They didn't at all, the East had damn near zero athletes honestly
The East had more athletes than the West back then. West had the bigs while the East had all the elite guards outside Kobe.
T-Mac
Vince
Iverson
Marbury
Ray Allen
Those guys were all elite athletes that shyt on every guard in today's NBA outside of Westbrook. The so-called best guards of this era are all bad athletes (i.e. Harden, Curry, Klay, etc.).
Just think the elite guy the cac media sh1ts on all the time is Westbrook. And he's easily the most athletic player in the league right now. This is by design. Whites want to take athleticism out of the NBA. They want a league of unathletic 3-point shooters.
The modern NBA should be disgusting if you a black man.