How Good Were The "Bad Boy" Pistons Actually?

they're the greatest villains in NBA history they revolutionized how to play defense and beat Jordan in the playoffs three times they had the best rebounder in NBA history the dirtiest player in NBA history and their leader was one of the most cunning point guards ever but were they as evil as their nickname suggested and how good were the bad boy Pistons [Music] actually in 1980 the Pistons lost 66 games the worst record in franchise history and in 198 1 they followed it with another 60 loss Seasons the Pistons had the worst attendance in the NBA

with an average of 5,000 Spectators so their Silverdome stadium with a capacity of 82,000 felt like a ghost town but the worst part was that no player wanted to play for the Pistons and nobody wanted to live in crime infested Detroit and yet there was Hope on the horizon because in the 1981 draft the Pistons had the second pick and they wanted to draft Isaiah Thomas Isaiah was a college Superstar star who had just won an NCAA title with the hooers under the great Bobby Knight but there was a problem Isaiah wanted to get drafted

by his hometown Bulls he didn't want to live in Detroit and was doing everything in his power to sabotage his pre-draft interview the things he taught me while I was there the first thing was but where the Dallas Mavericks who had the number one pick got Bamboozled by Thomas and His deceiving tactics the Pistons GM Jack mclusky saw right through Isaiah BS and Jack MOSI was asking me all these questions and I was intentionally answering every one of them wrong and finally at looked at me goes I know what you're doing he said but I'm

going draft you at number two if you're there and you're going to love it here 6'1 180 lb Isaiah Thomas of the University of Indiana mclusky became the Pistons general manager in 1979 and because of his ability to judge talent and lots of Trades he soon got nicknamed Trader Jack mclusky said that Isaiah would end up with with the Pistons no matter how he behaved in the interview cuz Jack sensed something in the young Isaiah and he was instantly proven right the Lan got it Isaiah to the Hope hey but Isaiah the kid is really

going to be a great ball fir this league in Thomas' rookie season the Pistons improved tremendously winning 18 more games than the year before and when they played against Cleveland mclusky noticed that their Center played harder than anyone and fought until the last second even though was a blowout game I was at a game in Cleveland and I kept looking at this big guy this lamb beer they were 20 down and he still competed the entire game technical foul has been called on Bill L beer I said God I I got to get this gy

impressed by this toughness and fighting Spirit Jack traded for that Center at the very next trade deadline and that's how Detroit got Bill lambir Good Johnson lamb just fire at Jordan Michael doesn't like it soon Thomas and lambir became the heart and soul of the Pistons and both of them made the All-Star team in 1983 their first full season together however Detroit missed the playoffs for the six consecutive year after which mclusky fired Scotty Robinson and appointed the legendary Chuck Daly as the new Pistons head coach as Bill CI said the basketball is in your

hands in 1984 DA's first season Detroit had the number one offense in the NBA and the best attendance in the league with 16,000 fans on average it was a complete 180 from just 3 years before but most importantly the Pistons had a winning season and made the playoffs New Jersey and the Pistons celebrate the meal one two three however in the first round Detroit got torpedoed by Bernard King who averaged 42 points in five games which was only the fourth time in NBA history that a player averaged 40 plus points in a playoff series in

1985 the Pistons went one step further finally winning their first playoff series after 9 years but they would get immediately put down by the Celtics who were in the prime of their Dynasty every time bird touched the ball we will scared my mother-in-law nicknamed his jump shot silent death and then in the 1985 off season Trader Jack drafted shooting guard Joe Dumars with the 18th pitch the Detroit Pistons select Joe Dumars and one day later he traded for Rick Mahorn a master screen set and one of the toughest players in the NBA oh my God

CHS got subscreen he's FL on the point i' be so pumped up that I guess that the my intensity level will be so high that I want to kill him and I just want to keep going and keep killing but instead of the expected breakthrough the 1986 season brought disappointment and a loss in the first round of the playoffs by the Atlanta Hawks however While most franchises would make drastic changes in Personnel or fire the coach Jack mcclusky had faith in Dy and the core of his team feeling that they only needed a bit more

help and then Jack brilliantly drafted two extremely important pieces for the Pistons John Sally and Dennis Rodman Rodman was 25 years old had a troubled past and was working as an airport janitor just a few years before he became an NBA player but the Pistons believed in him because of the unbelievable energy he played with something that perfectly suited the hard-nosed fighting Spirit of Thomas Mahorn and lambir then mclusky also traded for Adrien Dantley a former two-time scoring champion and the Pistons finally became a true Contender Detroit steamrolled through the first two rounds of the

