I'm not sure if the level of competition was "quite a bit higher than it is now" as a whole. At worst, it's equal, but I don't think it's as much you think. It's really tough to compare as one era was pretty traditional players (as far as positions and roles) and the other is FULL of hybrid players. The one thing I will say is that big men of today's couldn't compete with the big men in MJ's time. It's not even close IMO. What impresses me about the late 80s/early 90s was how much you can get away with defensively. That's what makes MJ so awesome compare to like Kobe and LeBron. Dude was scoring and putting up insane #s while defense could do whatever they want to him every single game (no hand check rule/never had to worry about flagrant or technical on hard foul/etc). Yeah, poor Michael got hacked constantly, and never got a call.