Isiah Thomas and the Detroit Pistons won back-to-back NBA championships in 1989 and 1990, beating teams like the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, and Los Angeles Lakers on their way. The team had a lot of excellent NBA stars and played a rough style that led to a lot of their rivals hating them. But they got results, and Isiah Thomas, the team’s leader, thinks very highly of their influence on the NBA.
“If they say the 80s is the greatest basketball era, only two teams went back-to-back. It was the Pistons and the Lakers,” Thomas said on the All The Smoke podcast. “As great as the Celtics were, they didn’t go back-to-back. Chicago was the first team to get three. Dynasty talk starts with the Lakers and Celtics because of their historical relevance.
“Magic and Bird walked into ready-made dynasties already. 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 whose won this way.
“Steph [Curry] has won in Golden State, established a dynasty, but his playing style is different than mine. I scored and assisted, he scores. So two different ways of impacting, so GS what they did, dynasty. But what the most impactful and the most influential team… That’s played is the Detroit Pistons.”
(starts at 1:46:36 minutes)
These are bold words from Isiah Thomas, and in all honesty, not ones that many people will agree with. The Detroit Pistons won, and they won twice, which is a fact that cannot be denied. But to say they were the most influential team in history might be a bit of a stretch when all the other legendary teams around them won more championships than they did and are remembered better.
How Good Were The Bad Boy Pistons?
In the two seasons that they won the championship, they beat the Celtics, Bulls, Lakers, and Trail Blazers, some of the league’s best. In the 1988-89 season, the Pistons won 63 games and had the league’s best record. What made them unique was that none of their players made All-NBA teams, but they came together to get the wins and eventually stand atop the NBA world.
Most would say that the Chicago Bulls, with their Triangle, the ‘7 seconds or less’ Phoenix Suns, or the Stephen Curry Golden State Warriors changed the game more than the Pistons. But it doesn’t serve to minimize how influential and great Isiah Thomas and his Bad Boy Pistons were, either.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
