How the Bad Boy Pistons turned into a slop bucket of in-fighting

How the Bad Boy Pistons turned into a slop bucket of in-fighting

– [Clara] For the majority of the ’80s, NBA championship banners
were either green and white or yellow and purple. But out in the middle of the country, something was happening. Okay, it doesn’t look
like much was happening, but in 1981, Jack McCloskey
was brought in as GM. He built a lineup that would spend the
better part of the decade clawing their way up the NBA mountainside. Nicknamed Trader Jack, he
made 38 trades in 10 years. Their on-court leader was Isiah Thomas, the little playmaker
with an angelic smile. Joining him in the back
court was Joe Dumars, quiet and humble, he
didn’t need the spotlight, but it shined on him anyway. Completing the guard trio that was called, “The greatest
ever” was Vinnie Johnson. He made himself a Detroit hero, hitting the 1990 finals
winning shot with seven tenths of a second left on the clock. Bill Laimbeer and Rick
Mahorn were down low, giving the team their bad boys’ persona and the rest of the NBA a
reason to stay out of the paint. Avoiding physical pain was the reason, and also your shot wasn’t gonna go in, and also you weren’t
gonna get the rebound. Outside of Detroit, Laimbeer was reviled, but inside he was venerated. They lost Rick Mahorn in
the ’89 expansion draft, which brings me to James Edwards, a reserve elevated to the
starting lineup in Mahorn’s absence and more minutes looked good on him. And then you had what Larry
Bird dubbed the X-factor, John Salley and Dennis Rodman, an underdog team made up of
underdogs, found glory twice, in large part due to
their kill or be killed, never say die mentality. Problem is never saying die doesn’t shove sand back
up the hourglass of life. And after a while when you’re
old and tired and beat up and kind of cranky and
kind of angry, actually, maybe you do mutter the
word die once or twice. Okay, so you look at the
’90/91 season results and you see yeah, Michael
Jordan and the Chicago Bulls swept Detroit out of the playoffs in the Eastern Conference finals. You might conclude, MJ is
so great, MJ’s so good, he collapsed the Detroit Pistons, end of a simple story. But hang on, Jordan and
the Bulls were very good, and they might have been what pushed the Pistons over the cliff, but the Pistons were already teetering on the edge of said cliff before the 1991 playoff Bulls showed up. In the ’91 season, the
Pistons were essentially tied for oldest team in the league, and it showed, right away. The preseason was dominated by pretty big injuries to
some of their best players. At the start of the season, a
bunch of guys had bad backs, classic old man injury, and Detroit lost seven of
eight at the start of December. Then just as they were righting the ship, Isiah Thomas broke his hand
and was out for 32 games. The team was a bit lost
without their leader. Joe Dumars took on extra minutes, but that was kind of destroying his body. His toe was so swollen he
couldn’t get his shoe on, so he cut a hole in the shoe and played 41 plus minutes a game. You have to admire his
heart and fear for his body. When Thomas came back and
the team still didn’t win, Thomas went off on Detroit’s new attitude, there was no fire. Where’d this apathy come from? Success. The Pistons were the hare
that could sit back and relax and lose games during the regular season, while the tortoises of the NBA slow and steadied their
way to a habit of winning. Thomas seemed to be the only one who remembered the hare lost the race and things didn’t magically
turn around come playoff time. During game three of the
Eastern Conference semis, the Celtics were crushing
the Pistons so badly that at one point the
announcer simply said, “This is humiliation.” But Thomas hadn’t said, die yet. In game six with almost
every appendage injured, he hoisted the team on his back and took over in the
final minutes of overtime, Pistons advance. That game has been called,
“The last great game of the Pistons Bad Boy era,”
which I’m afraid means, yeah, it gets worse. It was clear the Pistons
had to make some moves to keep up with the Bulls
and the rest of the league, and Jack McCloskey looked
To camera and said, “That’s why they call me Trader Jack,” while doing finger guns. He immediately dumped two beloved and solid contributing
members of the team, James Edwards and Vinny Johnson. It was a blow to an
already crushed morale. What was McCloskey thinking? Let’s take it one case at a time, for James Edwards, the guy was turning 36 and the GM thought he
had a perfectly capable, if not more than capable replacement already on the roster, William Bedford. You know him, he’s the guy
who gave so little effort, Isiah Thomas said, “He didn’t deserve to wear
Pistons across his chest,” just one summer ago. But McCloskey really believed in Bedford and really believed in
his personal ability to turn Bedford around. Okay, so that’s his logic on
killing one family member, but what’s all this about
waving Vinny Johnson, the guy who just a year ago won the finals with less than a second on the clock? The guy who in ’91 was the leading scorer in the Bulls series? Well, he was turning 35 in the fall, and by waving him, Detroit could take half his
salary off their salary cap. McCloskey had no interest
in a slow rebuild, he figured if his stars
