NBA old heads often complain about the current “softness” of basketball.

There are no hard fouls, no playoff fouls. Nobody fights anymore, and everyone wants to be friends. The league made its transition to pace ’n’ space over the last 10 years. It means more 3-pointers, more skill, more transition but has also made the league less physical.

There are people who long for the 1990s, when the New York Knicks and Miami Heat were square-dancing to 85-83 outcomes but fighting on the court during postgame handshakes. So if you are that person, this past week was for you.

The NBA may as well have named this altercation nostalgia week for as many fights and near fights that we’ve been treated to. There were run-ins of the serious kind, like Orlando Magic guard Arron Afflalo throwing a roundhouse haymaker at Minnesota Timberwolves forward Nemanja Bjelica, who responded by throwing Affalo in a headlock then calling him “crazy” during his postgame media session.

Afflalo, who I’ve always admired as a player, took a gigantic loss in this one. He missed on the punch and got put in a choke hold, thereby losing the physical altercation. He lost money by getting suspended for two games without pay. Bjelica then clowned him in the interview session. And Afflalo still has to play for the Magic, one of the three worst teams in the league.

The funniest situation happened Monday between the Los Angeles Clippers and Houston Rockets. There are a lot of names to throw in here, but the principal characters were Trevor Ariza, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Austin Rivers and James Harden. To make a long story short, Rivers — one of the NBA’s most unlikable players — ticked off Ariza and Paul so much that they tried to enter the Clippers’ locker room following the game to confront him.

(I picture CP3 sliding through a ceiling shaft trying to get to the opposing locker room like John McClane in Die Hard. Then I laugh hysterically.)

Players don’t want to fight. Sure, there’s a facade that needs to be promoted. Sure, nobody is going to back down and words are going to fly. But Afflalo going after Bjelica? That’s not the norm. Verbal exchanges? Players restraining other players? That’s the norm.

And that’s why the TNT “Inside the NBA” crew of Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith couldn’t stop laughing at the Clippers and Rockets. That’s why San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich actively made fun of players and fights in a media session earlier in the week.

Money and health the most important thing to players. Fighting risks both. Afflalo got suspended two games for thorwing a punch that caught nothing but air. There’s no telling what he would’ve gotten had he connected. Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green were suspended two games, and they didn’t even get into the Clippers’ locker room. What happens if they get in and succeed in pummeling Rivers?

This isn’t hockey, where guys can drop the gloves, go at it then cool off in the penalty box for five minutes. The ability to fight in an NBA game without serious consequence died in 2004, when Ron Artest decided to scuffle with seemingly all of Detroit during the Malice in the Palace.

You know what I say? Good for the NBA. As much as I loved the 1980s and ’90s, I love watching good basketball even more. The quality of basketball in this era is much better than it was in the 1990s. The game is cleaner. Skill, not brute force, is on display. The game is much easier on the eyes. People like Steph Curry are able to showcase their incredible skills. And that’s because the league cleaned up the game.

So for as much fun as we had this past week, let’s leave it behind, like we left the 1990s behind. If I want to watch a basketball fights, I can go reminisce on YouTube — or go to a local pick-up game.