You have to wonder what Dr. James Naismith thinks of his game while watching from the big luxury box in the sky.

When he drew up his plans for the game in the late 1800s, Naismith wanted basketball to be a non-contact sport. Here is rule No. 5 of 13:

"No shouldering, holding, pushing, tripping, or striking in any way the person of an opponent shall be allowed; the first infringement of this rule by any player shall count as a foul, the second shall disqualify him until the next goal is made, or, if there was evident intent to injure the person, for the whole of the game, no substitute allowed."

Now imagine if the NBA followed that rule to the letter these days. What would playoff games be by the fourth quarter? A game of 2-on-2 at the best.

Maybe it's because I've been tuned into these playoffs more than past seasons, but the games are tough to watch. They're more like something you'll see around Washington Park during the Gus Macker on Memorial Day weekend than some of the world's best athletes playing the game.

Clutching, grabbing, hitting, scratching, punching, tripping. You name it and you're likely to see it during an NBA playoff game - and probably within five minutes of turning the game on.

The NBA wasn't always this way though. There was a time when players were allowed to move freely around the court, like Naismith envisioned, without having to worry about their block getting knocked off.

There was no Hack-A-Wilt philosophy to defend Wilt Chamberlain. No one made up "The Julius Rules" to interfere with Julius Erving.

But in the last 20 or so years, that has all changed thanks in large part to Michael Jordan. When Jordan burst onto the scene, teams didn't know how to defend him. NBA teams were forbidden to play zone defenses in the 1980s. Chuck Daly of the Detroit Pistons had an idea. If you can't stop him, beat on him. Daly had Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, Dennis Rodman and John Salley throw Jordan -- and anyone else who dared go down the lane-- to the floor.

Those Pistons teams took physical play to the extreme, earning the nickname "The Bad Boys." It worked, too. The team won back-to-back NBA titles in 1989 and 1990.

A new style of play was born with those "Bad Boys," who were more goon than basketball player.

That same style lives on through these playoffs. We've already had three players suspended for rough play and we're only in the second round. (Not to mention all of Rajon Rando's shenanigans against the Bulls in the opening round that went unpunished by the NBA). It's somewhat surprising no one has gotten seriously injured.

Until the NBA does something to clean it up, the Royal Rumbleish play will continue.

On Saturday morning, Daly died at age 78, losing a battle to cancer. His legacy will be of creating those "Bad Boys" and helping usher in physical play to the league.

You have to wonder what Naismith said to Daly when they finally met in that luxury box. I think I have an idea.

"Mr. Daly, what did you do to my game?"

-- dobrien@whig.com/221-3365