PISTONS HAVE CASHED IN ON BAD BOYS IMAGE
By Deseret News
Jun 6, 1989
Kurt Kragthorpe, Sports Writer
Detroit's Bad Boys take the floor tonight against the Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, which offered us this curious role-playing Monday afternoon in the Palace. Let me get this straight: A.C. Green was a soft-spoken Good Guy? Kurt Rambis was interviewing the Bad Boys? Bill Laimbeer was talking about real acting?
"I understand we're in the entertainment business," the Pistons center was saying. "We wear the black hats. It's like pro wrestling." The only difference is the Pistons have moved out of the Silverdome, where a crowd of more than 90,000 once gathered for Wrestlemania. Nothing is escaping Laker Coach Pat Riley, one of sports' greatest pregame speakers, always looking for a motivational angle. An unauthorized glance at the game plan in Riley's hands during the interview session revealed that he will talk about the travesty the Pistons are making of pro basketball with all this Bad Boys stuff.
Riley had even stronger words about Detroit on the sheet, which he'd probably rather we save for his next book.
Anyway, for an object lesson, Riley could have gone shopping at J.L. Hudson's department store in the suburban Oakland Hills Mall. Since he hardly eats - no kidding - during the two months of playoffs, Riley could have spent his NBA meal money on the entrance display in Hudson's: A skull-and-crossbones Bad Boys T-shirt ($13); the Frank Layden special, a Laimbeer-Rick Mahorn Bad Boys caricature T-shirt ($13); a Bad Boys hat, just like Laimbeer was wearing ($13); a Bad Boys mug ($6); and a cassette tape of the official Bad Boys rap song ($3.99).
Sales of Bad Boys items topped $1 million in March and are skyrocketing, resulting in a killing for the enterprising Athletic Supporters Ltd. of nearby Farmington Hills. This thing is out of control, and who's to blame? The, uh, NBA.
That's right. The boys on 5th Avenue in New York started this craze, producing the original Bad Boys videotape ($19.95, not available in stores, operators are standing by...) after Pistons-Lakers I last June. The league sold more than 20,000 of the tapes, complete with tough talk and the Pistons' greatest hits.
"Once you get a reputation," noted Coach Chuck Daly, "it's hard to get rid of it."
Now the Pistons - and, surprisingly, the Detroit newspapers - complain about unfair treatment from NBA referees as a result of their image, which is so much a cultural issue that Rolling Stone magazine did a full-length story on the subject in April. Mahorn drew 23 technical fouls in the regular season, tying for the free-world lead with Karl Malone.
Laimbeer had 12 T's, and if he was even in the TV picture, he was being blamed for injuring people. In the latest incident, Laimbeer was accused of intentionally elbowing Chicago's Scottie Pippen Friday. "Just another cheap shot by Laimbeer," stormed Bulls Coach Doug Collins. "What else is new?"
Replays showed the elbow was inadvertent, if Laimbeer connected at all, but he's used to defending himself anyway. "I'm just a clumsy basketball player," he said Monday, sounding like the Saturday Night Live storyteller. "That's just the way it is. I'm a little awkward."
Yeah . . . that's it.
The Lakers, past and present, are amused by this Bad Boys phenomenon. "They play pretty much like any other team," insisted Green, L.A.'s own strongman.
"Teams get stuck with labels, like `Showtime' for the Lakers," noted Rambis, working the Finals for a Los Angeles TV station.
So the Pistons' image is undeserved? "I'm not saying it's an unfair label," replied Rambis.
Others around the NBA agree. In the Rolling Stone story, Atlanta's Doc Rivers said, "There's nobody like them that uses intimidation as a team philosophy." Washington's Darrell Walker promised,"(Dennis) Rodman's day is coming. Somebody's going to get him and get him good. I respect him as a player, but people in our league hate him."
Not, of course, including the NBA Entertainment people.
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