“Bill Laimbeer punched Michael Jordan in the groin and he retaliated”: Sam Smith detailed ghastly physicality from the Bulls and the Pistons during the 1988 Playoffs

Michael Jordan and the Detroit Pistons had themselves quite the series the first time they met in the Playoffs in 1988, from a physicality standpoint. 

It isn’t anything surprising that the late 80s Detroit Pistons were looking to harm Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls during their run-ins in the Playoffs from 1988-91. The Jordan Rules were created as way to stop ‘His Airness’ from getting into the paint at his own will; knocking him to the ground with a multitude of bodies as soon as he drove in. 

This mentality was adopted by Pat Riley’s New York Knicks in the 90s as well but by that time, Michael Jordan had understood a way to combat a high level of physicality. Nevertheless, conquering the Pistons was the gateway to Jordan’s championship level success in the NBA and he did just that on his 4th try after losing to them three years straight.

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The 1988 Eastern Conference SemiFinals was their first series against one another and it felt as though Chuck Daly knew from the get-go that he needed to be extremely physical with Jordan and the Bulls. 

Sam Smith is perhaps the greatest ‘Michael Jordan’ historian to have ever covered the game of basketball. In the following excerpt, you’ll see just how much Michael had to go through from just one game of a series against the Pistons. 

Michael Jordan and the Bulls fought the Pistons during their 1988 series. 

One thing that can be appreciated about the Chicago Bulls was their unwillingness to back down from the challenge of facing a team like the Detroit Pistons. Michael Jordan certainly didn’t as you will read below, him standing up for himself against bruiser, Bill Laimbeer, in Game 3 of the 1988 series.

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In Scottie Pippen’s sophomore season, he would get a taste of the full extent to which Isiah Thomas and company would go to win. Joey Crawford, as detailed above, was tasked with dragging Pippen off the floor after getting hammered in the head by none other than Bill Laimbeer. 

The Bulls would eventually conquer the Pistons during the 1991 NBA Playoffs where they swept the aging Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals. There was no looking back after that.