A lot has changed in the NBA over the past 35 years.
Discussions of the “good ol’ days” of hard-nosed basketball in the 1980s and 1990s has been a hot topic during this feisty NBA Finals between the Warriors and Celtics.
ESPN’s Michael Wilbon joined 95.7 The Game’s “Damon & Ratto” Tuesday for a 20-minute chat to discuss the NBA Finals, officiating and the Draymond Green-Jaylen Brown dust-up that didn’t result in a second technical for Draymond. Wilbon said he “didn’t think the officiating was bad in any way in Games 1 and 2.”
He also shared a classic story with hosts Damon Bruce and Ray Ratto from the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals.
“I remember in a Game 7 [note: it was actually Game 5] in Boston Garden between the Celtics and Pistons, where somebody needed to retaliate against Bill Laimbeer for being just a jerk in multiple games,” Wilbon said. “Robert Parish delivered a 1-2 punch to Bill Laimbeer’s face and knocked him down in the lane. You can YouTube it.”
Here ya go:
“There was an audible gasp," Wilbon said. "(Referee) Jeff Percy looked at Laimbeer, knowing what had happened the previous games in that series and said to him, and I quote, ‘Get up, Bill.’ That was it! ‘Get up, Bill.’ There was no flagrant foul on Robert Parish, there was no foul called on Robert Parish. No technical, no common foul, no nothing. So these things have been happening in the Conference Finals and Finals for decades.”
As Wilbon reported for The Washington Post in 1987, Laimbeer was suspended the following game. The NBA obviously wants to eliminate open fist-fighting in games, but Wilbon’s story goes to show you how fans react differently from the Bad Boy era of the 80s ‘til now.
Draymond dangling his feet over Brown’s head surely wouldn’t have resulted in a technical back in the day, but things have changed in 2022. Just don’t expect Draymond to quit pushing the envelope.
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