(Photo: Clarence Tabb Jr, Detroit News)
In the pantheon of NBA history, the Pistons often get lost in the shuffle. There are the championship years of the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s. Then there’s the rise of the Chicago Bulls in the early 1990s and beyond.
The names are familiar and iconic: Magic Johnson. Larry Bird. Michael Jordan.
Shaquille O’Neal. Tim Duncan. All are pillars of the NBA’s growth and popularity during its golden age.
The forgotten entity tends to be the “Bad Boys” era of the Pistons, with their back-to-back championships in 1989 and ’90, the teams that featured Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer and Dennis Rodman.