The Bad Boy Pistons were a group of players who shifted the culture of the NBA, bringing about a mantra of doing whatever it takes to win. Isiah Thomas led this revolution in the motor city, guiding the Pistons to never-seen-before success, but it was supposedly the foundations laid by Magic Johnson that the Hall of Famer followed.
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Thomas and Johnson were your typical frenemies on NBA hardwood. In fact, it was the 1989 NBA Finals, where Detroit beat the Los Angeles Lakers 4-0, that, according to many, truly signaled the end of the ‘Showtime Lakers’. Thomas, however, reportedly shared a good relationship with Johnson, and followed the Purple and Gold’s success in previous seasons closely.
Michael Cooper, a member of the Showtime Lakers, revealed in an interview with VladTV that Isiah Thomas would watch their championship games from the stands. He admired them while also studying what it took to reach the level that Johnson’s Lakers had achieved.
“Isiah Thomas, ’87, ’86, ’85, Isiah Thomas and Magic were close friends,” Cooper stated. “Isiah was following us around. He was at all our championship games.”
“You see him in the locker room and he would just stand there and I have talked to Isiah since then, he [said], ‘Coop, you know what, I was looking at what it took to be a winner.'”
Cooper further opined that the Pistons team that won the NBA championship in 1989 and 1990 were “identical” to the Showtime squad. “They had James Edwards, they had Rick Mahorn, they had Bill Laimbeer. They had three guards the way we had. Byron [Scott], myself, and Magic…”
The 69-year-old then shed light on the defensive stalwarts on the Pistons squad including the infamous Dennis Rodman, a man known just as much for his off-court antics as he was for his talent. Overall, it was a squad made of winners, and that’s what made them the best team in the league over the next few years.
That said, before they became the ‘Bad Boy’ stars the community knows them as today, the Pistons didn’t know how to win. And that’s what Thomas was monitoring closely. In 1988, when the Lakers beat them, they look it as a learning lesson.
“When we beat them, I guarantee they do the same thing to us, so now we see them in ’89, we talking three-peat, they talking about just winning the championship. And that dreaded number comes again, 4,4,4. It comes with being swept,” Cooper added.
