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Michael Jordan appeared to still have a beef with the “Bad Boys”-era Detroit Pistons as he recalled the Eastern Conference playoff wars with the team during the late 1980s and 1990s.
The moments when the Chicago Bulls finally got past the Pistons to win the NBA Finals in 1991 were documented in Sunday’s edition of “The Last Dance.” But even after the dust has settled between the two teams, Jordan expressed his animosity toward those Pistons players.
“Oh, I hated them,” Jordan said. “And that hate carries even to this day.”
The Pistons created what was known as the “Jordan Rules,” in which they would force him into the paint and foul him before he had a chance to get up in the air. Jordan said the Pistons players of that era made things “personal.”
One of the biggest moments in the rivalry was when the Bulls swept the Pistons in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals. As Chicago was about to win, several Pistons players who were on the bench walked off the floor with 7.9 seconds and without shaking hands with their opponents.
Isiah Thomas defended the move, saying it was the same thing the Boston Celtics did to them during the 1988 conference finals. He said he didn’t understand the outcry.
“To us, that was OK,” Thomas said. “Knowing what we know now and the aftermath that took place, I think all of us would have stopped and said congratulations like they do now.”
Thomas said it was different than today’s game.
“I mean, we would have did it. Of course, we would have done it,” he said of shaking hands after the game. “But during that period of time, that's just not how [the mantle] was passed. When you lost, you left the floor. That's it.”
Jordan wasn’t thrilled with Thomas’ explanation. When he was shown what Thomas said, Jordan scoffed.
“Whatever he says now, you know it wasn't his true actions then. He's had time enough to think about it -- or the reaction of the public that's kind of changed his perspective of it. You can show me anything you want. There's no way you're going to convince me he wasn't an a**hole,” he said.
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“All you have to do, go back to us losing in Game 7 [in 1990]. I shook everybody's hands. Two years in a row, we shook their hands when they beat us. There's a certain respect to the game that we pay to them. That's sportsmanship, no matter how much it hurts. And believe me, it f---ing hurt.”
Jordan and the Bulls’ victory over the Pistons catapulted the team to the NBA Finals, which turned into a win over the Lakers. It was the first of the team’s three consecutive championships.