“I was a fan of the Detroit Pistons during the Bad Boy era. Did they have some dirty players, like Mahorn and Laimbeer and Rodman?”
Me too. I was a fan of the previous NBA non-written rule of “no harm, no foul” when Laimbeer and Mahorn were the poster boys of physical play. Then Pat Riley transferred that to his “in your face defense” approach of the 90’s Knicks. Loved it.
Now you look at the refs wrong, they give you a level 2 technical foul. This is like watching today’s WWE versus the “Attitude” era of Stone Cold and DX. No contest.
Players like Mahorn, Laimbeer, and Rodman were so good at getting into the opposing players' heads. Laimbeer got Larry Bird to go ballistic and get thrown out of a game once. Rodman made these gay-looking "I want you" eyes at an opposing player, and got him to react, got him thrown out of the game. They were nuts.
Laimbeer was a nice guy off the court, heavily involved in charities. But he was such a pr*ck on the court.
I remember once he said, "If you want to see a great player, look at Isaiah. If you want comic relief, look at me."