<div class="quote_poster">Quoting starman85:</div><div class="quote_post">I'd say it was prettier than today. The scores were often higher, even for the Pistons.</div> Mos def,but like someone else said earlier in the thread that was the origin of that style of basketball and partly responsible for the decline in scoring...that and a lack of fundamentals and a focus on the solo game.
Some pics: 1989-90 Detroit Pistons team photo Front row: Bill Laimbeer, John Long, Chuck Daly, Tom Wilson, Bill Davidson, Jack McCloskey, Oscar Feldman, John Salley, James Edwards, Rick Mahorn Back row: Mike Abdenour, Stan Novak, Will Robinson, Brendan Suhr, Michael Williams, Vinnie Johnson, Fennis Dembo, Dennis Rodman, Mark Aguirre, Joe Dumars, Isiah Thomas, Brendan Malone, George Blaha 1990-91 Detroit Pistons team photo Front row: Mike Abdenour, Will Robinson, Brendan Suhr, Chuck Daly, William Davidson, Jack McCloskey, Tom Wilson, Oscar Feldman, Brendan Malone, Stan Novak, George Blaha Back row: Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Mark Aguirre, David Greenwood, Bill Laimbeer, William Bedford, James Edwards, John Salley, Scott Hastings, Dennis Rodman, Ralph Lewis, Vinnie Johnson, Gerald Henderson
Black Widow- You are right in saying that the Pistons success in the late 80's brought about a lower scoring style of play. However saying that the Bad Boys era Detroit teams are responsible for a lack fundamentals and team play is complete nonsense. Those Pistons teams won and often dominated basketball games because thier chemistry and ability to play as a team (another thing they were exceptionally good at is controlling the game's tempo, which is also indicitive of good team play). Without those attributes they never would have won 1 championship, let alone back to back championships considering that not a single player averaged 20 points a game or 10 rebounds per game or were named to the All-NBA teams. They managed to score enough to win with no 20ppg scorers because of thier great TEAM play. They were considered a great defensive team even though they only had one player named to the all-defensive team (Joe dumars, but Rodman would have probably been named but averaged less than 30mpg, which hurt his chances) because they played great TEAM defense. Plus they used a 9 man rotation, something that no other team in the league was doing at the time but the Pistons could do it because they played so well as a team that they could incorporate the skills and talents of 9 different basketball players. Stating that poor fundamentals and lack of team play had anything to do with the Piston's style of basketball is like saying 1+1 = 3. It is just flat out incorrect.
To the people who accused them of being dirty: Remember, they had a reputation for being dirty, but the didn't really play any dirtier than the other teams and players in the league. THey were simply more physical. And when they did something they were illegal. In the '89 conference finals against Chicago starting power forward Rick Mahorn barely played a few games because of foul trouble. Playing physical and committing fouls and then getting into foul trouble sometimes is not cheap or dirty, its basketball. They certainly were not out to hurt opponents either, they just played hard every minute they were on the court, most teams would win a lot more basketball games if they did the same. They even practiced the same way they played, HARD. Rookie Michael Williams broke his hand in training camp when he was fouled hard by Dennis Rodman on a drive to the basket. During Mark Aguirre's first practice as a Piston (he arrive mid-seasonish in '89) he drove to the basket and got knocked the ground so hard he had a concussion. So they weren't out to get certain players or playing cheap, just Physical and hard, all 48 minutes. If you ever have a chance to see them play on ESPN classic, or run across any of thier old videos (89's Motown Madness and '90's Pure Pistons) I'd highly recommend watching because while other teams have tried, none have ever as much succes winning basketball games with the emphasis on Defense and Chemistry.
