The Detroit “Bad Boy” Pistons will always be known as Michael Jordan‘s and the Chicago Bulls’ greatest nemesis. No team gave Chicago a harder time than the Bad Boys, who built a reputation as the most physical team in the NBA’s history.
They celebrated the fact that their opponents complained about their rigorous style of play, and according to their captain, Isaiah Thomas, no one did that more than the Bulls.
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“That is how we played. You come down the lane, and everybody gets hit.” Thomas started. “The only people who cried about it were the Bulls. I saw Michael Cooper leveling Bird in the Finals. I saw Bird tried getting away, and Cooper grabbed his jersey.”
“When he broke away, Cooper’s fingernails were all up on his skin. There was nobody crying, saying he held me or he hit me. The only team that really cried a lot about getting hit, in my opinion, were the champions, the Chicago Bulls,” Thomas said.
Thomas said everything changed when MJ came
For as much as they celebrated being considered the most physical team in basketball history, Thomas believes that’s not actually a fact because they emulated the Boston Celtics in the ’80s, who were as hardcore as the Pistons on the defensive end.
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It just so happened that the Pistons roster had tall, athletic and versatile players such as Bill Laimbeer, Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman and Rick Mahorn who were all a nightmare to go up against. Like most teams, the Pistons often thought of strategies to stop the opponent’s best player, which was why they came up with the infamous “Jordan Rules” scheme.
The goal of this defensive game plan was to stop MJ from scoring, which is why the Pistons surrounded him with their best defensive stoppers, who would knock him to the ground every time he held the ball or got to the rim. They utilized the same game plan for most of their opponents, but according to Isiah, only Mike and the Bulls had problems with it.
Since the Bulls complained about it so much, Thomas felt it led the NBA to change its rules to help Jordan prosper. That’s why hand-checking rules were reexamined, and perimeter players were more protected by the referees, who called more fouls in their favor. Zeke believes this helped the Bulls end the Pistons’ Bad Boys era.
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“I’m like, wait a minute, I watched Dr. J get beat up. I watched Magic get beat up. I watched Max get beat up. I done got beat up. Now we gotta change the rules because he gets beat up?” Thomas once said.
Jorodan figured it out
Thomas certainly brings up an interesting theory on how David Stern helped Jordan and the Bulls finally get past them. Still, the former also doesn’t want to discredit them.
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In fact, Thomas knows that they pushed the Bulls to their limit to the point that Jordan had to adjust his game to figure them out. The Bad Boys were the reason why MJ got stronger, learned how to play like a big player by operating from the post and weak side and scored with three dribbles or less.
While Thomas acknowledges that Jordan and the Bulls beat them fair and square, he will always wonder if their excessive complaining about the Bad Boys not only propelled their success in the 1990s but also changed the game for good.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 23, 2025, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.