Bill Laimbeer was old school: He scored, (four time all star), rebounded (one time rebounding champ), took charges, went for the throat, got in your head, and sure as hell didn’t make friends with the opposition. When Rick Mahorn, who along with Laimbeer was the heart and soul of Detroit’s Bad Boys outfit, left the team at the end of the 1989 season, Laimbeer never spoke to him again until retirement.

Spurned by the team he’d helped win back to back championships, Mahorn landed in Philadelphia and proceeded to add a new layer of aggression to Charles Barkley’s game. That year, Barkley racked up $35,000 in fines as a result of his fiery on court outbursts. When his Sixers visited Detroit to take on Laimbeer’s Pistons, the time was ripe for the outcasted warrior to lock horns with his former tribe.

The game passed mostly without incident with the Sixers leading comfortably entering the final minutes-but that’s when things started to unwind. Pistons’ captain Isiah Thomas took a swing at Mahorn while attempting to swipe the ball and was promptly ejected. Then Dennis Rodman hit Rick Mahorn with an hard foul on an and-1 layup attempt with seconds left. Laimbeer seized the opportunity to confront Mahorn, shoving the ball in his face under the hoop. For his part, Mahorn seemed unwilling to engage, but Laimbeer quickly found a dance partner when Barkley rushed in and threw a left at the side of his head. Laimbeer balled up his fists and stalked toward Barkley to even the score as the scene quickly deteriorated into a full on brawl.

ESPN’s Coverage of the Pistons Sixers Brawl

In an unsettling precursor of a far more dangerous Malice at the Palace 14 years later, Barkley, torn jersey slung over his shoulder, was allowed to exit the court unattended and unprotected on his way to the visitor’s locker room. He was quickly swarmed by a mob of angry Pistons fans and was extremely fortunate to make it into the tunnel without further incident.

It wasn’t just Barkley though, Laimbeer was happy to mix it up with the NBA’s brightest stars throughout his career: Larry Bird, Robert Parish (now that’s a clip worth watching when Parish intentionally smashes Laimbeer over the head in a playoff game and isn’t even called for a foul let alone ejected) and Michael Jordan. Laimbeer and his Bad Boy Pistons roughed Jordan and his Bulls up and out of the playoffs year after year until they finally got the better of him in 1991. Jordan paid a hell of price to get over that blue and red hump, telling Sports Illustrated in 1990 that Laimbeer had threatened to “break my neck” in a playoff game the previous year.

For his part, Laimbeer had this to say to SI in the same story: “‘But that was after Pippen had clotheslined me and hadn’t even gotten kicked out,’ says Laimbeer. ‘As I was going to the foul line, Jordan walked by. I told him if the league allows Pippen to do that, I could dump Jordan on his head. These skirmishes seem to get out of hand.’”

But while his dirty work garnered the most attention, dancing with the stars wasn’t the only part of his game. The man could score, even though his shot attracted a fair amount of fan ridicule.

I can remember attending a streetball tournament as a child and noticing a sign being held up in the crowd. Its large black letters clearly read: “You Shoot Like Laimbeer!” A pejorative comment directed at whatever player was worthy of penning this degrading assessment, it failed to take into account Laimbeer’s resounding success as a shooter. Sure, his form may have lacked the classical grace and beauty, but his function was no less than stellar for a big man in the 80’s.

His career 3 point % rests at .326 on 619 attempts. Not too shabby for a 6’11" center considering Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon, the gold standard for big men of that era, only attempted a combined 249 shots from long range with considerably less success. As many recall, those were the days when big men banged in the trenches. So Laimbeer’s ability to stretch the floor (which admittedly he did more later in his career) was a useful yet unusual precursor for the future of big men in the NBA.

After the Bulls defeat, Laimbeer’s Pistons never returned to the pinnacle of basketball before he retired in 1994, but his mark on the league was more of a scar, a battle wound harkening back to a bygone era of physical baksetball where Laimbeer reigned supreme.

r/dirtysportshistory