Flpiii found ORIGINAL 3 seconds rule from NBA rulebook... PAINT-CAMPING WAS LEGAL

the rules state in black and white, that defenders in today's game cannot be in the paint unless they are within "armslength" of their man - so this would be 3 feet, since a man's arm is 3 feet long.. so today's players must be within 3 feet of their man to stay in the lane.

in previous eras, defenders could stay in the lane if their man was 3 feet outside the lane on either side of the paint - the paint is 16 feet wide, so defenders could literally be 19 feet away from their man, and still remain in the paint.

these are the facts... and this is why today's defenders must tippy-toe to ensure they stay out of the lane whenever they are out of 3-foot armslength reach.

otoh, defenders in previous eras never had to tippy-toe or worry about getting out of the paint like today's players do, because they could be 19 feet away from their man and still stay in the lane - no need to tippy-toe under those circumstances.. :confusedshrug:
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[QUOTE=3ball]for this scenario, the rules today are very close to the rules in previous eras - if the offensive player is above the FT line at the top of the key, the defender can't dip into the paint for more than 3 seconds... this part of the rule hasn't changed much over the eras.



do you think there is merit to the following math - the paint is 16 feet wide, and a defender's arm is only 3 feet - this indicates that if an offensive player is outside the paint, a defender can't REMAIN in the paint under today's rules, unless they are on the very edge of the paint, which would allow their 3-foot arm to reach their man and fulfill today's "armslength" requirement...

the requirement of being within armslength is why today's defenders have to tippy-toe in and out of the paint.



that's what people don't understand - the fact that no one was a good shooter back then, made the paint defense tougher because defenders didn't have to guard the perimeter... the eye test fully backs this up... what am i missing here?[/QUOTE]

Not the main point of this thread, but I disagree quite strongly with the suggestions that 80's players, and I suppose 70's and 90's too were overall weaker shooters. They simply had different skill sets. Today's advanced statistical analysts may de-emphasize contested mid range jumpers but they do so at their peril. Earlier eras took - and had much more skill in making - midrange shots, contested or not. In other words, more players could shoot 10-20 foot jumpers better than today's players -- because it WAS emphasized. At some point, analysts and basketball in general will hopefully realize that only emphasizing the most efficient and "valuable" shots at the expense of other scoring aspects erodes the skillset of players. This will especially be so, if the defensive rules are again relaxed to allow more aggressive play. More physical defenses would disrupt a lot of the "pretty" offenses and players we see today. And that's when an impact player would really need a complete scoring set, including a lethal mid range game.