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 ...

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.

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 ...