The NBA was an incredibly wild spot before the rule changes and reforms by David Stern in the late-’90s and early 2000s to change the image of the sport. Prior to that, fans and teams were a lot rougher with each other and weren’t put under lifetime bans or fines. The Bad Boy Detroit Pistons are proof of that.
If a team played today in the same way the Bad Boys did during their championship-winning seasons, they’d all be fined or suspended for months. However, the NBA was a rougher sport back then, which meant the fans were also rowdier without the threats of bans.
Salley went on All The Smoke and told Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson what it was like in the streets after the Pistons swept the Lakers in LA in the 1989 NBA Finals.
“Beating the Lakers? We kicked all the windows out of the bus on the way back to the hotel. The guy just turned it all black, kicking windows out, because there’s people following the bus and giving us the finger. We throwing sh*t out. Rick Mahorn is mooning them with his big ass. It was more like a sun because it was a big ass. We’re just wilding. We get back to the hotel, we couldn’t go anywhere. Not like we could go out, I found that out quick that they’re serious about the Lakers here. We stay in the hotel and talk things out. Dennis didn’t take his jersey off till the next day. I showered to make sure my hair was cut, the ho*s may be watching.”
Fans reacting like this to a visiting team and players responding like this would be a scandal today. While it is definitely safer for everyone involved, many still yearn for these days of basketball. The modern era is often dismissed as soft compared to these days.
Is The Modern NBA Too Soft?
Salley’s story shows the character of the NBA in the ’80s and ’90s. Players wanted to interact like this with fans, and fans most definitely wanted to do the same. Funnily enough, it was a game in Detroit that changed how players and fans would interact with each other forever, the 2004 Malice in the Palace.
While the rule changes have definitely removed the physical style of the ’90s almost entirely, calling this generation too soft isn’t fair. The players now get to show off their skills without biases of size and strength, leveling the playing field and taking the size advantage away from the biggest players.
The league has exploded in popularity, so whether it is soft or not, it is engaging viewers and making the league billions of dollars.
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