“He’s f**king Michael Jordan” – Kevin Durant questions the physicality of the NBA in 1980s and 1990s

Referencing Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant questioned the notion that the NBA was more physical in the 1980s and 90s.

Most NBA fans accept the notion that the league has gone down in physicality in recent decades. Better refereeing and more focus on mistakes has also forced the calling of more fouls overall, which has also contributed to lesser physicality.

Durant, who is often regarded in the same breath as Jordan, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, does not quite agree. The Phoenix Suns ace does not believe that the '90s was the toughest NBA era of all time:

“Don't tell me the '90s were, like, the toughest era of all time and you could never go in the paint and we could hit you with a bat and there was no foul, but then also tell me that you're, like, terrifying," Durant said. "Mike is Mike. Don't get me wrong. He's f*****g Michael Jordan.”

Durant said that he watches a lot of video from those years, but always thought that it was the lack of calls, rather than a higher physicality that led to this reputation:

“I go back and watch a lot of that those '90s film, that '90s film, '80s stuff, and they play physical, but I just think they got away with a lot of flagrant fouls. I think that's why they call their era more physical than ours because we play physical here, too.

"It's more space, but guys play physical. We got strong, athletic guys here, too. But I watched some of those games. The paint was clear. Nobody was getting touched. It wasn't a lot of help defense but you did get a lot of flagrant fouls that didn't result in fines or getting kicked out the game, so it just seemed like, you know, it was a little tougher.”

Kevin Durant thinks Michael Jordan only had things a “little tougher” in the NBA

Michael Jordan won the NBA title six times and is regarded as the best basketball player of all time. The 1980s and 1990s had a number of popular teams that were considered more physical and tougher to play against. This includes the Detroit Pistons’ “Bad Boys” team that went up against Jordan’s Bulls multiple times in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

While the physicality in the league may have only marginally gone down, according to Kevin Durant, he still needs to add to his rings in order to be considered a true great of the game. He recently said that he has been watching game footage of both Jordan, and Kobe Bryant:

"It's hard to fill them shoes and to be a Kobe Bryant. But Kobe is somebody I've been around and still study to this day, and, basically, I just try to copy everything he does, same with Michael Jordan. Those two guys just set the tone for everything you want to be as basketball players. So, I simply just try to copy them as much as I can."