”I don’t remember a thing about what happened,” Bernard King told The New York Times after the final game of the 1984 playoff series between the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons. “I was so intense. All I know is that I thought we had the game several times but they just kept coming back. They just wouldn’t give up.”
That don’t-give-up mentality would go on to define Isiah Thomas and eventually, the Bad Boys Pistons. But before Detroit would go on to win back to back championships, Thomas and the Pistons were already showing the will of a team that would not back down.