playoffs securing a clash with their Nemesis the Boston Celtics after four games the series was tied and in game five it looked like the Pistons would win as they held a one-point lead with 5 seconds left face slide nobody H Ro from the block out of bounds he's got it the quick up with 5 Seconds to go now the plays over we're celebrating you know we won we won the Detroit also had the possession and all they had to do was keep the ball when Isaiah made the costliest turnover of his career I look over

when I see the official holding the basketball but I run over and I panic Thomas wants to get it in quickly does to land be stolen by bur and the cut to DJ yes yes and a foul oh my what a mistake by Detroit they should have called bird comes out of nowhere I mean it was like a streak of lightting 1 second left bird steals it and gets it to Johnson at the buzzer what a play by Larry in game six the Celtics played without the suspended Robert Parish because he was tired of lambir

and threw a punch you can't get it the fall and perish takes lamb beer to the ground with a right forearm despite the punch bringing smiles to the Boston crowd the Celtics missed Parish badly and Detroit would win game six to extend the series and then in the deciding in game seven bird pushed the Celtics to another close Victory and another finals appearance despite Detroit averaging four more points than Boston in that series but because they were so close the Pistons entered the 1988 season hungrier and more dangerous than ever under DA's Direction the Pistons

adopted a philosophy of 94 ft defense the idea was that the team would defend everywhere on the court making it difficult for opponents to set up their offense up until that time most NBA teams ran back on defense and allowed the offensive team to cross half court unbothered it was basically a gentleman's agreement but the Pistons didn't care their whole strategy was to pressure bump and agitate unlike any other team ever had as a result they soon became the most disliked team in the NBA not only did we want to dominate you physically but we

wanted to crush you mentally we wanted the fans to feel see the story of this game the Detroit defense yeah defense did it tonight we wanted them to be afraid of us because we were get ready to destroy their team while Detroit didn't lead the NBA in technicals and was actually ranked 15th out of 23 teams in total fouls meaning that they fouled less than average the Pistons probably led the league in Hip checks forearms to the ribs cheap shots to the groin shoving players midair and fowls after the whistle but the main reason why

the Pistons were considered dirty was because of Bill ambir who continually put his feet in the players landing area after a jump shot trying to injure the opponent the me I stepped on his foot but I stepped on hide and twist my ankle which made him arguably the most hated player in NBA history however the Pistons weren't bothered by what others were saying because their plan was working Detroit won a franchise record 54 games and they averaged 25,000 people in the stand which again led the NBA and thanks to 94 ft pressure and more minutes

for Rodman they had the second best defense in the NBA and after Detroit beat the bullets and and then gave Jordan his first playoff whooping in the second round it was time for another Showdown with Boston the Celtics made the finals four years in a row at that point and despite their core getting older they were still the favorites against Detroit so before the games in Boston knowing how much they hated him lambir would be the first piston to go out on the floor he'd walk up to the leprechaun logo on the center spit on

it and smear his Spit with his sneakers which brought the arena to the brink of Madness but this time the Celtics could do nothing nothing to punish those provocations as the Pistons finally managed to beat Boston in six games the Pistons are on their way to the NBA finals in their first NBA Finals Detroit played the Lakers another 80s Dynasty led by two legendary Superstars but again against the Vegas odds the Pistons were leading three games to two but then a disaster Isaiah Thomas stepped on Michael Cooper's foot and severely sprained his ankle it looked

like his season was over Thomas is hurt and I couldn't tell what happened Isaiah started to get up he got up and then went down on the floor Isaiah take it over baby and then despite being unable to stand on one leg Thomas produced one of the craziest performances in NBA history he shuts his eyes locks into whatever Zone he got into and said okay I can do this then something happened that I I can't even describe Thomas for the Looper scores Y and he's lifting like some one-legged bunny Isaiah miraculously kept playing hopping on

one leg and not only did he play he dominated Thomas scored 25 points in the third quarter alone and finished the game with 43 points and eight assists he kept the Pistons afloat the entire game and with half a minute to go Detroit was up by one the Lakers decided to go with the safest bet and give the last shot to Kareem to try to win the game with his trademark Skyhook but as Kareem was attempting the shot the refs called the foul on Bill lambir who barely touched Abdul Jabar I me it wasn't even

