PISTONS' BAD GUY IMAGE CLOAKS A TALENTED TEAM
By Anthony Cotton
April 15, 1989
Although their reputation for rough stuff may qualify them as the NBA's version of the Los Angeles Raiders, Dennis Rodman and his Detroit Pistons teammates and coaches don't consider themselves bad boys.
Neither, perhaps surprisingly, does Washington Bullets Coach Wes Unseld. "They're just selling tickets and videos with that stuff; they really aren't that tough," said Unseld, whose team plays in Detroit Sunday. "Rick Mahorn, Bill Laimbeer, Dennis Rodman -- you could tell any of them to go ahead and take a shot and slap you and I'm not sure that they would. But I bet you wouldn't do that with Charles Barkley or Karl Malone or Buck Williams. Now those guys might really be bad."
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Mark Price, knocked unconscious by a Mahorn elbow earlier this season, and teammate Brad Daugherty, briefly suspended from play after fighting with Mahorn, might disagree with Unseld. But a 107-95 victory over their Central Division rival and a league-best 58-18 record has clearly established Detroit as the team to beat in the upcoming playoffs.
This comes one year after the Pistons extended the Los Angeles Lakers to seven games in the championship series. When the Pistons knocked off the Boston Celtics en route to the conference title, they also seemed to take from the Celtics the title of most disliked team, something Laimbeer doesn't look upon as mere coincidence.
Fight for Sale
"It seems to me that Piston-bashing only started after we got very good," he said. "Maybe it's just a fad, the in thing to do, but it's never gotten to the extent that it has now. Wherever we go, there are pictures and features characterizing us as thugs. You know, 'The Pistons are the only team in the league whose media guide pictures are taken from the front and the side.' "You don't read about the fact that we have the best record in the league or that we're one of the best road teams -- that's not what sells."
There was a time earlier this season when it seemed Detroit would prove to be a one-year wonder, anyway. Although they began the season with an impressive 20-7 mark, a record that included a win over the Lakers, the Pistons went only 8-6 in January and gave the Cavaliers a chance to jump into the national spotlight. "We didn't have the best record then but we still might have been the best team," said Laimbeer. "What we had to find out -- what I think Cleveland has since found out -- is that whatever town you go into, that team is going to play its best game just because you're there. "There are no nights off. Teams were gearing their whole week to playing the Pistons, but for us it was just going from stop to stop taking on all comers. They'd come at us and we'd win but get a little tired then we'd have to do it again the next night. By the third or fourth time we'd be pretty worn out. It took us awhile to get adjusted."
The adjustment is certainly made easier by Detroit's depth. Starting point guard Isiah Thomas missed two games and came off the bench in a third earlier this week after suffering a fractured hand during -- what else? -- a fight with Chicago's Bill Cartwright. In Thomas' place stepped Joe Dumars, who averaged more than 17 points and 11 assists with just 1.7 turnovers during the spell.
As their record attests, there are many things to like about the Pistons, but they do have a tendency to get lost amid the hubris that surrounds them. Owner William Davidson bought a plane to fly them around and the Detroit players bragged loudly about how good they had it.
Thomas, who finds it hard to show enthusiasm for games he deems meaningless, also was accused of being a kingmaker when Adrian Dantley was traded to Dallas for Thomas' old friend Mark Aguirre more than halfway through the season.
Pistons Punch
Those are some of the things that go on off the court. When the ball's in play, you can expect Detroit, the most heavily fined team in the NBA, to become enmeshed in one sort of altercation or another. "I don't think they go into games looking to get into fights, they just play very hard," said Bullets guard Darrell Walker. "If you go into the lane, Laimbeer is going to knock you down. You're going to get hit, nothing's going to be easy. You have to be prepared for that and not get sidetracked, but sometimes you can't help it."
Detroit assistant coach Brendan Suhr says the Pistons "play the game like it was played when people like Willis Reed and Wes Unseld were in the league." Suhr blames other teams for precipitating problems, arguing that opposing coaches get their players so fired up for games against Detroit that any hard-nosed play leads to overreaction.
Unseld agrees the NBA isn't as physical as it used to be, which makes the Pistons somewhat unique, but adds that the squad overdoes it. "Just look at the incidents they've been involved in," he said. "They may not be a dirty team but they do cheap things and it's not gonna stop as long as the league fines them $3,000 for starting it and you still get fined $2,500. How do you stop it? You tell the next one who hits someone that he has to stop and fight the guy and that no one is going to jump in and break it up. See what happens then."
Many of the incidents seem to involve Rodman. The slender, third-year forward has hit 60 percent of his field goal attempts and averaged 9.4 rebounds per game. But he also continually has waved his fists after baskets and gotten into fights -- with Washington's Bernard King and Walker, among others. To Know 'Em Is . . .
When Detroit came to Capital Centre on Monday, it was touted as the rematch after those incidents. Many in the building jeered Rodman but after the game some of those same people nevertheless waited outside the visiting dressing room to get his autograph. "No one dislikes me once they get to know me and find out what kind of person I am," Rodman said. "I'm waving my fists because I'm trying to pump up my teammates and because I just love the game so much. I'm not trying to send any rude messages or show up people on the other teams."
There's plenty of that going on in the Pistons' own locker room, a cacophony of music, insults and assorted goings-on. To one side sits Aguirre, taking everything in as if he were a wide-eyed rookie, not a veteran playing in his eighth season. With the Mavericks, Aguirre was considered a selfish millstone, but the Pistons already have so many characters that he's able to slip about practically unnoticed. Aguirre has been known to slip into a funk at the drop of a discouraging word regarding his shot selection -- and the Pistons don't exactly tread lightly when it comes to ribbing. But Aguirre said that is no problem and Laimbeer agrees. "We have a lot of quality guys -- a lot of demanding guys -- on this team who will tell you that it's going to be this way, period. Mark accepts that," said Laimbeer. "Like, when he first got here, he was a horrible defensive player, I mean he was bad. He really didn't understand defensive principles. Now he's much better at it and he's become a big part of why we're winning the way we are."
----------------
PAYING THE PENALTIES
FINES NBA HAS LEVIED AGAINST DETROIT THIS SEASON
Date------Amount----Player-----Fined for------Opponent----Result
Oct. 28* ---$5,000----Mahorn-----Fighting-------Washington--W, 98-97
Nov. 9 ---$1,000----Mahorn-----Flagrant foul--Atlanta-----W, 101-95
Nov. 11 ---$1,000----Laimbeer---Fighting-------Boston------W, 116-107
Jan. 27 ---$5,000----Laimbeer---Fighting-------Cleveland---L, 80-79
Feb. 27 ---$5,000----Mahorn-----Flagrant elbow-Clippers----W, 110-98
Mar. 3 ---$1,500----Coach Daly-Talking to-----Cleveland---W, 96-90
*Preseason game.
-------------------------------
players-after ejection
Apr. 7----
$5,000----Thomas-----Fighting----Chicago--------W, 114-112 ---------
$2,000----Aguirre----Fighting ----------
$2,000----
Mahorn, --------------------
Johnson----Leaving bench --------------------
Laimbeer, ------------each----
Salley-----to join fight
SOURCE: NBA
Commenti
Posta un commento