AbouCuéllar
Author of A-M essays 📚
It's not an either/or.You miss the point the Lakers were also to a man the fittest teams with the hardest practices. Riley was famous micro manager and invented the tricks a lot of modern coaches use. The point is no but corporate bureaucrats giving a flying poop about culture. You are in show business mate the talent is more important than your stupid cultural reload.
It was easier to be the fittest team back then. There were different standards and levels of professionalism to compete against.