Los Angeles Lakers legend James Worthy believes that the Detroit "Bad Boy" Pistons will forever be considered the Showtime Lakers' rivals just because they prevented them from going back-to-back in the 1989 NBA Finals.
Although the rivalry between both teams doesn't come close to matching what the Lakers and Celtics had, Worthy hates the Motor City team as much as he did the C's. This is because the "Bad Boy" Pistons , led by Isiah Thomas, had this ability to get their opponents to loathe them simply because of the style and mentality they played with.
" While we didn't have the same built-up rivalry with them that we did with the Celtics, anyone the Pistons played became a rival because they were so tough and physical. They should have made it to us in '87 but they lost a game and series they should have won to Boston, so by '88, they were desperate and overdue. You could see that they had been clawing and how badly they wanted to win ," Worthy told SLAM's Alan Paul.
Worthy doesn't think the "Bad Boys" were a dynasty
The three-time champion believes that the biggest reason why the Lakers lost to the Pistons in the 1989 Finals was because they weren't healthy. Key players like Magic Johnson, Byron Scott, and Worthy himself were playing hurt on top of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar no longer being the same player he was during the team's early years.
That's not to say that Thomas and the Pistons didn't deserve to win. They swept the Lakers and continued their dominance the following year when they won back-to-back titles. Although as iconic as these two years were for the "Bad Boy" Pistons, "Big Game James" doesn't consider their run a dynasty.
" I just know them for winning two championships, that's it. So, Golden State dynasty, Lakers, Boston, San Antonio, Chicago. But the Piston, no. They only won two ," Worthy said in his appearance on the "All the Smoke" podcast taped in 2023.
Related: Stephen A. Smith claps back at Kevin Garnett saying today's players couldn't play in the 90s: "LeBron would've been hurting people"
Worthy told which Piston shut him down
Even if the Lakers weren't 100% healthy during the 1989 NBA Finals, Worthy still credits their Pistons' physical defense and how desperate they were to finally win a championship after several tries. The seven-time All-Star singles out his defender Dennis Rodman , whom he considers not only the X factor of that series but also the toughest defender he'd ever play against in his career.
" He was a bad man. He was a machine in Detroit. He could guard anybody on the floor. He knew how to do psychological games and get in your head like before the game you give him a dab and he'll squeeze your ass. It wasn't like, let's go, so now you thinking. You running up and down the court thinking of this mother f*cker why he be getting the offensive rebound. He knew how to get physical and fly, and his foot speed matched mine, so I had to be ready and even if I was ready, Dennis was a beast ," Worthy added .
James may not have liked the fact that the Pistons ended the Showtime Lakers era, but he understood it was their time to shine. Like what they did with most of their opponents, Thomas and co. left an impression on one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history.
Related: "I failed miserably" - James Worthy on nearly allowing Larry Bird to steal Game 4 of the 1987 NBA Finals
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