The subject was defense in the NBA, and Michael Jordan was speaking, although more about offense, especially his. We know few defenses could do anything about that.

But there was one that might be bothersome, the zone defense. It was the topic du jour at last month's All-Star Game, and Jordan was making an impassioned plea before the competition committee that had gathered to consider rules changes to enliven the NBA game. Jordan spoke passionately. If teams were able to play zone defenses, he said, he never would have had the career he did.

So now, perhaps the Michael Jordan era finally is over. A select committee on rules recommended last week that the NBA eliminate illegal-defense guidelines, which effectively would allow teams to play any defense, including a zone. The proposals also include a defensive three-second rule to prevent teams from stationing a big center, like Dikembe Mutombo, at the basket all game.

Other recommendations: reducing from 10 seconds to eight seconds the time required for the ball to be advanced to the frontcourt, limiting fouls on incidental contact and allowing the ball to be touched while on the rim, as it is in international play. The league's board of governors is expected to endorse the recommendations in April and put them into use for next season.

And it could lead to a startling change in the NBA game.

Which is what the league is hoping for with scoring stuck at historic lows of 94.6 points per team per game this season on 44.2 percent shooting.

As Casey Stengel might have said, "Can't anybody here play this game?"

Not based on the way it has looked in recent years with poor shooting and decreased movement making for a less appealing product. Some blame that for declines in TV ratings and attendance. The committee's recommendations are a response to those concerns.

The elimination of illegal-defense guidelines, which have been a staple of NBA play for the last 50 years, may rank as one of the major changes in the history of the pro game.

It is a daring experiment that proponents say will return classic basketball--cutting, passing and better shooting. Opponents say scores will plummet further and the individual stars of the game, such as Vince Carter and Kobe Bryant, will be neutralized.

And that was Jordan's argument: He believed that allowing any defense, or a zone, enables teams to gang up on the star. Gone will be the highlight-show moves and plays, the ESPN-ization of the game that others contend has been detrimental to sound play.

The NBA historically has been a man-to-man-defense league that encouraged great individual play.

But as coaches, like Hubie Brown in the 1970s, began to devise defenses to help out, the NBA instituted a series of defense rules that began to look like the Internal Revenue Service code. There was good reason for each of them, but when combined they made little sense.

So games often are spent with players pointing to lines on the court where a player is supposed to be or isn't.

Actually, many of the illegal-defense rules were designed to aid the centers, like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who were being smothered in the post area.

But the result has become a slower, unappealing setup game in which the ball is dropped into the post while the post player works with another player and three players stand around and watch.

See: New York Knicks, Miami Heat, et al.

No more, say the rules poohbahs. It's time to return to basketball.

The change is not just a present for players like Steve Kerr, Bryce Drew and Trajan Langdon, who are primarily perimeter shooters. It's more of a statement to all players that they should learn the fundamentals of the game--to shoot the ball, pass and move without the ball.

One early victim would seem to be Shaquille O'Neal, perhaps the only true low-post center left in the NBA. Elimination of illegal-defense rules would allow teams to gang up on him and force the ball outside, a sort of Shaq Rules.

But coaches such as Miami's Pat Riley, who long has relied on a two-man post-up game, say times are changing.

"I think the philosophy now is about versatility, quickness, mobility, stretching the game," Riley said. "The philosophy has transcended getting a big man.

"This is the game of the 21st Century."

A game played by Milwaukee, Dallas, Sacramento and Orlando, perimeter teams who are now four of the top-five-scoring teams in the NBA.

Although those teams don't have anyone like Jordan, they are fun to watch. And that's what the NBA is hoping will happen to all its teams.