Transcription
I'm at peace, so there are often multiple versions of the source of the Pistons versus Bulls rivalry, as well as different renditions as to why the Bulls were finally able to beat the Pistons. So, I decided to make this video to utilize the official testimony of both sides, and let's see what conclusion we can come to.
And then there was the guy who become the league's best individual player, Michael Jordan of the Bulls. When the Pistons went to Chicago midway through the '87-'88 season, they decided to send a message to him, to Michael Jordan. Comes to the hole. [Applause]
Now, that fall occurs today, that's definitely a flagrant two and certainly a fine. Often, you'd be suspended for that. But those horse-collar files, they were very common back then, especially by the Pistons.
As I stated in another video, I think that the level of physicality in the '80s, or the level of defense, I should say, is a little bit overrated. The defense in the '80s was not particularly that good until, no other than, the upper crust teams, and especially when you got to the playoffs, then it will get a lot more physical. But the Pistons were the first team to really bring an excessive amount of physicality into the league in the late '80s.
Now, many of the old heads will deny that. They'll say that the Celtics and the Sixers, and a lot of the upper-level teams in the early '80s, were just as, just as quote/unquote dirty as the Pistons. I disagree. I think that there are too many, too many official witnesses who lived it. When I say lived it, I mean actual participants, players, who will note that the Pistons were by far the most overly aggressive and quote-unquote dirty team in the NBA.
But what the Pistons also did was they showed many of the other teams that will come thereafter that you didn't, you didn't have to have transcendent talent to win championships. As long as you were mentally strong on both, on both ends of the court, and that you execute it on both ends of the court, that you would be able to make up the difference, the gulf or the gap between your team and the team that may be more talented, if you utilized certain tactics.
This game also, by the way, this game where Mahorn fouled Michael Jordan, very, very entertaining game if you get a chance to watch it on YouTube. Not only does Mahorn get kicked out of his game, obviously for the brawl that he instigated, but Michael Jordan also got into it with Adrian Dantley later on in the game.
We get the fight with the Bulls. Rick Mahorn gonna fight with the entire Bull organization. We will read the paper and they were talking about how, you know, "We're trying to hurt people," and "Jordan had to use Mahorn later in his career and everything."
Let me say this: Not only did Michael Jordan accuse Rick Mahorn of trying to end his career, but Jordan also suspected, as many of the Bulls would often suspect, that it was Isiah Thomas who was directing his teammates to try to excessively follow their team. That, of course, was a lot of the underlying enmity between Jordan and Isiah Thomas. Was Jordan's suspicion that Isiah Thomas was the one who was behind his treatment by Isiah Thomas his teammates?
You know, when he went to the basket, media started getting on our case about, "We were too physical," "We're showing the way basketball was play," "They called us thugs," and "This isn't good for the game," "This isn't good for the league," "We will be labeled as bad guys." There's two ways you can react to the stereotypes: either we can use it to our advantage, or it's gonna endure severe.
Now, notice Isiah Thomas, being the extremely intelligent person that he was, he understood that the only thing that you can do in life is to concentrate on what you do well, whatever your gifts are, whatever your persona is. The Pistons realized that they would never be the Boston Celtics; they didn't have that dominant frontcourt. They realized that they would never be the Showtime Lakers; you know, they didn't have four number-one draft picks on their team like the Lakers often did.
So, they understood that instead of trying to run from a moniker that people might consider insidious, or not a, and not a term that you'd want to be called, "the Bad Boys," they embraced it. Very similar to Kobe Bryant, who embraced the moniker of "the Black Mamba," really who really coined himself, calling that term himself, and named himself that term.
You know, everybody cannot be the hero, we all know that. And there is certainly a, you know, there's certainly something that's very attractive about anyone who can embrace who they actually are and maximize it.
If your brothers have ever seen the film *Unbreakable*, which I might do a review on one day if I'm inclined to and if I have the time, starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, basically that film is about the dichotomy between good and evil. It's like, it's really about to bring together of opposites. One person is able to figure out what his role is on the earth by bringing out the gifts of the other person.
And we had been trying to fight it for so long. Finally, we embraced, "Okay, we'll be like that." We had a chip on our shoulder. Was us against the league. "You love us, or you hate us."
Every great team needs an identity. You can't be great in this league and have zero identity. Absolutely agree, absolutely agree.
