NBA playoffs are too soft for me

Call me old school if you want, but I’ve had enough of all this talk about the current Pacers vs. Knicks series being a throwback to the era in which the matchup meant plenty of physicality and a truckload of flagrant fouls being committed. Is it possible that I’m the only curmudgeon who remembers both Anthony Mason wrestling with Dale Davis and Antonio Davis reminding both Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley he too was a grown man? Heck, even John Starks going at it with Reggie Miller is more of a battle than what we’re currently watching, as not one player on either team has the street cred to even think about imposing his will on his opponent, and that alone makes me chuckle when an announcer even remotely refers to how intense the physical play is. It’s important to say I’m not a fan of cheap shots or any sort of an underhanded maneuver that could lead to an injury, but for the life of me, all these uncontested drives (actually strolls) to the basket without even marginal contact is both pathetic and beyond disrespectful to the stalwarts of yesterday who played hard and used all their fouls each...