By: Bob Cooney

People of my age, which is middle, not old, grew up in a different era of basketball. Different in so many ways – from athleticism to rules and style of play. The biggest difference, tho, and this goes with style, was the physicality of the game. I’m not saying that players were tougher back then, even though they may have been, or that the style was better. I question myself often about it. Yes, I’ve been labeled older on this station over the four years that I’ve been here, which is ok because of what my birth certificate says but not ok with me because I still feel and act like I’m 25. Just remember that for a minute.

Milwaukee Bucks guard Grayson Allen, who has a reputation of a cheap shot artist and has a propensity to proving as much, reared his ugly and unthinkable head on Friday with a horrific foul against Chicago’s Alex Caruso, which resulted in a broken wrist for Caruso and up to 8 weeks out of action.

A couple things came to mind. The first being “who the hell does Grayson Allen think he is to continuously try and get away with this?” The second is, “Would he have gotten away with this back in the day of the 80’s and 90’s.?

Not sure there is a clear cut answer or what the ramifications should be for Allen – tho I will say One game is frigging ridiculous. But I will say this. The players who laid the law of the nba land back in those rugged days were physical monsters like Bill Laimbeer, Charles Barkley, Rick Mahorn, Karl Malone and others. Cheap shots, like the despicable one thrown by Allen, wouldn’t have been tolerated by many opposing players in years past. And yet, Allen has been a repeat offender since his days at Duke.

Is Allen an anomaly? Probably, as overly physical play and cheap shots in the NBA now are a rarity. But This is Grayson Allen’s norm. I don’t condone violence when talking of retaliation in sports. But I grew up in an age of guys knowing what they were and weren’t allowed to do. He obviously shouldn’t have been allowed to do this for years. That’s the answer. The question is, how should it have been or how should it be stopped now? The nba said one game. Should players, officials and or coaches turn their heads when further action is taken by players on Allen? Human nature certainly would trend towards that, right? Or no?