Stacey King had his fair share of intense on-court battles with the Detroit Pistons during his time with the Chicago Bulls. Based on what he experienced and witnessed firsthand, King could tell that the Pistons players weren’t innately bad. Instead, it was the team’s bad boy image that turned them into villains.
King came up with this theory when the Pistons signed journeyman big man Scott Hastings. According to him, Hastings never struck anybody as a bad boy. However, it was as if something had gotten into him the moment he joined the Pistons.
“Scott Hastings… He was playing on the Pistons. They signed him as a free agent. He’s not really a tough guy. He’s a good guy, nice guy but when you get put on that Detroit Pistons [team], it’s like putting on an evil suit,” King remembered on Bulls On Tap. “You become one of them [Bad Boys]. And so, he took on that persona.”
King realized how serious the Bulls-Pistons rivalry was
It was during a preseason game against the Pistons when King noticed the difference in Hastings. He could already sense that Hastings was upholding the Pistons’ bad boy image early in the game.
Come game time, King said that Hastings was trying to act like a tough guy on the court. He was playing dirty and being chippy early in the game. Eventually, the inevitable happened. King and Hastings ended up having a physical altercation.
“I was going for a rebound, I was much quicker than him. I’d already beat him down the floor and got a dunk so he was a little upset about that,” King recalled. “So, I was going for a rebound and I beat him again and he clotheslined me. And he threw me to the floor.”
“I immediately got up, forgot that I was in a Detroit-Bulls game, and my reaction was to give him a two-piece,” he added. “I got ejected.”
As far back as King can remember, the dust-up between him and Hastings happened just about five minutes into the game. At that point, it became clear to him that the animosity between the Bulls and the Pistons was as real as it gets.
“That was my first introduction to how serious the rivalry was,” Stacey reflected.
Pippen accused Isiah of influencing the Bad Boys
Understandably, the Bulls-Pistons rivalry in the late ’80s and early ’90s left a lasting impact on the players of both teams. Even years after they officially retired, some of them still throw shade at each other whenever they have a chance.
In fact, Bulls legend Scottie Pippen has unapologetically expressed ill will for the Pistons on more than one occasion. Pippen even emphasized that Isiah Thomas was the Bad Boys cult leader.
“There was no love on that side of the line,” Pip once said of the Pistons. “We knew they would pull out all the stops to try and beat us, whether it was physically or mentally. We were ready for the challenge… We knew they were a classless team with a classless leader in Isiah [Thomas]. We knew that they were following their leader.”
King and Pippen’s remarks speak volumes about the brand of basketball that the Bad Boy Pistons played back in the day. From the look of it, it’s safe to say that the Pistons had really turned some of their rivals into lifelong enemies because of being the NBA’s Bad Boys.