And you see that today with the New England Patriots. They've come to embrace their identity. People oftentimes now get into their own heads, when I say people, I mean the coaches of the other teams, because they're not sure if Belichick knows their plays. And throughout the league, teams are trying to steal each other's plays, but the fear with Belichick is that he's actually able to develop a game plan where he can capitalize on his knowledge of your plays.
So, as Joe Dumars stated so well, every great team has to have a verifiable identity so that they know how they should be playing. That's how, you know, that's what leads to success in life, not just in sports, but as individuals also. That's why I always encourage brothers, whatever it is, whatever gifts that you have, cultivate those gifts.
All right, so now we're gonna jump ahead a little bit on the Chicago Bulls versus Detroit Pistons rivalry, the timeline of their rivalry, on what led to the transition in power. Now we're at the 1988 Eastern Conference Semifinals, which is the first time that the Bulls and Pistons met up in the playoffs in the Isiah Thomas and Michael Jordan era. And let's see what happens.
In the 1988 playoffs, the Pistons would face Jordan and the Bulls in the second round: the Bad Boys against the scoring champ and MVP. He's also Defensive Player of the Year that year. Not to mention, a guy doing it right down the street from where Isiah Thomas had grown up. Isiah was probably one of the most popular athletes in Chicago. Jordan took Chicago away from him almost immediately. He's being booed, just like Bill Laimbeer in his old hometown.
Family and friends would just be straight up with you, like, "I want the Bulls to win." And, you know, your job was to basically break everybody's heart.
Let me say this quickly: One of the main reasons why Isiah Thomas and Michael Jordan develop such an antipathy for each other was based in what was just noted right here in this feature. Isiah Thomas, as we all know, is from Chicago, and he actually wanted to be drafted by the Chicago Bulls. He's on record as stating that Derrick Rose was able to fulfill his dream, Isiah Thomas's dream, in being able to play for his hometown team. He wanted to be the person who brought the Bulls a championship.
So, when Jordan was drafted by the Bulls in '84, Isiah Thomas, quite frankly, was jealous of the fact that Michael Jordan was receiving so much acclaim in his hometown. And John Salley is on record as detailing that when Isiah Thomas went home to Chicago to visit one of his, I believe he said his nephew, his nephew had Michael Jordan posters and jerseys all up on the wall, and that infuriated Isiah Thomas.
So, a lot of the issues between Jordan and Isiah Thomas were based in Isiah Thomas's discomfort at the fact that Michael Jordan was becoming Chicago's favorite, and that's what he wanted to be. And we might look at it and look at and say, you know, "That's petty jealousy." But a lot of what drives people is based in jealousy or envy, unfortunately. But sometimes when that energy is properly accrued, it can be used to achieve great things.
Because Isiah Thomas was what, about six feet, maybe six-one, and he was able to oftentimes in the late '80s go head-to-head with Michael Jordan in the playoffs. They would oftentimes guard each other one-on-one, particularly Michael Jordan guarding Isiah Thomas. And Michael Jordan's on record as stating that Isiah Thomas is the greatest player that he had to guard, as their skill set was nonpareil. As a little man, he can go left, go right with no, with equal dexterity. Very rarely, if ever, can I remember seeing someone pick his pocket. His handle was that tight, and one of the great streak scores in NBA history.
But a lot of, once again, a lot of the animosity between Jordan and Isiah Thomas was based in Isiah Thomas's jealousy of Michael Jordan. And of course, as Jordan started to rise in the ranks in the late '80s, he was jealous of the fact that the Pistons were the better team. He was trying to figure out how to beat them, but mentally he was not, he was not ready.
The Pistons dropped five quick games. Yes, in '88, they beat him in five. Once again, people who are interested, you could look up some of those games from the '88 playoffs on YouTube. That's the great thing about YouTube. I've stated this before: YouTube was like the modern-day cyberspace version of the Library of Alexandria. You can pretty much research anything and everything here.
So now, once again, gonna move ahead in the timeline regarding the rise of the Detroit Pistons and, of course, the Pistons versus Bulls rivalry. Right now we're in 1988, really going into '89. The Pistons have made a very integral trade which precipitated their rise as champions, which is they moved Mr. Adrian Dantley, who was a Hall-of-Famer. They moved him to the Dallas Mavericks for Mark McGwire, who was someone who I believe should be in the Hall of Fame. If he currently is, one of you brothers can correct me. I don't look, I don't look up a lot of this stuff.
