dale Hunter. Same with the NBA. I do think that, outside of Pippen, the 2012 team are pretty much all better technical defenders... but more physical?

Not a chance in hell. The Bad Boys or the Knicks would not be allowed to exist in 2014. But they did in 1992, which tells you what you need to know about the enforcement of the rules. 1992 Jordan had just been toughened up by the Pistons. There ain't no one that plays like the Pistons these days. No one.

And every time I read about modern front court players making their living 20 feet from the basket, I just imagine Ralph Sampson getting really pissed off about being born 25 years too soon.