a foul I mean it's not even close to being a foul even though he didn't push kareim that time he got the call because he had pushed 2,000 guys before to make things worse Kareem also traveled before the act of shooting but there were no coaches challenges in the 80s and Jabar was sent to the line of course Kareem made both free throws and the Lakers had the lead after Dumars missed the lay up on the other end Los Angeles survived and forced a game seven in the deciding game seven the Pistons again had a

chance to win but Rodman stupidly ruined a fast break in the final minute that would cut the Lakers lead to one and the Pistons ended up losing the championship once again for years Detroit was saying they were robbed of a championship because of that Phantom foul on Kareem but the truth is that wrong calls always happen they had their chance to win the title in the next possession but they missed it and they shouldn't blame their loss on the refs after the NBA Finals the NBA video Department issued a VHS cassette with highlights for each

team like they did every year back then and someone in the NBA named the 1988 Pistons videotape the bad boys when Isaiah Thomas heard what the NBA had titled the team video and was asked about it he wasn't offended Isaiah just gave the reporters his trademark smirk and said are we the Bad Boys soon enough the whole team embraced this nickname because now they had an excuse for their brand of basketball and they did everything they could to live up to their name even the franchise started selling bad boy merchandise and if you thought the

Pistons were dirty and physical before 1988 they were even worse in 1989 but again this style of basketball worked wonders for the Pistons who won a franchise record 63 games in the regular season and were eager to kick everybody's butt in the playoffs first they swept the Celtics and the Bucks in the first two rounds and then came Michael Jordan and his Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals because Jordan was by far the best player in the NBA Chuck Dy knew that if they wanted to win they had to put all their effort into stopping

MJ so Dy invented the Jordan rules a set of guidelines on how to guard Michael and stop him any way they could legally or illegally if Michael was at the point we forced him left and doubled him if he was on the left wing we immediately went to a double team from the top and if he was in the paint we doubled with a big guy the other rule was any time he went by you you had to nail him we didn't want to be dirty I know some people thought we were but we had

to make contact and be very physical Chuck Dy or as Dennis Rodman had eloquently put it if you can't beat him beat him by the end of the series Jordan had more bruises than ever and couldn't match the Pistons cumulative aggressiveness Detroit won the series in six games and secured another finals clash with the Lakers and in the finals Lady Luck shined for Detroit after Byron Scott got injured in game one the Lakers also lost Magic Johnson in game three and with Kareem being 41 years old the Lakers didn't stand a chance the Pistons swept

them in the finals and for the first time ever became the NBA champion the 1989 final our history hail the new Champions the Detroit P we beat him everybody calls us the bad boys I call ourselves world champions in 1990 due to the expansion draft the Pistons couldn't keep Rick Mahorn that only meant more minutes for Rodman who won his first Defensive Player of the Year award the Pistons again topped the Eastern Conference with 59 wins and in the playoffs they once again gave Jordan a beating to reach their third cons consecutive NBA finals this

time they played the Blazers and almost every game in the finals was close but because of their experience and tenacity the Pistons edged out the Blazers in the clutch winning the championship in five games yo Can't Touch This the almost unchanged team entered the 1991 season with the sole aim of winning the third consecutive title just 50 wins in the regular season brought them a slightly more difficult path in the playoffs but going through the Hawks and the Celtics the Pistons reached their third consecutive matchup against the Bulls Bulls but this time Jordan and the

Bulls were ready for the Pistons aggression and cheap fouls they were younger hungrier and better sweeping Detroit for nothing and announcing the start of their Dynasty before the final game was over Isaiah Thomas and the Pistons left the bench and walked past the Bulls in silence not shaking the Winner's hand great Champions usually do the right thing left these guys conducted themselves like Street yard bullies their walk-off was considered gangster in the state of Michigan but was universally hated everywhere else it was also symbolic because it was the beginning of the end of the bad

boys you're up on top eventually you're going to go down but they were great soldiers in 1992 the Pistons lost in the first round and in 93 they didn't even make the playoffs Rodman left the team after that season and in 1994 Isaiah suffered a career-ending Achilles injury retiring together with Bill lambir and just like that the bad boy Arrow was over this was the bad boys there can only be one bad boy basketball team and this was it and there'll never be another one the Pistons had enough talent to win without any tricks or

dirty Antics but they didn't want that and that's what's so great about them because every hero needs a villain and no one in NBA history played that role better than the bad boys and if you like this video then you'll love the next one click on the video right here