I stated that Dennis Johnson wasn't in the Hall of Fame in the last video, and a brother brought to my attention that he was in. I remember when Dennis Johnson passed away, he was still not in the Hall of Fame, so the NBA corrected it postmortem, unfortunately. Hopefully, they don't do the same with this brother right here, Mark McGwire, who was one of the top forwards of the '80s. But you very rarely hear about him because the '80s was packed with great forwards. But this man, Mark McGwire, once scored over 30 points in one quarter in the playoffs. Anyway, [Applause] [Music]
As you can see, more than once, teams would oftentimes try to punk Joe Dumars. Why is that? Because he was too calm a brother on the Pistons. If a lot of these teams got tired of getting bullied, then we try to mess with Joe Dumars because they felt like he was calm and maybe he wouldn't do anything.
Joe Dumars, one of the great two-guards of the last 30-plus years. Oftentimes, many of these dudes will jump on the internet and talk about how Jordan faced any great two-guards. All they show is their ignorance. Joe Dumars was a phenomenal player, just one of many great two-guards that Michael Jordan faced in that era. [Music] [Applause]
Did you see Dennis Rodman leading the fast break down an alley-oop to John Salley? The Pistons had one of the great team IQs, basketball IQs, in NBA history. They're one of the first teams that had multiple players that could play a variety of positions and fill a variety of roles.
Once again, Bill Laimbeer was not just someone who hit people with what dirty files or hard fouls. He was one of the first stretch fives. And of course, you had the great Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, and Vinnie Johnson, who had three-headed backcourt, extremely high basketball IQ. All of them had great handle, great scoring ability, and they could all distribute.
Then, of course, you have Mark aguar, who was a scoring machine. Very, very, very difficult team for two years, for three years in a row. [Applause]
Now, look at these finds. Once again, just to prove my point, because once again, a lot of brothers who watch basketball in the '80s, they try to state that the Pistons were no more dirty than any other team. No, that's not accurate. They will find far more than every other team, and it was just because the NBA was concentrating on them more. They were known for being dirty, for trying to intimidate. And look, that's part of the game, at least it was back then.
But you make alterations and changes to your, to your rule book, to your law code, as different people create a create dynamics where you have to make those changes and those alterations. The Pistons brought an excessive amount of physicality to the NBA, and it resulted in them having to alter and change some of the rules.
Isiah Thomas has alleged that the NBA changed the rules so that Michael Jordan could win. Many, many Pistons fans also say the same thing. What has to be understood is that I'm sure that they did changed many rules so that they could ease the flow of the game and take away a lot of the quote-unquote buggery that the Pistons were, you know, we're utilizing to win their championships. But those tactics really have only taken away from the Pistons' legacy because they were an extremely intelligent team, very well coached, and they're very well coached on the floor as well.
But do I believe that the league purposefully changed the rules so that Michael Jordan could win? I believe that the league wanted to move forward from the Bad Boy era. The growth of the NBA started with the rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics, which was, which had the proper mix of physicality and, and, and proper flow. The league did not like the fact that the Pistons were accentuating the physicality and taking away from the flow of the game.
So, and of course, you had this young stallion in Michael Jordan that you wanted to utilize as a proper chess piece to bring basketball to the masses globally. You are not gonna be able to sell global basketball to the Detroit Pistons. So, of course, Dick Ebersol, in concert with David Stern, there's very, very little doubt in my mind that they did not want the Pistons to even have the opportunity to play dirty. I don't think anything to do with them not wanting them to win. They were still able to win with the flagrant foul rule, then so be it. But you don't get swept in a series because they bring in flagrant foul rules. Sorry, it just doesn't happen that way.
The Pistons were a great team that met their end. But once again, to bring it back to the point, as you can see here with this list of team finds, the Detroit Pistons were the team that stepped over the bounds by far in the NBA. And this was back in an era where you did not have flagrant foul rules, so most of the fires had to do with fighting. The game was played at that time in a very, very physical manner, and we allowed stuff that we don't allow today.
