Charles Barkey remembers how physical the NBA used to be during his era — and he wasn’t afraid to throw down when the situation called for it. One iconic team that was known for their roughhousing was the Detroit Pistons of the early 1990s, better known as the “Bad Boys.” However, Barkley was never too worried about the Pistons when he played them thanks to some advice he received from legendary Celtic, Kevin McHale.
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Barkley spoke on this topic during his recent appearance on the ‘Dan Patrick Show’. Patrick brought up to Barkley about how players would attempt to get physical with him in games — prompting Barkley to call players who started fights “punks.” This led him to speaking about the “Bad Boys,” and what McHale told him about the team that always stuck with him.
“He (McHale) said I never worried about the Pistons. He says, ‘they out there beating up people, at some point you got to play basketball.’ And only two of the guys can play: Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars and we were going to win eventually,” Barkley stated.
McHale’s advice was not inaccurate. The “Bad Boy” Pistons did finesse their way to two championships but in terms of skilled players Thomas and Dumars were standouts. Both were multi-time All-Stars with each man earning Finals MVP in the team’s two championships.
Meanwhile, players like Bill Laimbeer, Dennis Rodman, and John Salley focused entirely on psychology, intimidation, and physicality. The trio earned their stats, but they also left players with more bruises than what they entered the game with.
Laimbeer previously stated that he was more focused on trying to get players to retaliate against him for his dirty play rather than attempting to score. Neither of the three were considered savants of the game except Rodman for his rebounding and defending.
Barkley previously spoke about how rough it was to play the ‘Bad Boy’ Pistons
Charles Barkley was never afraid to address how physical of a team the ‘Bad Boy’ Pistons were. Chuck even joked with Shannon Sharpe during an appearance on “Club Shay Shay” that he and his teammates would have to warn their families ahead of those physical games.
“We’d always say, ‘Call your family, tell them you love them and say goodbye. Because there was a chance you weren’t going to make it out,” Barkley remarked.
In the same interview, Barkley compared the Pistons play in the 90s to today’s NBA. He and Sharpe both agreed that the fouls that were committed back then would not fly in the current league.
“Some of those fouls would get you suspended for ten games today, and they were just one foul today” he stated.
The dominance of that Pistons team will be remembered by basketball fans. They were the only championship core that defeated Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan en route to their rings which is a feat that many don’t talk about all too much.
However, McHale and Barkley’s earlier point still rings true. The team that finally dethroned the Pistons from their reign of terror was the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls in 1991. Air Jordan and the Bulls beat the “Bad Boys” 4-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals thanks to a bit of injury luck on their side along with the simple fact that they had surpassed Detroit in every which way on the hardwood.
