Back to the future: the Kings and Mavericks are ahead of their time in acquiring European talent, which enables the teams to play a throwback, high-scoring style. (NBA).

Let us hearken back to an era when fundamentals were more than just the sad, sad refrain in the ballad of NBA coaches, when players went through more picks than Jimi Hendrix on a long night, when giving up the ball was not considered a personal failure by the passer. Let us return for a moment to the days of 110-point nightly outputs (we're not talking combined scores here), the days of full-tilt, think-on-your-feet hoops, the days when players still wore Converse. Remember when the word "isolation" was strictly for lepers, depressed poets and residents of deserted islands? Let's think of those NBA seasons past.

Better yet, let's give our attention to a couple of ...