Today, the 1990 NBA Finals do not inspire awe or respect (except in the hometowns of the two finalists). It’s not considered a “classic” because it never lasted more than 7 or 5 games.
This should not be overlooked for three reasons.
First of all, it produced four close games, a thrilling comeback win, overtime, and a tied buzzer game.
Second, while cementing the legacy of one team and player (Detroit and Isaiah Thomas), another team and player (Portland and Clyde Drexler) will forever be marked as unappreciated bridesmaids.
Third, the series will bridge the NBA from the Magic-Bird era of domination (since not even the 1990 Conference Finals were man-made) while also keeping Michael Jordan at the peak of his dominance over the NBA. Oddly enough, as of 1990, Jordan had yet to taste the NBA Finals, but he became an unsung figure in this matchup between two underrated teams.
As for Detroit, the greatness of their victory over Jordan’s Bulls will only grow with time. As for Portland, they will forever be viewed as a disappointment for not winning, as the Bulls later did. But that was in the future.
For the two teams that made up the 1990 NBA Finals, the way they built for that moment (drafts, trades) was both similar and different.
Both teams will be led by two outstanding men (Isiah, Drexler). But while one was an unprecedented franchise player, the other was an unwanted player.
Trader Jack and the unprecedented superstar
The irony of the 1990 NBA Finals champion Detroit Pistons is that its architect, John William McCloskey, actually spent three years as coach of the expansion Portland Trailblazers.
Portland was an absolute wreck. Much of that was due to LaRue Martin’s historically terrible drafting in 1972. McCloskey was released before Portland drafted Bill Walton and fixed it, but he learned a few architectural lessons from it. The right thing to do to build a team at the time was to draft a talented big man and worry about his skill or commitment to excellence later.
Martin had neither, so when he took over as GM of the equally bad Detroit Pistons in 1979, he looked for both traits in his ideal franchise leader. It would take a few years, but he found his match in Indiana University player Isiah Thomas.
There were two problems with this. McCloskey wanted to create a champion, and Thomas was “awesome” at 6-1 (maybe more like 5-10). This shattered the conventional wisdom that someone so small could become the foundation of a franchise.
But Thomas was a rare player. He was exceptionally fast, fearless, a genius with the ball, and would literally do anything to win a basketball game (this eventually made him a true superstar, although the most unpopular of both eras).
Additionally, he had an almost maniacal rage for victory and was not afraid of looking foolish in his pursuit of it.
For example, he’s already insulted the Dallas Maverick organization by calling them “cowshit kickers.” This is by design. Thomas, who grew up in Chicago, had no intention of playing anywhere in the Deep South, so here’s his opinion:
He also didn’t want to play in Detroit. Because they were a team without an established identity or tradition. He said to McCloskey, “What would you do if I told you I didn’t want to play for the Pistons?” McCloskey responded, “Well, we’re going to draft you anyway,” and promised to surround him with the talent he needed to succeed.
McCloskey was expected to be offended. Instead, he knew he had his man. Now he had to build a nucleus around himself.
Just weeks into his career, Thomas found his new star’s perfect soulmate. It was the tall, awkward player he had scouted at the aborted 1980 Olympic trials. His name was Bill Laimbeer, and McCloskey thought of him as a joke, a second-tier player unsuited for the NBA.
Now, 16 months later, he has studied Laimbeer as a player and as a person. He brings a different perspective. On the surface, Thomas couldn’t be more different from Laimbeer.
Thomas was short and Laimbeer was tall. Thomas was moody and showed his emotions on the surface. Laimbeer was an excitable but also very closed-off individual. Thomas was a devout Catholic and a Democrat who acted like a member of the Chicago City Council (for better or worse). Laimbeer was like a wrestler who baffled the country club jet set crowd. Although Thomas was a hood, Laimbeer is said to have actually been less built as a player than his father.
But on the surface, the two had a lot in common. Both of them were the type of players you wanted on your team if you wanted to be on the team.
Both men were very smart and had high basketball IQs. Both men made the most of their abilities, as Thomas became the all-time leader in shooting men taller than 7 feet. Meanwhile, Laimbeer became one of Basketball Arc’s early students and eventually became an outstanding rebounder.
The two became roommates and soulmates, and the building blocks of Piston’s turnaround.
Shortly after that they added a third piece. He was a volume shooter from Brooklyn named Vinnie Johnson.
Detroit, which won 21 games, now has a young core that has won 18 games. And Thomas was a revolutionary, the first franchise piece to leave no doubt of his scale.
McCloskey still had a lot of work to do, but he was off to a great start. All three played a key role in the 1990 final.
Unwanted Franchise Player
It’s almost a shame that Clyde Austin Drexler hasn’t been fully recognized. He is largely remembered today as the reason Jordan never became a Portland Trail Blazer and is not considered the greatest player of all time, even by that franchise.
One reason was that his inaugural coach, who held to the traditionalist view that the team should be built around a center, did not want Drexler.
It’s also because the draft of Sam Bowie’s supposed franchise savior turned into a disaster, ignoring the great thing Portland did in drafting and advancing to the 1990 NBA Finals (turning Bowie into Buck Williams, a player Jordan coveted).
