{"id":834828,"date":"2026-09-14T03:17:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T03:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/834828\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T03:17:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T03:17:27","slug":"bill-laimbeer-explained-why-the-bad-boys-pistons-1990-title-was-purely-for-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/834828\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Laimbeer explained why the Bad Boys Pistons’ 1990 title was purely for themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Detroit Pistons<\/a> finally climbed the NBA\u2019s mountaintop in 1989, but not everyone was ready to give them credit. They beat the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> via a sweep, yet the series came with an obvious caveat. Magic Johnson played hurt, while Byron Scott was out of commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For some, that detracted from what the Bad Boys accomplished. The Pistons had been knocking at the door for years, but their first title could still be dismissed as something won against a wounded opponent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s a foolproof solution? Well, winning it again in 1990 would leave far less room for that argument.<\/p>\n

The Pistons did it again<\/p>\n

There was some truth to the cynics\u2019 argument about the Pistons\u2019 1989 title run. The Purple and Gold were pretty much on their way to their straight ring, opening the \u201989 postseason with 11 straight victories. They swept the Portland Trail Blazers, the Seattle SuperSonics, and the Phoenix Suns to arrange a date with the Bad Boys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And then, health became a factor. B-Scott hurt his hamstring<\/a> before the series even began. Magic\u2019s hamstring also gave up on him in Game 2, which basically killed the Lakers\u2019 chances. Not even James Worthy\u2019s 40-point outing in Game 4 could save them from the Pistons\u2019 broom.<\/p>\n

Detroit could hear the noise carry over to the next season. Even though Kareem Abdul-Jabbar decided to call it quits after the 1989 series, L.A. was still loaded from top to bottom. They won 63 games in 1989-90, the league\u2019s best, and four games above the Pistons, who topped the East.<\/p>\n

If this ever came down to another Lakers-Pistons showdown, Detroit would welcome the challenge again. Instead, L.A. got stunned by the Suns in the second round. Phoenix eventually got mauled by the Blazers in the WCF to arrange a showdown with the Pistons.<\/p>\n

Before the 1990 NBA Finals series, many, including Lakers\u2019 Johnson, felt Detroit\u2019s only advantage against Portland was experience. Everywhere else, the younger, more athletic squad had the upper hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cPortland\u2019s different from Chicago,\u201d Magic said<\/a>, referring to the Pistons\u2019 ECF opponents. \u201cThey\u2019re going to cause problems in the open court. And they\u2019ve got more talent than Chicago. Detroit is going to have to contain their break. And they\u2019re going to have to contain Portland\u2019s offensive rebounds. I think Portland has the best rebounding in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, however, the Pistons prevailed. Detroit staved off a potentially devastating Game 2 overtime defeat and dug deep to string together three more victories to complete a gentleman\u2019s sweep of Portland.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou rank this one as more of a satisfaction for a job well done,\u201d said<\/a> Pistons\u2019 Bill Laimbeer, who led the series in rebounding. \u201cWe wanted to repeat as champions, but not so much to prove it to anybody else. We wanted to do it for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas, who won the Finals MVP after averaging 27\/5\/7, declared: \u201cYou can say what you want about me, but you can\u2019t say that I\u2019m not a winner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going back-to-back put the Pistons in a very exclusive club. They join the Lakers as the only other franchise that won two championships in a row in the 80s. Before that, only the 1968 and 1969 Boston Celtics achieved the feat, showing just how difficult it was to stay on top once everyone was coming after you.<\/p>\n

For these Pistons, however, the second title meant something more personal. It gave them a chance to put any doubts about their first championship to rest. Winning two in a row meant the first was no fluke, regardless of what anyone may have thought.<\/p>\n

About the author\"\"<\/p>\n

NBA Writer at Basketball Network<\/p>\n

Jan covers pretty much all things basketball, especially fascinating anecdotes that help him take glorious trips down memory lane. He goes beyond stats, uncovering tone, mindset, and stories that reveal the true pulse of the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Pistons finally climbed the NBA\u2019s mountaintop in 1989, but not everyone was ready to give them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[98890,7,4982,296,188,3860,6,53692,297,1063],"class_list":["post-834828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-pistons","tag-1990s","tag-basketball","tag-bill-laimbeer","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-detroitpistons","tag-nba","tag-old-school","tag-pistons","tag-teams"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117267231434680793","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}