And let me say this also: The game was more, it was a little bit more physical back then, but in this era today, the players are so much faster and stronger because of the conditioning techniques that are utilized that the game is also probably just as physical today as it was back then, just because of the speed in which the players move across the court. So, it's almost equivalent.
It's like the NFL in the '80s. They were allowed to headhunt and, and, and lay people out and things of that nature. Receivers going across the middle could get clotheslined. You can't do that today. But at the same time, today you have cornerbacks and safeties that are the size that, look, that linebackers were back in the '80s. You know, most your linebackers back in the '80s were somewhere between 220 to 230. Now you have wire receivers like that that are that size.
Okay, so that when we talk about the change in, in the regulations and the rules any different leagues, you also have to take into account that professional sports now is much more scientific. There's, there's a lot more scientific modification that's involved in regards to athletes' training techniques, and the games are much faster down. So, even though a lot of the physicality has been alleged legislated out, it's still there because of speed of the collisions and speed of the movement.
Regulating, shall we say, that style of play because it led to our game becoming much more physical. We would be in other cities and the headlines are, "We're not afraid of the Pistons. We'll fight them if we have to." You read that kind of stuff and you go, "Okay, game's over," because they're not thinking about playing the game. Absolutely.
In the '89 playoffs, the Pistons didn't lose a game on their way to the Conference Finals, and that brought them face to face again with Michael Jordan. Jordan and the Bulls won a game in Detroit, and then he looked practically in Vince born Chicago. And with seconds left in Game three, the ball was in his hands.
Now, quickly, before I let this play run, please pay attention. There's Dennis Rodman on Michael Jordan. And I mention this before: Dennis Rodman was the player that Chuck Daly would use in clutch situations to guard the opposing team's best player or most potent offensive threat. If it was, if they were playing the Lakers, he put Rodman on Magic, or he put a Rodman on James Worthy if James Worthy had it going. Celtics, he put him on Larry Bird. With the Bulls, in his clutch situation, he put him on Jordan because even though Dumars did a great job on Jordan, Jordan was too tall for Dumars, and though in that type of situation to entrust Joel to be able to get a stop because Jordan could just leap over people. And in this, in this situation, he's even gonna leap over Rodman, but at least Robin provides some size.
The point of me stopping this video was to show once again Dennis Rodman, one of the great athletes in NBA history, would guard Larry Bird, and Larry Bird will light him up. And just to show brothers once again, the people, the brothers who have only watched this era of basketball, who would claim that Larry Bird cannot play today, if he, if he could light up Dennis Rodman, he could light up anybody today. It'd be no problem.
Same thing with Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan in this NBA today, he'd have a field day. He'd be like a Russell Westbrook, except he'd be shooting over 50%. [Applause]
That was giftable, Michael. Everybody did. Doug Collins. Doug Collins is an example of a stepping stone coach, one of these coaches who knows the game, but he does not have the emotional stability, the psychological stability, to lead a team to a championship. A great coach has to be able to galvanize his team and give an image of a leader whose unwavering.
Michael Jordan would often complain about Doug Collins's emotional ups and downs. He was like, "We come in a locker room after a big win and this guy's in there crying. You know, we come in after the big loss and he's in there crying." He said, "We can't have that." And that was the importance of Phil Jackson. Phil Jackson brought, you know, that Zen serenity that he had. That was big for the Bulls because they needed that.
You know, whenever you're going through adversity and you're able to maintain a level head, or there's someone around you who can maintain that level-headedness, that does a lot to help see you through, you know, those tumultuous times. And Doug Collins just didn't have it. He and Jordan have big arguments, men, big fights and big arguments because Jordan was brave. Jordan was very, uh, you know, high-strung himself at times. So Jordan needed somebody to calm him down.
It's like two people in a relationship and they're both high-strung. You know, when somebody's high-strung, they have to be with somebody calm who can deal with them, you know, like a trainer, you know, or psychotherapist. And Jordan needed that because he was extremely high-strung and super, super, super competitive.
Topped Isiah later that night. He said he went out by Michigan Avenue and worn out there. He say sit out there for like four or five hours. Dumars and I were on the phone for hours talking about 23 and rape. You're on the phone for hours talking about a guy who supposedly was very, very easy to guard, easier to guard than Larry Bird. And that's what they've stated, these Bad Boy Pistons who couldn't go left. Clearly, Michael Jordan was very difficult to guard.
