BAD BOYS
By Skip Myslenski and Chicago Tribune • May 21, 1989
Chicago Tribune - Copyright ©
AUBURN HILLS, MICH. — No one, not even a teammate, is immune from the treatment, and Mark Aguirre learned that the hard way after his trade to the Detroit Pistons. They are, of course, the National Basketball Association`s self-proclaimed Bad Boys, a band of brigands who promote themselves with a T-shirt emblazoned with a skull and crossbones, and here they set out, in their singular style, to learn about this newcomer from the Dallas Mavericks.
They were in San Francisco, practicing on an off-day, and suddenly their coach, Chuck Daly, called them together. ''I normally don`t scrimmage during the season,'' he says now, ''but I wanted to learn about Mark.''
''I got him,'' Dennis Rodman announced on that afternoon in February, and over the next minutes he guarded Aguirre with his characteristic ferocity.
''He beat the crap out of him,'' Daly recalls.
''My turn,'' Rick Mahorn announced after Rodman finished his chores.
''He beat the crap out of him, too,'' says Daly. ''But you know what?
Mark just went about his business, and the guys said, `Okay, he`s one of us now.` ''
''The guys who`ve been here a while make sure any newcomers to the team know what`s expected,'' says guard Joe Dumars. ''You have to respect what a player`s done elsewhere, but this is how we do it on the Pistons.''
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The way they do it has landed the Pistons in the pantheon of villains, has earned them a spot in the public consciousness right there alongside Darth Vader, Bluebeard, that Hun called Atilla and all those other plunderers of what civilization holds dear. That is their image. They`re the Motor City Madmen, and it has thrust them onto the pages of Rolling Stone and transformed them from a local curiosity into an NBA phenomenon.
Until this season, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics were the league`s only national teams. This season, the Pistons joined them. This season, too, they have sold more than $3 million in team paraphernalia (a league record) and have begun checking into hotels under assumed names (to skirt both supporters and detractors who might be looking for a
confrontation). Al Davis has anointed them honorary Raiders, their counterparts in the National Football League, and they have even had their image promulgated by an official NBA video. ''Bad Boys'' is its title. George Thorogood`s ''Bad to the Bone'' is its theme song.
''When you got a Detroit Pistons` uniform on . . . you just got to have that certain little edge in your system,'' Mahorn says on it.
''If we`re going to be bad boys, we have to act like bad boys,'' says Isiah Thomas with a smile.
''We`re like a hockey team. Everybody wants to see us fight,'' says Rodman.
Fights and feuds, scuffles and skirmishes have come to characterize them and their games, and their image and these extracurricular activities have combined to blind many to reality. They have combined to make people forget that the Detroit Pistons are also a great basketball team.
They sailed through March and April with a 27-3 record, and into the Eastern Conference finals against the Bulls by sweeping both Boston and Milwaukee. They have held their opponents to less than 100 points in 10 straight games, and, during the playoffs, to quarters of 10, 11, 12, 13 and 16 points.
Bill Laimbeer, their pugnacious center, is generally regarded as the league`s best low-post defender, and Dumars, their classy guard, defends Michael Jordan better than any other player in the league. Rodman, their emotional forward, led the voting for the NBA`s all-defensive team, and mixed in are Thomas` magic, Mahorn`s muscle, John Salley`s shot-blocking and a bench as deep as any ocean.
''No doubt they play up (their image) big,'' said Bulls assistant Phil Jackson. ''But, physically, they`re a very talented team, and they`re deeper than any team we face. They`re also the best defensive team in the league. That doesn`t necessarily mean they give up the least points. They may, but what it boils down to is their ability to stop someone in the last six minutes. There`ll be a lot of swings in a game, but they know if they can stay close, they can stop you. Then they have the ingredients of Isiah, Laimbeer and Dumars, who can score.''
''We have an unusual group of people here,'' says Piston General Manager Jack McCloskey. ''They all accept their roles very willingly.''
''It`s 12-part harmony,'' says Mahorn, ''and we`re at the point now where it shocks the rest of us if anyone goes outside his role.''
''Offensively, we have room for improvement,'' says Daly. ''But in reality, our defense has been consistent all year. We`ve hung our hat there. It`s nothing but hard work. No one likes to do it because it is all work. There`s no fun in it at all. Just the winning.''
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No one, not even an NBA official, is immune from the treatment, and Rod Thorn learned that in a funny way earlier this season. He is the league`s vice president in charge of discipline, and during this season has slapped Mahorn
($11,000), Laimbeer ($6,000) and Thomas ($5,000) with hefty fines.
The Pistons wailed loudly about those punishments, but last month, on a trip to New York, Mahorn and Laimbeer proved they still retained a sense of humor. They did it by dropping in to visit Thorn and presenting him with a poster they had carefully drawn up. They taped it to his office door. It read: ''This office furnished by fines from the Detroit Pistons.''
Thorn, who was out of town, laughed hysterically when he heard about this, but others in the league find little funny about the pillaging Pistons. ''Thugs'' is how one NBA coach half-facetiously refers to them, and then he adds, ''They`re out to prove the meek aren`t going to inherit the Earth.''
