Isiah Thomas was brutally candid when he shared his two cents on whether the ‘Bad Boys’ Detroit Pistons were a dynasty. And while he opined they weren’t, he strongly believed they were the most influential and impactful team in the league.
“We’re not a dynasty because technically we didn’t win three,” Thomas said on ‘All The Smoke.’ “To me, it’s about your dominance and your banners. Even though there are reasons why we didn’t get that third banner, we would have been the first team in our era to win three. If they say the 80s is the greatest basketball era, only two teams went back-to-back. It was the Pistons and the Lakers. As great as the Celtics were, they didn’t go back-to-back.”
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The former NBA champion further added that the Chicago Bulls were the first team to get three in the era and also shed light on what made teams dynasties along with the players who played their part in it.
“Dynasty talk starts with the Lakers and Celtics because of their historical relevance. Magic and Bird walked into ready-made dynasties already,” he remarked.
“What I would say to who would be the most impactful team in the NBA would be the Pistons. When you look at our style of play, pick and roll basketball, the way we influenced the game, little guys like myself, we weren’t supposed to win championships, I’m still the only one who won this way.”
Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, Dennis Rodman, John Salley, and Joe Dumars were some of the players who dominated their opponents with brute physicality and skill, making them one of the deadliest sides in the league.
Thomas was one of the team’s de facto leaders. He may have called himself “the little guy,” but he was perhaps one of the fiercest competitors to have played the sport.
The guard was a prolific scorer and rebounder, averaging 19.2 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 9.3 APG, 1.9 SPG, and 0.3 BPG during his time with the side. And his achievements see him find a place in our All-Time Goat Pyramid.
Isiah Thomas Once Claimed That The ‘Bad Boys’ Pistons Had The Better Of Some Of The Best Teams In The NBA
Isiah Thomas was one of the players who dished it out as much as he received, and his ‘Bad Boys’ Pistons were wired with the same mentality. This saw them get the better of some of the finest players in the NBA, although it earned them a bad rap.
Speaking on Full-Bodied, Thomas claimed that Detroit had pipped the likes of the Lakers and Bulls, making a case for themselves as giant slayers. “All of them. All of the people that they say are the best to ever do it, my teams beat all of them. We probably were the best defensive team to ever play in the NBA,” he said.
Not many teams and players can confidently step up and say they got the better of Jordan or a flamboyant player like Magic, and the Pistons, one of the more underrated teams in league history, put their physicality to good use and did what they could to stop the Bulls’ offensive juggernaut. Thomas’ claim certainly comes off as valid.
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