But let me say this: He mentally, he wasn't ready to beat the Pistons. That team was nowhere near ready to beat the Pistons, and it's a miracle that they won two games in '89, and it was due to Jordan's greatness and how thirsty they were to break through. But they were not ready.
But once again, I'm going through this video just to show people that, that the reason why the Bulls finally won in '91 was because they were just a better team. It had nothing to do with anything else. And there was no other team that was even able to beat the Pistons in that playoff run in '89 other than the Bulls. The Bulls did better against them than the Lakers did.
And I know people are gonna say, "Well, Magic got hurt," and all this other stuff. Look, the Pistons were gonna smoke them regardless. They would, they were, you know, that they were not built to be the Pistons at that time. The Lakers were in the middle of transitioning from the Kareem era, you know, into another incarnation of the Magic Johnson Lakers. But the Bulls, they, that they were, they were coming. They just, they didn't have the understanding of the game yet.
It's two o'clock in the morning and I get a phone call and it's Isiah, and he says, "I've finally figured out what we need to do to stop your aggressive." Here's his best player in the league, and here's his bunch of role players. How are they? Well, they wouldn't a bunch of role players. The Pistons have for Hall of Famers.
This guy here, Sam Smith, wrote a very, very good book about Michael Jordan called *The Jordan Rules*. This was the guy who provided a lot of insight information into Michael Jordan that people did I know about, that was beyond the pale, that was beyond the corporate image that he conveyed on commercials. He showed Jordan to be someone who could be petty, who could, who was not in control of his emotions because if it's super-super competitiveness with punching teammates and freezing teammates out.
Once again, that's why, why I stated he was not ready mentally to beat the Pistons. And when you see that little clip of how they would draw him into certain defensive situations, it was because he was overly aggressive. That's what the triangle offense did for Jordan. It gave him a framework to understand how to use his teammates because he did not know how to properly use his teammates at that time to beat a championship level team. His greatness could beat every other team in the NBA except for championship level teams in those moments. And that's once again, that's the importance of having Phil Jackson.
There was a moment in the '91 Finals against the Lakers in Game 5 where Phil Jackson, Phil Jackson actually had to chastise Michael Jordan in the huddle because he was not finding John Paxson. [Music] [Applause]
Now, did you hear what the commentator, Dick Stockton, said? He said, "No easy layups." Once again, that's the difference between that error and this error here. There's no, there's no such thing as no layup rule in this error. And one of the main reasons why there's no such thing as a "no layup rule" is because, of course, number one, the NBA is concentrating on excessively hard fouls. But number two, you have the stretch four, so that takes the power forward out of the lane. Back in that era, your four men and your five men will be waiting in a lane for anybody who penetrated.
Michael was isolated. We forced him to dribble the ball to the middle of the floor. If he was in the middle of the floor, recourse of left. The nearest defender of would run a double-team, hit him on screens every time to wear them down. Every time he drove, you sent three or four people. Like, every time he came in that leg, he was boom.
Once again, they used his aggressiveness against him. That's what I mean when I say sometimes people can have too many gifts, or you can use their gifts against them. Sometimes a gift can also be a curse. All right, it's a very, very thin line between aggressiveness and bullheadedness, no pun intended. And Jordan had to learn that sometimes you have to acquiesce responsibilities in an aqueous Talent, meaning you have to spread your talent around to make your other teammates better. And kudos to him for acknowledging that.
See, Michael doing this sit there and say, "Well, you know, the reason why we lost is because of the fouling and all the other stuff." Now, he might mention that off camera, and Jordan was not above a little skullduggery and trying to court referees to be on his side. There are stories of him taking referees out to eat to try to get them to give him some calls. But he was intelligent enough to, number one, understand what he needed to do to become a better player in order to be the team that was on that mental level. The Pistons were extremely mentally tough, man.
Anybody but him, he was not going to beat us. That was the Jordan rules. [Music] [Applause]
We didn't even think about Scottie Pippen. It was Michael Jordan in the Jordanaires. And you can't win championships like that with only one player. Agreed, agree. You certainly cannot win a championship with just one player, no matter how great the player is, and that's part of the learning process.
But the Pistons won the next three games to close out the Bulls at six, and we'll continue this on part two. Peace.