It used to irritate me when I’d listen to old guys gripe about athletes being tougher during their era. Now, I think I’m turning into one of them because as great as the NBA is right now, it was much better during the previous two decades.
The current era is right up there with the 1980s and ‘90s in terms of super star players. Sure, the ‘80s had Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Moses Malone and Isaiah Thomas. The ‘90s gave us Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley and Karl Malone.
The NBA now has stars such as Tim Duncan, Shaquile O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett among many others. You can’t tell me the stars of today don’t stack up to previous decades.

However, in my opinion, the role of players of yesteryear was more in tune with their duties to their teams and was more significant. There is one role used by basically every team during previous decades that has almost entirely been eliminated in today’s NBA. Check that, it has been eliminated.
That’s the role of “The Goon.” It was pivotal to the team. The dictionary’s definition of “goon” is – “a hired hoodlum or thug.” That’s my new favorite definition.

There aren’t any left — the league and NBA Commissioner David Stern has eliminated all goons by ejecting, suspending and fining players who try and take on the old school enforcer roll.
I think back to the New York Knicks of the mid-1990s coached by Pat Riley. Knowing he had to compete with the Jordan and Scottie Pippen led Bulls, Riley used the formula of using one superstar (Patrick Ewing) and seven goons to make up his team’s rotation. The Knicks never defeated Jordan in a playoff series, but came closer than most teams during that time.

Riley’s goon-trio of Charles Oakley, Xavier “X-Man” McDaniel, and Anthony Mason physically beat the hell out of those legendary Bulls teams. Michael and Scottie were just too good to ever lose. Riley’s strategy worked better than any other. You couldn’t out-superstar Jordan. Even with Ewing. You needed a different approach.

Think back to the “Bad Boys” Detroit Pistons team from 1987-90. They had maybe the best collection of goons in league history, guided by all-time goon Bill Laimbeer. Solid running mates Rick Mahorn, John Salley and Dennis Rodman bruised up opponents and allowed Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars in the backcourt to do their thing. Pistons’ coach Chuck Daily was one of the few guys that was able to win multiple titles (’89,90) with a goon-heavy approach.
Nowadays, teams can’t incorporate that old school Riley/Daily type of mentality and use brute force to punish softer, more skilled opponents.

There aren’t any more goons in the NBA. I’m sorry, but Brendan Heywood is not a goon.
The league has eliminated them completely.
Those old Lakers vs. Celtics battles during the ‘80s had multiple fistfights each game and nobody ever got tossed and sometimes technical fouls weren’t even given. I also remember watching the Pistons play the 76ers during the early ‘90s and almost expecting a fight between Laimbeer and Barkley.

It was part of the game. Maybe they got tossed, but you certainly didn’t expect either to receive a fine or 20-game suspension such as Carmelo Anthony received for failing to beat up a 5-foot-7 inch Nate Robinson a couple years back during an altercation I would never define as a “fight.”

I miss the goons of the NBA. I miss the Sonics employing Frank Brickowski (a top all-time goon, I might add) to purposely antagonize Dennis Rodman during the 1996 NBA Finals. I as hoping both would get ejected. Trading Brickowski for Rodman was something Seattle coach George Karl was willing to do. I remember one game during that series where Brickowski received a technical foul 30 seconds after checking into the game for trying to rough up Rodman.

In basketball, more so than any other sport, the team with the league’s best player usually wins the championship. Magic and Bird dominated the ‘80s (8 rings combined), Jordan and Olajuwon owned the ‘90s (8 rings combined) and Shaq and Duncan have dominated today (8 rings combined).
For all the teams that don’t have the era’s top guy, they must result to other tactics in order to possibly win a crucial playoff series and take down Goliath.

These days, without the role of a goon, players like LeBron James, Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant are free to roam knowing they’re physically protected by the NBA’s referees and commissioner.

Jordan never had that luxury. He knew Oakley, Mason and the X-Man were coming for him. He realized and accepted the definition of a “playoff foul.” In today’s era, a “playoff foul” results into a “flagrant two” foul. Yeah, and how lame are those? Flagrant two’s? Come on NBA.
The league now has two types of flagrant fouls.
Somewhere ex-goons like Maurice Lucas and Kurt Rambis are puking.

Listen to the best sports radio program ever, The Johnny Ballgame Show, each Monday at 3:30 p.m. on 89.3 FM or www.kuoi.org

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