In the early 2000s, the NBA underwent a shift that permanently changed how perimeter defense was played. The league began phasing out the art of hand checking, a once-prized tool of defenders that had ...

For anyone who has followed the NBA for a long time, the most contentious, famous and widely discussed rule change is hand checking. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why it has become the barometer by ...

The NBA rewired its entire rhythm during its era shift. Somewhere between the bruising '90s and the run-and-gun 2010s, the league outlawed one of its most defining defensive tools, the hand checking.