One of Michael Jordan’s biggest roadblocks in the NBA came in the form of Isiah Thomas and the ‘bad boy’ Detroit Pistons. During the time when Jordan was becoming the best player in the world, the Pistons were one of the best teams in the NBA, thanks to their physical style of play.
In an effort to stop Jordan and contain the damage he could do to them, they implemented ‘Jordan Rules’ – a strategy that involved rough play and trying to physically dominate Michael Jordan on the offensive end of the court. For most of the late 80s, it worked, as the Pistons regularly got the better of MJ’s Bulls.
Their games against each other would be very intense, as the two franchises became sworn rivals. So much so, that head coaches Stan Albeck and Chuck Daly once tried to fight each other after a hard foul from Bill Laimbeer on Michael Jordan.
But even when that strategy was effective, Jordan would still cause problems for them. In an interview from a few years ago, Isiah Thomas spoke with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson about Michael Jordan.
He revealed that he and the Pistons would think they did a good job against Jordan until they see the scoreboard to see his scoring numbers. He also said that Jordan would make them feel like high school players compared to him because he was leagues ahead of them in athleticism (25:26 onward).
“We used to go back and talk after. You be playing, and you actually think ‘we’ve done a good job’. And then you look at up at the scoreboard and the dude got like 39 or 40. Like damn, I thought we was doing alright. And then you get on the bus and you’re talking. And I remember saying this to you, I was like ‘I feel like sometimes he treatin’ us like we in high school’. Because he was that much bigger and much more athletic than we were.”
Jordan and the Bulls were eventually able to overcome Thomas and the Pistons. And from that point, they never looked back. The Bulls went on to win 6 NBA championships in the 1990s and only lost one playoff series in the 90s. For the Bulls to be able to dominate the NBA the way they did, they had to go through the Pistons.
Thomas and Jordan have had a contentious relationship, with both players not liking each other. But even Thomas has acknowledged Jordan’s greatness in the past, noting that Jordan represented the humility of his era. But despite their animosity, it cannot be denied that the two were great rivals.
