Lakers guard Kobe Bryant would like to see the NBA return to their "old-school" defensive rules.

"I'm old-school," Bryant said Friday night.

"I'd like for us to go back to the old rules," he said. "Get rid of the 'crutch defense,' known as the zone defense, and have guys guard man-to-man and stuff like that [and allow] hand checking and all that. I think that's better basketball."

The NBA started to allow zone defense at the beginning of the 2001-02 season.

Hand checking was first outlawed in 1994 and shortly thereafter, in 1997, defenders were prohibited from using forearms to guard against players facing the basket.