Celtics coach Doc Rivers says he jokes with Rajon Rondo that the young point guard wouldn't have survived in the NBA twenty years ago.

"I kid with Rondo all the time, telling him there's no way he could have played in my era," Rivers told reporters recently.

"The hand check was so important back then, and they've taken that away, and that's basically what's brought back the small guard, which is probably a good thing."

The NBA outlawed the hand check in 1994.

"Everybody was big back then, and slow for that matter. Now it's a quickness thing, but you can get bigger points that have speed, which is what makes Chauncey [Billups] so tough to guard."

Rivers does believe that today's point guards would have been successful a generation ago, but their success might have been hampered.

"All of them could have," he said of smaller guards making it in a more physical NBA.

"Muggsy [Bogues] played in our time. So did Spud [Webb], so I think that everybody transcends everything, but the rules would have prohibited some of the smaller guards that are great now from being as good as they are because of how physical the game was."