were getting older, he better hurry up and capitalize. The old win-now mentality meant he needed salary cap space now to lure in some new pieces now. Sorry legendary Detroit hero,
thanks for the championship. With that salary cap space, McCloskey lured Orlando Woolridge, who was extremely productive the previous season with Denver, as well as Darrell Walker, a passionate defender who had a little bad boy attitude to him. With his new roster, the GM was confident the Pistons were title
contenders once again. His confidence was perhaps misplaced. If you ask Isiah Thomas
what was going wrong, it was the new guys. The team couldn’t generate offense, a role both Edwards and
Johnson once filled. Wait, though, isn’t
Woolridge good at scoring? Well, coach Chuck Daly, who wasn’t in love with
McCloskey’s off season moves, didn’t know how to use him or Walker. He tried having Woolridge
come off the bench, but Woolridge couldn’t get hot right away and then Daly would bench
him for not producing, and the coach basically
just didn’t play Walker. The GM had no patience
for the coach’s struggles, but he was kind of done with Daly already. At the start of the ’91/92 season, he hired Miami’s coach to be
the Piston’s color commentator and also allowed him to watch practices, causing many to compare
Rothstein to a vulture and Daly to carrion. So everyone from the
locker room to the sideline to the front office was having
just the time of their lives. Then in January, news broke
that Woolridge received a gigantic contract extension, and he received it during training camp before ever playing a game
for the Detroit Pistons. With this news, the locker
room simply imploded, because you see, there were
a few guys who had asked for bigger, longer contracts
and had not received them, guys who helped the team
line the trophy case. And because it was a further insult to James Edwards and Vinny Johnson, Woolridge’s instant contract extension became a memo from management. It said, “There will be no loyalty or appreciation for past
efforts or accomplishments.” Laimbeer explained, It was every man for
himself in the Pistons camp, and blamed McCloskey for everything. The GM wasn’t super pleased with that, especially because after
Laimbeer’s comments, the Pistons restructured, forcing McCloskey to report
to new president Tom Wilson. Even Woolridge with his big contract tucked under his arm, wasn’t happy. The Pistons entered the ’92 playoffs with deep chemistry issues, offensive issues, and old man issues. They left the playoffs
after the first round, hadn’t happened to them since 1986. The press declared, the
end of the Bad b=Boys era. As soon as the season
ended, Chuck Daly resigned. He knew where he wasn’t wanted. Rothstein took over a few weeks later, it looked like a rebuild was on the way. Rodman straight up said, he didn’t wanna play in
Detroit without Chuck. The coach was a father figure to him, and he resented the organization pushing that figure out the door. About a month later, McCloskey, who couldn’t recover from
Laimbeer’s accusations left for a job with the Timberwolves. Hired in his place, Billy
McKinney made some quick moves. He traded Bedford for
center, Olden Polynice. He signed free agent Terry Mills and traded away half
of the Pistons X-factor for future picks on a forward who, let me just tell you
right now, didn’t pan out, and that’s all the moves the Pistons made. But most notable might be
the move that wasn’t made. Rodman who said he
wanted out was still in, which had consequences. He played the first four
games of the season, then hurt his knee, was cleared to play, but refused to go on a Western
road trip with the team. As the season wore on, it was soon very clear the
new coach wasn’t working out. I’m not basing that on their
record, which I could have, but I have more evidence. Half the team anonymously
complained about the coach to the Detroit press, and complained might be
too gentle of a word, there was talk of mutiny. Oh, I almost forgot, Rodman
came back in late November, but in early February, he
was again, not playing, this time with a calf injury that his own teammates doubted. With the trade deadline around the corner, nobody expected Rodman
to stay, but he did. As McKinney explained, “Dennis clearly doesn’t wanna be here, but if we don’t get a
deal that’s right for us, Dennis can stay here until he rots.” Just really cool, great
atmosphere in the Pistons camp, wonderful work environment. They missed the playoffs by a game. So what was McKinney gonna
do for the ’93/94 season? Rothstein was fired, Rodman was traded, and in a move that seemed to finally admit that, yeah, okay, maybe we do
need to do a proper rebuild, Detroit drafted two young guards to learn behind Isiah
Thomas and Joe Dumars. But the old guards didn’t plan
to go anywhere anytime soon. Thomas was in the last
year of his contract, but he wasn’t retiring. Both were all stars last year, and Dumars had the most
productive season of his career. Laimbeer now 36 didn’t
plan to retire either, but he was shifting to a reserve role, which he was cool with. Only issue, he now scrimmaged
with the reserve team In practices. So he was playing against Isiah Thomas and the starters. What’s wrong with that, you ask? Well, in the last practice
of the ’93/94 preseason, the punishing big man broke
the starting point guard’s rib while setting a pick on
the starting point guard. Isiah was livid, and he would’ve fought Laimbeer, but the whole rib just broke thing prevented that sort of movement. And if you can believe it, that was not the only Pistons
