Laimbeer was the perfect villain starting on a nefarious team. His nasty deeds are legendary. Portland fans dislike him to this day. Bird was god's gift to NBA revenue and every white middle aged fan of the day.
I'm an exception to that rule....I loved that Pistons team even as a Blazer fan. I really want Bill Laimbeer as a defensive coordinator in Portland
I always remembered him as an enforcer, but that is all I can envision with his use of street tactics. That Pistons series against us was brutal. Would his game of the 80's be accepted in todays' NBA?
I believe he has adapted. he currently coaches in the WNBA and won 3 championships there, along with two coach of the year awards.
I don't miss it. Those guys are terrible fighters compared to UFC fighters. I'd rather they stuck to what they were actually good at.
no....nor would Karl Malone's, Gary Paytons or Dr J's....the no handchecking rule changed the game completely. The NBA used to have more Rugby type play and now it's more like Cricket...nobody can touch you
I do....and guys who can get ejected never fully commit to fighting unless they don't care about losing money or fans. I guarantee you Karl Malone would kick some UFC fighters butt....so would Derrick Coleman ....there have been some bad dudes who chose basketball....Lebron James looks like Joe Frazier and is probably as strong as Joe was. I agree they should excel at basketball first and foremost....Laimbeer has gone on to win a couple of WNBA championships as a coach..he knows the game....when Bird was playing all these guys tried to get in his head all the time...Bird had a reputation as a cold dude who was not going to be anybody's friend.
They're all top athletes, so I'm sure they could be great fighters. Few of them have any training though, and none have competitive training like UFC fighters. They're just grapplers, trying to throw their body at the other person. When they throw a punch, it's usually wild and misses badly. I stand by my assertion that they're terrible fighters, relative to real fighters. Relative to some dude on the street, I'm sure they could do real damage.
Wes Mathews boxes all offseason...A lot of athletes do that....it's a great workout. Brandon Roy studied Marshall Arts since he was a kid....a lot of athletes have training in other areas....I wouldn't stereotype basketball players as unskilled in combat...although I'm sure there are some...Shawn Bradley couldn't beat up John Stockton for example...Shaq once said the only guy who ever shook him up was Derrick Coleman....calls him the strongest man on the planet.
It occurs to me that the taller a person is the less likely they are to be challenged physically. Doesn't surprise me that NBA players, by and large, can't throw a proper punch.
Not all of them, but certainly none of them on the level of trained fighters. If UFC fighters played basketball as part of their training regimen, would you consider them capable of taking on NBA players in hoops?
I don't see it returning to that any time soon. The players want to make this as much a non-contact sport as possible. And the owners obviously as well. So they have changed the rules, accordingly. They take an extra foul or get involved a scrape and they could miss significant time. I hear people say "Oh LeBron is such a pussy. He couldn't take Laimbeer." Well I think LeBron knows he's got a certain amount of time to play and wants to maximixe it. Baseball may be my number one sport but even I understand the beauty of the current NBA game. Fast break, deep three, wide defensive spacing BB can be just as interesting as gritty low post action. The only part that sucks that GS is so damn good. If there were more than 2-4 teams set every year to make it, I would eat up this brand of NBA basketball.
