- NBA legend Reggie Miller claims Joe Dumars was a gentleman during his time with the Detroit Pistons
- Miller says the rest of the Bad Boys Pistons were like a pack of wild dogs
- The Bad Boys Pistons won back-to-back NBA Championships in 1989 and 1990
Isiah Thomas, Dennis Rodman, Bill Laimbeer, and Joe Dumars were the prominent names for the Detroit Pistons during the ‘Bad Boys’ era.
The Pistons played a rough and tough brand of basketball. It ultimately helped them in winning two NBA titles in 1989 and 1990. While most of the players took pride in playing brutally, NBA legend Reggie Miller says Joe Dumars was a gentleman.
“When you thought of the Bad Boys, you didn’t think of Joe Dumars,” Miller said in an episode of Open Court. “You thought of Zeke. Joe Dumars and Isiah they had like a secret language it’s called hood rats. You got Joe and like the gentle one and the rest of them were a bunch of pack of wild dogs.
“But you knew you were going into Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, and you knew you had to take your punishment, but you couldn’t be a punk. So, you couldn’t settle for a jumper. So Joe’s like, ‘I really wouldn’t do it if I was you.'”
(Starts at 7:05)
Although Miller says Dumars was the gentle one on the Bad Boys Pistons, he still knew how to get into his opponents’ heads. Instead of the patented brutal playing style of the Pistons, Dumars used words to mess with his opponents’ concentration.
As a result, Miller claimed Dumars was the only player he never liked facing during his NBA career.
The Bad Boys Pistons Era Was Ended By Michael Jordan And The Chicago Bulls
The Detroit Pistons created the Jordan Rules to dominate Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the playoffs.
Playing in this way paid dividends to them as they dominated the Eastern Conference for two seasons. However, once Michael Jordan bulked up, it didn’t take long for him to overcome the Pistons.
In the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals, the Chicago Bulls swept the Detroit Pistons and raised the curtains on the new era of the NBA. Jordan would go on to win the first NBA Championship of his career in 1991 and won five more rings until 1998.
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