This is a garbage take. The rules around defending then were so much different. You could mug the ball-handler (could be a good username for you if you add LeBron's in front of it) and simple assault a player at the rim. If you could still hand-check in basketball, you wouldn't see the scoring that we have now. It's a gift and a curse.
*edit - in reference to Hank's ignorant drive by post around who actually defended Jordan on any given night.