Drexler’s problem was actually a conflict between coaches and management. General manager Stu Inman and scout Morris “Bucky” Buckwalter fell in love with Drexler and considered him the new Julius Erving. problem? Coach John Travilla Ramsay disagreed.
Dr. Ramsay, known as Jack, didn’t think Portland needed a guard or small forward, Drexler’s positions. He felt safe at the position with All-Star Jim Paxson. Ramsay has won championships with undersized centers like Buffalo’s Bob McAdoo and especially his prize winner, Bill Walton. He saw Drexler’s athleticism and also believed he was primarily a dunker who would be exposed in the half-court game (and he was right on this point).
Drexler had extra space, not a path forward as far as he was concerned. This contributed to a disastrous Bowie draft. In fact, Portland had defied the odds when drafting Drexler a year earlier and followed tradition in the 1984 NBA Draft.
Drexler would never forgive Ramsay and they clashed bitterly during their three years together. This obscures the fact that (Bowie notwithstanding) the Blazers have done a good job filling out other positions of need.
They were Jerome Kersey in 1984 and Terry Porter in 1985. Porter teamed with Drexler to give Portland the best backcourt in the Western Conference through 1990, and along with Kersey (a great transition player) Portland had a very interesting team.
problem? They will have to find a way to beat the best team of their time, the Los Angeles Lakers. This was easier said than done.
They Laughed: Building from Within
At his first professional press conference, Isiah said he wanted to build a team with the same traditions as the Lakers and Boston Celtics. These words drew loud laughter from the assembled media, but Thomas was determined.
Since his rookie year, he has attended every Laker final game. This is made easier by the fact that his best friend Magic Johnson is on the Lakers. Thomas wanted to know Laker’s secret. The formula you need for success. Johnson said he had to find out for himself.
Rejected, Thomas found his source in other sports. He was smart enough to realize that his Pistons would never be as beloved as the Lakers, Celtics or Jordan’s up-and-coming Bulls. He basically took a football model that saw the Lakers as the Dallas Cowboys and the Celtics as the solid Pittsburgh Steelers. Jordan’s Bulls would be basketball’s version of the San Francisco 49ers.
What about pistons? Well, suddenly Thomas became very enthusiastic about the Oakland Raiders and Al Davis. The Raiders were popular because they were infamous. But no one denied their success. Moreover, the Raiders have had success against all three other franchises.
Thomas had his answer and his blueprint. His Pistons will be successful even if they are unpopular. They became the “Detroit Raiders” and eventually the “Bad Boys.”
Davis, who lived for attention, liked the idea. Whenever the Pistons were in LA (where the Raiders were at the time), Davis generously allowed the Pistons to use the Raiders training facilities and staff (who helped them to the NBA Finals in 1988 and 1989).
The Pistons had their own identity.
Showtime without Kareem
The Trailblazers also looked to the Lakers for inspiration. In the end, “Showtime” was a modified version of the system Ramsay ran in Portland, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar was excellent in the role of Walton.
The problem for Portland is that after Walton’s foot broke down, the Trail Blazers were unable to find a true replacement for him. The first attempt was made by Mychael Thompson (father of Splash brother Klay Thompson). Thompson was a talented but dumb player, and seemed uninterested in dominating unless he was playing his old college friend Kevin McHale. He was what they call a “soft” guy in the NBA.
Bowie was a disaster and his replacement, Steve Johnson, was solid but not an anchor in the middle. As a result, Portland had a great management team, but one that would fall apart in times of crisis.
This flaw will overshadow the work of good institutional management. Portland may finally find a more desirable center in Kevin Duckworth. But Duckworth was a 300-pound center who loved shooting 18-20 jumpers in an era when big men like that were expected to run inside. He was a very good addition to the hack, but didn’t solve their main problem.
So instead of great, Portland jumped to pretty good, then fell back in 1989 (39-43), getting swept in the first round by the two-time champion Lakers.
Portland finally saw the fool in Bowie and traded him for Buck Williams on June 24, 1989. Williams was a tough player and a great rebounder and defender. The team qualified for the 1990 NBA Finals.
1990 NBA Finals: Pistons win back-to-back games.
This was the first NBA Finals since 1979 not to feature the Los Angeles Lakers or Boston Celtics, and was one of only two NBA championships in the 1990s won by a team other than the Chicago Bulls or Houston Rockets (the other was won by the San Antonio Spurs in 1999).
The Pistons became only the third franchise in NBA history to win back-to-back championships, joining the Lakers and Celtics.
The Bad Boys won five games.
Game 1: 105-99, Detroit
Game 2: 106-105 (OT), Portland
Game 3: 121-106, Detroit
Game 4: 112-109, Detroit
Game 5: 92-90, Detroit
Game 5 produced one of the most indelible moments and defining images of Vinnie Johnson’s game-winning series.
With 10 minutes left in the game, the Blazers were ahead 76-68. Then the microwave Vinnie Johnson heated up.
Johnson had seven points in Detroit’s 9-0 run to close the game and the series. His final shot was 15 feet from the right sideline, where Jerome Kersey covered his entire body with 0:00.7 on the clock.
