15 Reasons Why the NBA Playoffs Were Better in the '90s

With the most exciting NBA Playoffs in years underway, it’s easy to get caught up in the kind of “greatest playoffs ever” hyperbole that has already begun to make its way into the discourse. While it’s easy to get caught up in the phenomenon of recency and suggest that whatever is freshest in the mind is the best ever, fans should not forget that there was an era before LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

This probably comes to a shock to many of you young fans but there was a time—before press conference fashion shows, Twitter groupies, and flopping big men—when the NBA was actually about basketball. There was no “search for the next Michael Jordan” because the man himself was draining midrange jumpers and rattling backboards on a nightly basis. The Miami Heat’s “Big Three” was Tim Hardaway, Alonzo Mourning, and “Thunder” Dan Majerle. When people said teams “brawled,” it’s because they actually did.

We are, naturally, referring to the 1990s. It was an interesting time in that eras were colliding, the game was evolving, and some of the best basketball in league history was being played. While the playoffs are always an entertaining watch, there’s something about those ‘90s games that is especially gripping. Here are 15 Reasons Why the NBA Playoffs Were Better in the '90s.

RELATED: Triangle Offense - How the Long First Round of Changes Everything

Remember this? The Fab Five's influence even reached the pros. Teams used to show camaraderie during the playoffs by shaving their heads and rocking black sneakers, both at home and on the road. Teams like the Knicks made it popular and added to their bad boy image with the look. This generation chooses to wear headbands to show team unity (see: Baron Davis and the 2001 Charlotte Hornets). Headbands. How lazy is that? Come on, at least grow a beard or something.

While we understand why the NBA decided in 2003 that they ought to expand the first round to a best-of-seven format, losing the unique best-of-five has had a couple negative effects.

Chiefly, it has made the first round so much more predictable. Whereas before, a bad couple of days for a top seed could put their backs to the wall (at best) or just flat-out end their season, now these teams have a much more reasonable cushion to work with. Sure, upsets still happen (a No. 8 seed has topped the No. 1 seed five times since the league expanded the playoffs to 16 teams in 1984), but they occur with far less frequency.

While we don't want to complain about having more basketball to watch, two-plus months of playoffs does start to feel a little long.

Aggressive fouls and hateful trash talk are as much a part of basketball's appeal as the slam dunk. While many hold Ron Artest/Metta World Peace as the epitome of an unhinged lunatic, he's not half as crazy as an in-their-prime Dennis Rodman, Vernon Maxwell, or Xavier McDaniel. The Birdman might as well be Big Bird.

Those guys sustained their insanity game-in and game-out for their entire careers, and Rodman brought his crazy to the playoffs with a healthy dose of crotch grabs, stray elbows, and berating coaches on the sideline. They were often big-time difference-makers when playing the game, too, which made them an essential component of playoff games.

Basketball, like professional wrestling, needs characters and since the '90s there's been a serious drop off in charismatic psychopaths who also happened to be talented, useful basketball players.

AAU, college super teams, and a host of other factors have made it so that there are hardly any rivalries anymore, and certainly none like the ones in the '90s. The world stopped when the Knicks and Bulls faced off, and the same went for Knicks and Pacers, Bulls and Pistons, and many, many others. Basically, it didn't qualify as a rivalry unless a couple scuffles broke out.

These days, the only real rivalry left is Celtics and Lakers, and after both teams' tank jobs this season even that one doesn't really exist anymore. What other "real" rivalry exists today? What's that you say? Lakers vs. Clippers? Nets vs. Knicks? Heat vs. Knicks? Were there any coaches swinging from the legs of giants? Were people ejected for throwing punches? No? Exactly.

LaMarcus Aldridge's incredible first two games against the Rockets hammered home something that many crotchety basketball fans have been complaining about for years: the mid-range game is basically gone, replaced with an over-reliance on three pointers. While guys like Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins made serious money in the 90s by becoming exceptional midrange shooters, today we see teams like the Rockets routinely attempting 30-plus threes in a game.

While teams like Houstin are simply playing within the defensive rules that incentivize teams to either shoot from deep or to take it right at the hoop, these three-dependent teams rarely win. Last season's Finals teams (Miami and San Antonio) averaged 22.1 and 21.5 attempts per game during the regular season and 20.2-20.8 during the playoffs, respectively. Those numbers are similar to the Jordan-era Bulls, who in 1997 averaged 17.1 threes per game in the regular season and 19.2 in the playoffs.

Back when tickets were somewhat affordable, the stands were packed with real fans who were loud and passionate, creating a true homecourt advantage in almost every stadium across the league. These days you'd be lucky to get a good price in the nosebleed section. There's only a couple arenas where fans truly make a difference, whereas there are plenty of places where you’ll see them flock to the exits during Game6 of the NBA Finals.

With so many new buildings being loaded up with luxury boxes and more modern amenities, venues now cater to corporations and media rather than the people who helped establish them in the first place. When you couple the astronomical cost of going in person with the fact that every game is available in HD on huge TVs, the average fan is much more likely to stay at home to watch his or her favorite team rather than spend an entire paycheck on one night out.

Interesting fact: did you know that neither Kobe Bryant nor Dwyane Wade has committed a foul during his entire career? At least, it would seem that way based on how they react every time they're whistled for one. This whining tends to get worse in the playoffs, when refs allow more innocuous fouls like handchecks slide in an effort to let the players decide the result.

We understand that working the refs is part of the game, but NBA games have devolved into an embarrassing mess of whining and mock-outrage. Just once, we'd like to see Carlos Boozer take a defensive three seconds call like a man instead of throwing his arms out and huffing like a city bus just roared by his stop without picking him up.

While the center position has made a slight comeback this year with the success of Marc Gasol and Joakim Noah, you have to look no further for proof that the league lacks big men than the fact that there no longer a "center" slot on the All-Star ballot. In today's NBA, legit seven-footers like Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett are power forwards.

In the '90s, the paint was patrolled by Hall of Famers Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, and a young Shaquille O'Neal, plus All-Star centers in Dikembe Mutombo, Alonzo Mourning, Brad Daugherty, and Rik Smits. While we realize the game evolves and that isn't necessarily a bad thing, we miss seeing so many big guys whose instincts around the basket made them automatic 20-plus point scorers every night.

The worldwide appeal of basketball is a good thing, but it would have been nice of those Western European imports to leave "the flop" inside their soccer stadiums. In today's game, huge dudes like Blake Griffin and even LeBron James act like they’ve been shot as soon as someone comes close to making contact with them.

You can blame Vlade Divac for this; Vlade is widely regarded as the Godfather of the flop, and somewhere along the line it simply became an accepted part of the game once more foreign-born players began to make their way into the league. In the ‘90s, though, flopping was but a minor annoyance rather than the epidemic it has become today.

Hey, man, sometimes a flagrant is a flagrant. We get it. But come on, some of these calls are getting ridiculous. Was what Nene did in Game 3 against the Bulls stupid? No doubt. Did he deserve to get suspended for a game because of heat-of-the-moment outburst that resulted in little more than a glancing slap to Jimmy Butler? Please.

In the ‘90s, the Knicks used to maul pretty much anybody who got near the hoop. We're not saying to go back to that, but guys are just supposed to give up layups and dunks? Most of the time it looks like a hard foul because it's committed in the air. Nowadays the line is blurry and inconsistent. That's why the league office often rescinds flagrants and technicals the next other day.