Detroit Pistons: Malice in the Palace is reason why NBA is “soft”

One of the most tiresome arguments presented by NBA talking heads is that the modern NBA is “soft” compared to the glory days of the 80’s and 90’s and the Detroit Pistons are often used as an example of those pre-soft times.

This debate reared its ugly head recently on ESPN’s “Get Up” when JJ Redick pushed back against the nostalgic narrative that today’s players aren’t as “tough” or “skilled” (both ridiculous) as players from back in the day.

It’s one of Stephen A. Smith’s go-to rhetorical strategies (coupled with yelling really loudly), so it was nice to finally see someone disagree with him on this nonsense:

https://twitter.com/GetUpESPN/status/1534555272584347650

I am an Old Head myself, and while there are some things about the modern game I don’t like (more on that in a minute), the overall talent and skill level we are seeing might be the best of my lifetime.

I agree with Redick that players from back in the day whined just as much, flopped for calls and complained to the refs just like they do now. I fear some of you have only watched highlights of Michael Jordan that didn’t include him incessantly whining to the refs, which he did all of the time.

But I begrudgingly found myself agreeing with Stephen A. Smith at times, as there are parts of the modern game that have gotten “soft,” but it has little to do with the players.

The refs are the ones who have gotten “soft,” as technical and flagrant fouls are randomly doled out for small things and you never know which stare at an opponent, or in the case of Cade Cunningham, which point to your own bench, is going to be the thing that gets you T’d up for taunting.

Every hard foul is now a flagrant, and the days of what used to be called “playoff fouls” have been replaced by open layups in the playoffs and an overall lack of intensity.

The NBA has intentionally tried to take some of the emotion out of the game, which has hurt the product in my opinion, though I don’t miss the hand checking or vicious fouls we used to see in the 80’s and 90’s.

Taunting and hard fouls are now ejectable offenses and that has everything to do with the Detroit Pistons.

Detroit Pistons: Malice in the Palace and the changes to the NBA

Back in November of 2004, the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers were two of the best teams in the league and fierce rivals. Remember rivalries? Those were fun.

It’s hard to believe now given the respective state of the two franchises, but they might have been the two best teams in the NBA that season.

The game featured tons of hard fouls, jawing and taunting, which eventually led to shoving, which eventually led to then Ron Artest laying down on the scorer’s table, which led to beers being thrown, which led to some idiot who looked like Turtle from Entourage getting washed on national TV and embarrassing Pistons’ fans everywhere.

It was an ugly incident for both teams, the city of Detroit and the league itself, and the NBA has never been the same since.

The NBA made a concerted to clean up the hard fouls, remove taunting from the game in an effort to try and avoid a repeat of the Malice in the Palace.

It’s now gotten to the point that celebrating a huge play with your own teammates gets you a technical for taunting, and trying to stop a guy from getting a wide-open layup in the playoffs is a flagrant foul.

I get it. You can’t have players and fans throwing hands at center court (this was FAR more on the fans by the way, the players had every right to defend themselves) and some of the hard fouls needed to go (I don’t miss the clotheslines and putting guy’s careers in jeopardy) and the physicality had made the NBA kind of boring.

In the process of trying to clean up things that did need adjusted, the NBA has sucked some of the life and spirit out of the game, which anyone who has ever played on the playground will tell you is an emotional one.

While I like most of the changes, the refs need to find a comfortable middle ground between letting stuff happen that leads to brawls, and calling technicals over every little thing.

I don’t want to go back to playoff games with final scores in the 80’s but taunting is mostly harmless and playoff fouls that aren’t dangerous shouldn’t be flagrant.

JJ Redick is right but so is (gasp) Stephen A. Smith. The league has changed in the last 20 years and you can thank the Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers and a nervous league that overacted.