Cleveland General Manager Wayne Embry was particularly incensed when Mahorn cold-cocked guard Mark Price in late February.
''I think they play aggressive, hard-nosed, physical basketball as a team, and I don`t think there`s anything wrong with that,'' he says. ''But I don`t think it necessary that they-meaning a couple of their players-try to deliberately take people out.
''I`m not saying they shouldn`t play hard, aggressive basketball. I`ve always been an advocate of that, and they`ve proven you get results from that. I also have the utmost respect for most of their players. I think Joe Dumars is a class act. I admire and respect the way Dennis Rodman plays. I think Isiah is a big-time player. But I don`t think it necessary that Rick Mahorn give a guy a shot deliberately, especially when that guy`s not expecting it. I don`t condone the way Bill Laimbeer throws his body at a guy when that guy`s in a compromising position and could get hurt.
''I don`t think there`s a place in sports-unless you want to be like hockey or pro wrestling-for promoting that image, that bad boy image. I`m a guy talking who was a physical-type player, but I don`t think something like that should be promoted or that the league should allow it to be promoted.''
''Intimidation is how I make my money,'' counters Mahorn. ''You get yourself so geeked up. That`s what I enjoy. But I never try to hurt anyone.'' ''I don`t think we put people down any harder than anyone else,''
concludes McCloskey. ''But if they want to feel that way, fine.''
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Back in the mid-1970s, when he was performing for the Cleveland Indians, Gaylord Perry was asked if he indeed threw a spitter. The pitcher, who was often accused of that crime, refused to answer, and the logic behind his stance was indisputable. If he said yes, he declared, he would stamp himself as a criminal. But if he said no, he added, he would lose the advantage of having hitters think he did.
The Pistons` reputation now has a similar effect, and opponents often go out to face them in a state of distraction. ''People are triggered when they play us,'' says McCloskey, ''and I know coaches who say that they`re not going to take anything from anybody (on the Pistons).''
''Other organizations,'' claims Daly, ''get their players incited to respond to normal fouls when they play us. I think Michael (Jordan) was right when he said things that are just incidents in other games become outbreaks in ours.''
Who`s going to nail me now? Too many opposing players spend too much time wondering that, and as they sneak peeks over their shoulders, their play suffers and the Pistons flourish. One example, a quintessential example of this, unfolded in the final game of the recent Bucks-Pistons series when Bucks guard Jay Humphries drove the lane unmolested and then blew an open layup.
''He missed it,'' says Jackson, ''because he looked to see if Laimbeer was going to come over and whack him.
''They`re a bunch of blue-collar workers who are also intimidators. That`s a great advantage. Since they`re all intimidators, it means they don`t have to have a shot-blocker back there.''
''Just a game within the game, I guess,'' says Daly. ''But a bigger effect is that it (their public image) has bonded us together more. It was like us against them, so we played off it. I`m ambivalent about that. I`m not real happy about it. But to tell you the truth, it can be fun.''
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No one, not one of them, is immune from the treatment, and so here is the final fact that should be known about a team often portrayed one-dimensionally. Despite all their posing and posturing, beyond all their feuding and fighting, behind all their masks and images, the Detroit Pistons are a group committed enough to challenge each other as willingly as they challenge any opponent.
Their commitment is clear in their reaction to Daly, who guided them to the league`s best record while allowing them freedom enough to be Zeke
(Thomas) and Worm (Rodman), Toad (Mahorn) and Tippy Toes (Laimbeer), Bad Boys and Madmen.
''The environment is one of desire for success,'' says assistant coach Brendan Suhr, ''and I think the credit has to go mainly to Chuck. It`s a player`s league, and he understands that.''
Their commitment is clear, too, in the way they police themselves, and in their decision to cut out drinking during the playoffs. (Their self-imposed fine is $100 a pop.)
''We`ve got guys who`re tremendous leaders. Anyone who steps out of line, they step on them right away,'' says McCloskey.
''This is a special team in a lot of ways,'' says Daly. ''People want to nail us with those other things, but we`ve got good individuals and a lot of internal leadership.''
Their commitment is clear, finally and most of all, at their practices, at those practices that are as elbow-filled as any of their games.
''If anyone hits you harder in a game than I do in practice,'' Mahorn once told Salley, ''go up and shake that man`s hand and thank him for me. That means I have to work harder.''
''The best practice team I`ve ever had,'' says Daly, and then he shrugs.
''I don`t know. I don`t know if we`re as good as our record. But maybe that`s just me. The Prince of Pessimism. You know what that is, don`t you? An optimist with experience, and I`ve had a lot of it. Hell''-and here he laughs-''I`m only 25 and I look 60. That`s what coaching does to you.
''But these guys know where they want to go. Last year (when they lost to the Lakers in the NBA finals), they smelled the rarified air and they liked it. That makes my job easier this year. I tell you what, last year at this time, I was dragging. This year, I`m having the most fun I`ve had on the job.''
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