Larry Bird Still Has a Deep Aversion to Bill Laimbeer…
It’s no secret that during the 1980s, there was animosity between the Detroit Pistons and the Boston Celtics. The Big 3 of Boston—Larry Bird, Robert Parish, and Kevin McHale—and Detroit’s Bad Boys, composed of Bill Laimbeer, Dennis Rodman, and Isiah Thomas, were perennial rivals in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Those were tough meetings, with some turning ugly.
The Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons faced off in the postseason from 1985 to 1991, with two of those meetings taking place in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Pistons received payback the next year in the Eastern Conference Finals, defeating the Celtics 4-2, but the Celtics prevailed in seven games to advance to the NBA Finals in 1987. The Pistons made their first-ever back-to-back trip to the NBA Finals.
The Pistons intimidated the Celtics with their physical play, which is sometimes referred to as “dirty play,” during the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals. Play in the third game of the series started to get ugly when Laimbeer hard-fouled Bird. After a brawl, Bird and Laimbeer were sent outside.
With five seconds left in Game 5, the Pistons were leading by a point and were taking the ball out of bounds. This was the game that changed everything. After snatching Isiah Thomas’ inbounds pass, Bird found Dennis Johnson for the game-winning layup that gave the Celtics a 3-2 series lead. The Celtics center Robert Parish was suspended for Game 6 after being ejected earlier in the game for hitting Laimbeer. In the end, the series was won by the Celtics in seven games.
Perhaps the most despised player in the NBA was Bill Laimbeer. He was known for being a dirty player. When he was playing, he believed the coaches and other players were trying to harm him, and he thought his reputation as a bad boy wasn’t justified.
In 1989, Laimbeer stated, “I genuinely feel that other coaches and general managers tell their players to stand up to my aggressive play because of the reputation I’ve had attached to me.” Many players only know how to hit, swing, and elbow; they are not proficient at doing that.
“Whereas they normally wouldn’t if it was someone else, guys are coming at me to fight.” Although I’d rather not fight, I must defend my wellbeing. I’m not sure what would constitute a Catch-22 scenario if that one.
Isiah Thomas, a former teammate of Laimbeer, went so far as to say, “I wouldn’t like Bill Laimbeer either if I didn’t know him.”
Bird went on, “It’s because he was a dirty player.” “I realize that he had to do what he had to do, but take former Piston Ricky Mahorn for example—you knew you were going to get hit when he took a swing. He made no attempt to harm you. Bill made an attempt to harm you.
He was one of those guys that would try to put his foot under your ankle so you would twist it as you tried to take a jump shot.
The lack of love seems to be reciprocal. In a radio interview, Laimbeer was once asked what he would say to Larry Bird if he was seated next to him.
Laimbeer remarked, “I’d probably go to a different table.”
