The product and players from today's NBA are better than ever.

I'll just leave this right here.

Follow that link and you'll find a video that justifies this title. People call the NBA today soft.

"You can't touch anyone without it being a foul," says any person over the age of 25, that even watched an ounce of basketball in the late 90's and early 2000's.

In some ways that statement is true. You can't hand check people on the perimeter, that's a foul. You can not touch a person's hand on a jump shot, that's a foul.  Oh and God forbid you foul someone hard going to the basket, you get thrown out for accidentally hitting someone too hard. Unless your Draymond Green, then every time it's with malice, and I don't care what you have to say.

My point is that the overall product of basketball is better today than it was in the 80's. I get that the 80's and 90's made basketball into what it is today, but I believe that if you put great players from today in the 80's and 90's, they would still dominate. I don't think it works vice versa. 

Take an example from the video: Kevin McHale is a Hall of Famer. Is he deserving? Yes. 7 time All-Star, 3 time NBA Champion, if that doesn't get you in the Basketball Hall of Fame, I'm not sure what will. There have been less deserving people to make it to the Hall; see Tracy McGrady. But if you don't think for one second that Anthony Davis wouldn't work Kevin McHale then you are insane. 

Lets use another example. It is a guard dominated league today. There is more focus on shooting from deep than there has ever been. Is that a good thing? I'm not really sure. I think the Warriors and Steph Curry have singlehandedly unlocked a cheat code for the game, but that's an article for another time. I just believe that you could take Chris Paul or James Harden, and put him in the 80's on Lakers instead of Magic Johnson and they would have dominated the same. It wouldn't work in reverse. Magic was one of the best passers of all time. The man averaged over 10 assists for nine seasons in row. But a little known secret about Magic, he was a horrible shooter from deep. Magic Johnson literally shot 0% from the 3 point line in the 82-83 season. Granted the 3 point line had only been in the league for 3 years at that point but still, 0%? 

Look I get it, I'm young and all of this might come off as recency bias, but just watch an NBA game today and one from pre Michael Jordan flying through the air and becoming the greatest of all time, and I think you will be able to see the difference too. Overnight the NBA has become the most watched sport and by far the most popular with young people. Maybe that is great marketing by the NBA, but I have to believe it has something to do with the pure athleticism and incredible scoring efforts you see on a nightly basis. Yes there are more free throws, but you can't blame the players for taking advantage of rules the league has put in place. "They don't play defense," screamed the man at a cloud. I just take that to mean that players can't put each other in a body bag every night. 

This argument has room for crossover. Larry Bird would have been great in the NBA today. Was he slow and could he barely get over a piece of paper when jumped? Yeah. But give me Larry Bird in the corner every day over a lot of people today.

Look at the form and the short shorts. Both perfect.

Like most opinions you'll probably think mine is wrong. Let me know what you think. Could players from the "Golden Age" of basketball make it in today's league and could players from today dominate back then?