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The Detroit Pistons managed to dispatch Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls with relative ease in their first two postseason meetings. Detroit won the 1988 Eastern Conference Finals 4-1, and then followed with a 4-2 victory in the 1989 rematch. At the time, the Pistons were at the top of the entire NBA, but they knew that an opponent was approaching.
The Bulls swept the Pistons 4-0 in the 1991 Eastern Conference finals, but as Joe Dumars puts it, the Pistons suspected that would happen a year earlier. In 1990, the Bulls pushed the Pistons to seven games, and they could well have won the series if it wasn’t for Scottie Pippen’s migraine. At the time, as Dumars told Bomani Jones on ESPN’s “The Right Time” podcast, Detroit knew Chicago was ready to take the next step.
“When we got to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 1990, we won, but we knew they would return. We knew they would return next year,” Dumars said. “By the time 1991 came around, most of the boys had grown up and (the Bulls) had gotten stronger, tougher and mentally, they didn’t bend when things didn’t go as expected. They are growing up. They are no longer children. ‘” .
Obviously there was a “grow” mental element, but there was also a very real physical element. As Jordan detailed in “The Last Dance,” he added a significant amount of weight in the offseason leading to his fourth series against the Pistons. That allowed him not only to resist the physical punishment inflicted on him by the Detroit Bad Boys, but also gave him some.
It led to the first of six Chicago championships, and it is the natural process of evolution in the NBA. Every time a team wins a championship, a new group of contenders rises to depose them. Chicago had to wait its turn, but once the Bulls were ready, they brought down the Pistons once and for all.
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