Forever Bad Boys Pistons: 1989 NBA Finals

On June sixth, nineteen eighty nine, the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons win their very first NBA title, defeating the legendary Los Angeles Lakers and ending Kareem al Dujabbar's career. Here's a story behind how it all happened today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rap deep dive into sports history every day, and today's trivia question to listen out for was how did the bad Boy Pistons get their nickname? Now? At the end of the nineteen eighty seven eighty eight season, the Pistons, that had just won a record fifty four games, were defeated by the Los Angeles Lakers in a seven game series led by Magic Johnson and Kareem Altdoujabbar, winning two championships in a row and sending the Pistons home wondering if they were to be able to get back and following this season, the NBA put together an entertainment highlight reel for each team. One of the copy editors, actually for the Pistons, gave them the nickname the bad Boys on this video, and that is where the nickname stuck. For the bad Boy Pistons, and they took this moniker and it may have helped them just win the championship the following year, because not only did they have this nickname to go for, it was also their style of play. It made them want to be tough, and they were one of the most toughest physical teams that ever played in the NBA. And they had also just moved to a new stadium of the Palace of Auburn Hills, Michigan, and they had sold out all their home games that year, and they had one of the best backcourts with Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars, with a solid center in Bill a em Beer, and added a young Dennis Rodman to their core. But they weren't done just running it back No. That next year, they actually proved even better when they traded Adrian Dantley to the Dallas Mavericks for Mark Aguire, who has actually chosen one pick ahead of Isaiah Thomas in the nineteen eighty one draft, the number one pick and the number two pick on their team from the nineteen eighty one draft, and this helped them finish with the league best sixty three and nineteen record heading into the playoffs, but that was for the East. On the West, the Lakers were having a great season, being led by Magic Johnson who averaged over twenty two points, almost eight rebounds and almost thirteen assists and being named the MVP of the league, and they finished first in the West, having Kareem al dul Jabbar, Michael Cooper, James Worthy previous epitote topic ac Green on their team and in the playoffs. The Pistons were making their way easily through the playoffs, sweeping the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks in the first two rounds, but in the Eastern Conference Finals and they came against a owing factor in the NBA, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. But they use an interesting tactic to beat Jordan in the Eastern Conference Finals called the Jordan Rules, where they would wear Jordan down more than any other player, and it worked as they won the final three games to earn their birth into the NBA Finals again and they would face off against the Los Angeles Lakers, who were sweeping through the West. They'd beat Clyde Drexler and the Portland trailblazerzers Dale Ellis and the Settle SuperSonics and Tom Chambers and Kevin Johnson of the Phoenix Suns sweeping all the way to get to the NBA Finals. Unfortunately, during that time, they lost a key contributor to their team, Byron Scott, and this would change the fabric of their team in the NBA Finals. So in the first game, with Scott suffering the injury, this was really felt on the defensive end, as the Pistons had Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars in the backcourt AND's got was a great defender of guards, but this required them to play their rookie David Rivers, who was very inexperienced and allowed the guard to the Pistons to really take over the game as Isaiah Thomas had twenty four points and Joe Dumares had twenty two and the Pistons won handedly that first game, one oh nine to ninety seven. The Lakers tried to snap back in Game two in Detroit, finishing with the first quarter lead, but Joe Dumares was on fire in the first half with twenty four points, but the Lakers head onto the lead sixty two to fifty six at halftime, but four minutes into the third period, Detroit was on a fast break and Magic Johnson tried to get back to play defense and pulled his hamstring, causing him to leave the game. The Pistons would tie the game on that play, and despite not having Magic Johnson, the Lakers were in the game until the final minute when Isaiah Thomas hit a couple of free throws to give them the win one oh eight to one oh five, and with a two to zero series, the game went back to La and Magic Johnson tried to come back and play in this game, although he lasted only five minutes. He left the game with the Lakers leading eleven to eight, but his backup, James Worthy, came in and scored twenty six points as Careermado Jabbar was trying his best, even at the age of forty two, scoring twenty eight points and having thirteen rebounds, but it still wasn't enough as a Pistons won one fourteen to one ten. So now we come to Game four and the Lakers have their backs against the wall. Four time champion coach pat Riley knows that no one has ever come back from three to zero and that is still true to this day, and James Worthy the guy that stepped in to help fill the spots for Magic. Johnson stepped up his game even more to try to get them a win and maybe possibly get back in the series. He scored forty points in this game, and after the first quarter, the Lakers were up thirty five to twenty three, but the Pistons kept chipping away at them as they didn't have any injuries to deal with and the Lakers were without their MVP and without their third leading scorer in Byron Scott. But the Pistons started to work their way back and the Lakers only led at halftime fifty five to forty nine, and a few minutes into the third quarter, the Pistons finally took the lead fifty nine to fifty eight, but James Worthy was still bawling and brought them back to take the lead at the end of the third quarter seventy eight to seventy six. But the Pistons took control in the fourth, taking the lead and taking control of the game, and with three minutes and twenty three seconds left to go, the Pistons led one hundred to ninety four, and this is when an unusual moment happened in the finals. The crowd rose and gave a standing ovation to Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who had out of the game for seemingly the last time in his career. Remember they are in Los Angeles, but Kareem was one of the all time greatest players of all time and his longevity was just amazing. But he could not help the Lakers win one last time before he retired. But it wasn't his last time. He actually re entered the game with one minute and thirty seven seconds left to score his last two points, cutting into the Pistons margin, making it one hundred to ninety six, but with forty seven seconds left, he again came back out to thunderous applause. Despite the Lakers losing, this still was a great moment to see the last game of Kareem alto Jabbar in his home arena. From then, the Pistons took off and finished the game with a score of one hundred and five to ninety seven, completely sweeping the Lakers. Althoughbeit the Lakers were without their MVP and had multiple injuries, they still finished the job and got their very first champion title and Joe Dumars part of that great backcourt with Isaiah Thomas went on to win the MVP for the Finals, averaging twenty seven point three points, more than six points better than the next player on the team, which was Isaiah Thomas, his backcourt mate, and really helped lead the series and the Bad Boy Pistons carried this on to have an encore performance in the nineteen ninety NBA Finals where they dismantled again a great opponent in the Portland Trailblazers, where Isaiah Thomas was the MVP. Now, this series was a unique one because as much as you wanted to root for the Bad Boy Pistons, they never won one. Going the NBA Royalty that is the La Lakers, they didn't back down. And it was also the last time we saw Lakers legend Kareem Alders Jabbar play and the first time we saw the Pistons raise up trophy, making the bad Boys for life. And I want to think Nate the Great Stead on Twitter for suggesting this topic. And if you want to have me do a topic for you, all you need to do is leave a review wherever you're listening, or send us an email at Daily Sportshistory dot com. Tell us your name and what topic you would love us to cover, and we'll give it an episode just for you, and come back tomorrow for more daily sports history. And did you catch the answer to today's question who gave the name bad Boys to the Pistons. There was a copy editor who put together a highlight reel in nineteen eighty eight for the Pistons for the NBA