"I don’t wanna hear a millennial, a Gen-Xer tell me that they couldn’t guard Kevin Durant, Steph Curry" - Chris Broussard rips young NBA fans for assuming players like KD and Curry couldn't be guarded in the 1990s

Steph Curry and Kevin Durant could find the 1990s' physically-imposing defense tough to handle. [Photo: Mercury News]

Today’s most awe-inspiring scoring machines, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry, have been put on a pedestal by young fans as simply unguardable back in the 1990s. Significantly better training and improved skills are crucial points to these assumptions.

The Boston Celtics’ physical and aggressive defense, which slightly resembles how most NBA teams contained opposing players back then, is putting a huge dent in this reasoning. Chris Broussard, on "The Odd Couple," called out young fans who thought they knew better:

“I don’t wanna hear a millennial, a Gen-Xer, tell me that they couldn’t guard Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and some of these guys back in the day. Oh, they could guard them, and they could guard them better than they do now!”

Broussard said that today’s physical defense isn’t even in the same zip code as those no-holds-barred containment strategies:

“It’s physical defense, it’s extra physical defense. Today, to these players that are used to having all this space and all this room and the lane wide open to them, it probably feels incredibly physical, but that’s not physical compared to the '90s!

"People have compared it to the Jordan Rules, and I get it and relatively speaking, fine. But the Jordan Rules were literally clobbering Michael Jordan.”

The NBA instituted rule changes regarding unnatural shooting motion, but it does not change the fact that the 1990s were just layers more physical than today. With more physicality allowed, a lesser-skilled defender could have a more productive time guarding this generation’s best scorers.

The athleticism, length, and IQ of Rodman, Pippen, and Jordan made the ’96 Bulls defense unlike anything anyone has seen before.

Full #BSPodcast:
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Now, consider the same rules being used to their advantage by elite defenders who dominated the 1990s like Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman. So, any notion that the best defenders back then couldn’t guard Durant, Curry and others is way out of line.

Broussard said:

“I text with some former players, you hear comments, ‘Oh, they couldn’t see Kevin Durant back in the '90s. Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, you think they could guard Kevin Durant? Please! He’d destroy them.’ I’ve heard that. Well, I present to you, Exhibit A, the Boston Celtics.”

Kevin Durant and Steph Curry could find the physicality of 1990s basketball daunting

NBA defense in the 1990s would present a huge challenge for less physical players like Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. [Photo: NBA.com]

Kevin Durant and Steph Curry share another glaring trait besides being incredibly gifted scores. Both are also skinny and not the most physical players by today’s standards. Considering how KD looked lost against the Celtics’ in-your-face and aggressive defense, they could find the 1990s’ physicality daunting.

.@RealMikeWilbon sees a lot of similarities between this Celtics defense that shut down the Nets in Game 2 and the late 80s/early 90s Detroit Pistons team, (one that he's very familiar with as a Bulls fan...) https://t.co/LP11kC0TGa

The best defenders in the NBA right now are handcuffed by the rules. They are easily and quickly at a disadvantage when trying to guard bucket-getters such as Durant and Curry. If Boston’s defense took time to adapt to, imagine today’s best superstars going up against the Bad Boys' type of defense.

I was shocked by how small KD and Kyrie came up last night. Props to Boston for employing some '90s-Era defense! twitter.com/FTFonFS1/statu…

Additionally, the 1990s didn’t have only a couple of teams that were practically roughhousing and tackling the game’s best players. The New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Utah Jazz, Seattle Supersonics and Indiana Pacers were just a few who consistently put down the hammer on their superstar opponents.