Former Los Angeles Lakers point guard Derek Fisher and ex-Lakers head coach Byron Scott shared a good laugh when they talked about the current state of the NBA during a recent episode of Scott's Fastbreak podcast.
That's because when Fisher was asked about the difference between the NBA today and the one D-Fish played 18 seasons for, the 5-time NBA champion compared the present basketball association to the largest sports entertainment promotion in the world.
"Remember when the WWE was the WWF?" said Fisher. "I don't know if anybody remembers that. But there was a time when the WWE was the WWF -World Wrestling Federation. And then it shifted to World Wrestling Entertainment. Again, not right or wrong, because one could argue that the WWE is a more impactful sport than the WWF was, depending on what side of the conversation you're on."
More on entertainment rather than competition
First things first. The World Wrestling Federation changed its name to World Wrestling Entertainment because of a dispute with the World Wildlife Fund for the WWF trademark. It had nothing to do with entertainment. However, it cannot be denied that the WWE today seems focused more on aesthetics rather than the brute force that made the WWF a hit during the 80s and 90s. Now, that's something NBA fans can relate to.
Many of the league's OGs complain that today's NBA has gotten soft because of rule changes that were made to promote scoring. Most of the changes had something to do with limiting or eliminating physical contact to give more freedom to the offensive player. Because of the lack of physicality, advocates of the old-school NBA, including D-Fish, are saying that the league now operates for entertainment more than competition.
"All the pro sports to some degree, not just the NBA, even the NFL," added Fisher. "You listen to guys that played before, coached before. It's a different game. And it's not a negative thing. It's just built more for the entertainment value, maybe, than the competitive value. "
Sheed thinks it's the NBA's big problem
Like Fisher, 2004 NBA champion Rasheed Wallace thinks that the current NBA generation's style of play has affected the quality of basketball played around the league. Sheed, however, thinks it's the Association's biggest problem , and he recently said that both players and referees should be held accountable.
"The softness. It's one thing where you want to be an offensive league with scoring, that's fine. It's just the softness with some of these rules and damn referees where the people are there to see them. Nobody came there to see y'all except the two people you gave your tickets to," Wallace said . "Definitely bring back hand check, that forearm shiver so that way cats can't just flow so easily through that paint. You've got to make it somewhat tougher because right now look at it. Sh*t, look at it. It's a gimmick."
The ban on the hand check is perhaps one of the biggest differences between today's era and the ones that D-Fish and Sheed are trying to champion. But with NBA commissioner Adam Silver not really a big fan of the physicality of the 80s and 90s, Fisher might have to live with watching WWE-style basketball for now.
Related: "You have a second and third defender right there to help" - Evan Fournier explains why the EuroLeague is much tougher than the NBA
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