A lot of people say that the NBA is not a good as it used to be. That the quality of play will never be as good as when Jordan still led the Bulls. That it just simply isn’t important or fun to watch as it once was.

David Stern thinks that making players wear collared shirts to games will fix the NBA’s image problems.

Others think that too much showboating has pushed away the average fan. I think there is one big problem that most people are overlooking.

Back in the good old days of the NBA in the late ’80s and ’90s, it seemed that every team seemed to have a marquee big man.

Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, David Robinson, Bill Laimbeer, Karl Malone, Dikembe Mutumbo, even Eastern’s own Kevin Duckworth were dominating in their time and the list does not end there.

Where have all the big men gone?

The All-Star weekend gave me an answer to this question. They are trying to be guards. Dirk Nowitzki, a seven-footer, won the three-point contest. Analyst Steve Kerr kept talking about how much of a mismatch he is on the perimeter. I counter that with how much of a liability it is to have him in the paint. That kind of height should not be wasted at the three-point line. That is what guards are for.

The college game is no exception.

Kevin Pittsnogle is a 6-foot-11-inch, 255-pound monster of a man that lives and dies on the three-point shot. He is the biggest man on his team but his statistics would not indicate that. He has taken 33 more three-point shots than the Mountaineers 6-4 guard, Mike Gansey. Despite having seven inches on his teammate, Pittsnogle only has five more rebounds. I cannot think of any other time in basketball history that someone of such large size has 15 more three-point attempts than he has rebounds.

NBA draft expert Chad Ford has Texas’ 6-11 power forward LaMarcus Aldridge ranked as No. 1 pick if the draft were to take place today.

Pittsnogle is ranked 67th out of 100 because he lacks an inside game. How can you be a power forward without an inside game? A power forward needs to be on the glass getting offensive rebounds, getting tip dunks and setting up his teammates for open looks. What a waste of size.

The basketball size issue has even affected our lowly Panthers.

Saturday afternoon, the Panthers lost a meaningless game to Eastern Michigan.

While the game was hardly the “bracket-buster” it was designed to be, the game was valuable to me because it showed just how dominating a good big man can be. The Eagles starting center, John Bowler, threw his 260-pound frame around the low post and there was absolutely nothing Eastern could do to stop him.

But the question in basketball remains: Where have all the big men gone?