controversy of the preseason. Occasional starter, Alvin Robertson, who Billy McKinney brought on last season to infuse some enthusiasm into the team, strangled Billy McKinney during a different preseason practice. The executive had been questioning
Robertson’s back injury, and Robertson did not appreciate that. Though, can you really
strangle someone so hard that several professional athletes need to pull you off of them
if your back is injured? I’m just asking. Robertson was suspended indefinitely. The warring Pistons sputtered
out to a two and four record. Then at a mid-November practice, Laimbeer again stuck an
elbow in Isiah’s ribs while setting a pick. He didn’t break anything this time, which was good and also bad. Good because Isiah’s ribs were intact, bad because Isiah was physically capable of fighting Laimbeer. He punched him in the back of the head, breaking his own hand
on the big man’s skull. Just three years ago,
he was pouring champagne on that same skull. Both guys got destroyed in the press. Isiah’s a sneaky little sucker puncher and Laimbeer’s had this coming for years. Six games later, Laimbeer retired. The Pistons and the center tried to claim it wasn’t due to the fight, but nobody bought it. It’s not how you want a
former champion to go out, but the season must go on, even though the Pistons only
had one true center left and were really bad. In December and January,
they won four games in total. Injuries piled up, Dumars
had strained his hamstring, Thomas’ hand was healed
but his foot was messed up, which wouldn’t have
affected the team too badly if they were truly in rebuilding
mode like they claimed. But Dumars and Thomas were still the core, still playing about 40 minutes a night, still fighting through
injuries to stay on the court. Oh, also, their only center
tore his MCL, that didn’t help. They lost a game by 44 points in February. As long as I’m piling on,
I figured I’d mention that. In March, they finally threw
in the towel on the season, sitting Dumars and Thomas and letting the new kids
get some playing time. Losing and sitting wasn’t
super fun for Thomas, who talked about retiring. Then he tore his Achilles in April and the decision was made. Joe Dumars was the only
bad boy left standing. Though I wouldn’t blame him
if you wanted to sit down. The Pistons finished the
’94 season, 20 and 62. Bright side, that did allow them to draft Grant Hill third overall and usher in new brighter years. Figuratively, they won more and literally look at those jerseys. Hill led the team back
to the happy side of 500, while Dumars contributed much more than his age
should have allowed, but Detroit still couldn’t
get over the hump, there were no deep playoff runs and sometimes no playoffs at all. After another first round exit in ’99, Dumars called it quits
on his playing career, marking the official end of a
team long ago declared dead. Because when they were declared dead, the corpse was still flopping around while the front office tried to revive it, cutting off certain limbs and injecting new life here and there. But being injected into a
corpse was bad for the new life, there’s disease and bacteria in there. And apparently flopping around was bad for the corpse itself,
bodily harm was inevitable. But in the summer of
2000, Joe Dumars was like, “I am pretty young, not a corpse.” He rejoined the Pistons as president of basketball operations, and he immediately traded away Grant Hill for Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins. It wasn’t regarded as a
good trade for Detroit, but perhaps by being a part of one of the greatest
defensive teams in history, propelled by underdogs, made Dumars capable of
recognizing an underdog who could command a team
with defensive prowess and bring glory to Detroit again. (ambient music) Collapse is back, and that’s basically
because of your support. So thank you so much. Hope you enjoy the future collapses, future episodes of collapses, not future collapses of your teams. I’m not trying to secret
that into the world. Oh my God, what have I done?
I gotta get outta here. For “Secret Base,” I’m Clara Morris. Goodnight and good game.

Thanks to https://www.patreon.com/secretbase, Collapse is back! We found time to make a limited run of episodes, so keep your eyes out the rest of the summer for more.

We’re kicking things off with the ignoble, steep, and rapid plummet of the Bad Boy Pistons. A team that, in both 1989 and 1990, celebrated championships! With Isiah Thomas, Bill Laimbeer, and Joe Dumars at the helm, could they go for a three-peat?

I’m mean, yeah, sure they could go for it… but they wouldn’t get it. What they would get instead was embarrassing and even legacy-threatening.

In an attempt to quickly capitalize on aging stars the Pistons refused to die and rebuild. Instead they tried to patch things up with quick fixes which could also be described as rash decisions that jilted cornerstones like Vinne Johnson.

It led to a bitter locker room full of bad boys– which led to practices where teammates attacked each other. Or the GM, one guy did strangle the GM, so it wasn’t limited to teammates, I should clarify that.

Written and produced by: Clara Morris
Directed and edited by: Charlotte Atkinson
Motion graphics by: Tyson Whiting

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