Oakley should have been punished more. Allowing that style of nonsense kept people from actually playing basketball.
A hit on the arm is fine if you are trying to defend and end up making contact. I am not sympathetic to guys who got beat and couldn't make a play and just tried to hit a guy instead to stop a shot. I am not talking about Bass per se, but the general topic.
If you want to stop free layups, play better defense. If you want to hit a guy, make sure it looks like you were actually trying to defend the ball.
I have to whole heartedly agree with this - TP. You should play the game, a lot of the stuff from the 80s that is looked at so wi****lly was basically just cheating. The more skilled player drove by someone or had developed great post moves, so someone would just basically push them to the ground from the back with two hands. I don't know why that behavior should get rewarded. I want to see people play the game. If you have every played in a rec league that allows this nonsense you would know what garbage it is.
Also - it is HILARIOUS that that word is being censored because of an acronym in the middle. It took me like 3 minutes to figure out why that was happening
Imo, a great indicator is whether or not something would pass as acceptable if you were to do it playing pickup basketball. If someone where to pull crap like pushing you in the back after blowing by them or hacking you without going for the ball, they would get punched in the face and kicked off the court, so yea, it should not be allowed in the NBA.
As always, playground decorum remains a great litmus test for professional behavior in pro sports.
That's not sarcasm, by the way.
Playground play is generally "soft". It is different
That's not necessarily true. I've seen and played in enough playground games where the competition is much less 'soft' than the pros, to the point where I often wonder why these guys take it so seriously, but they do, and if you don't take it seriously they basically kick you off the court.
The difference is that since there are no refs, you play on an honor system, so guys don't call cheap fouls and travels on each other, but guys don't blatantly foul or travel either.
Exactly.
Where did/do you guys play, lol, and are we talking as kids or adults, because trying to learn the game at recess everyday from guys wasn't fun. They never explained all of the rules, fouled you and got away with it, called you for crap that they themselves did but were never reprimanded for, not to mention the physicality.
Additionally, I practiced shooting at home on a hoop adjusted for how old I was, so whenever I got the ball and shot it on the playground, the stupid thing always grazed the bottom of the net because I wasn't used to the height. It was so embarrassing and humiliating that when I eventually played two years of rec ball for the only time in my life towards the end of high school, I never took a shot. Ever. Even though I was now used to the height and everything, there were just too many bad memories that I was too afraid to even attempt a basket. Pretty sad, huh? Sigh. I mean I always passed, but even my friends got mad at me for refusing to shoot, which is understandable. I was so afraid of missing that I never even tried. 
That's when I found out that basketball was a sport where only the confident guys would succeed, so that explains a lot, lol. The moral of the story is never take me on your team in a pickup game, lol. Ugh.
Is that you Kelly Olynyk??
"Shoot the ball"!
Ugh. I know. Why do you think watching him play invokes so much anger and frustration from me, lol? 
Ugh. I'm not Canadian, though, nor do I like his 'beard.' I do need a haircut, however, lol.
puahaha. If we had you on the team, you and Kelly would be playing hot potatoes with the ball instead of shooting it!
All joking aside, next time you play rec, just shoot it. Don't care about what others think all the time
I haven't played in years, but if I ever do again, I'll try, lol.
Btw, yes, it would be a game of hot potato, but I prefer to play on the block, so maybe we would actually have some post play, haha, even though I'm only 6'0" - 6'1" and can't even dribble effectively against shorter guys, despite the endless time I spent working on shooting and ball handling. Red on Roundball, Pete Maravich, and Winning Basketball with Larry and Red are all awesome instructional tapes, especially the ones with the Pistol if you're looking for dribbling drills. Thank god for youtube, lol.
