The reason is because people are idiots by nature and think that the NBA is worse now than when there was no defense and just a bunch of slow non athletic types that could just shoot. They cannot appreciate the defensive aspect of the game as it is played today so calling these good athletes of today thugs is one way to express their lack of knowledge about how much better the game is today than yesteryear.
just to sum up my thoughts on this, like i said there are thugs in every league. my thing is i don't like the nba being singled out as a thug league when there are criminal acts occurring in all the major sports. you never hear people say mlb is a thug league or nfl is a thug league, but when something happens in basketball, even this ref thing, oh those damn thugs always do this. if you don't like the league, just say you don't like it. when you use the word thug though with basketball and simply pass off the other acts that happen in the other sports is where the double standard kicks in. i think it's getting better but i still see it a decent amount.
