Fourteen seconds. That’s how close the Detroit Pistons were to a championship in Game 6 of the 1988 NBA finals. Leading by one point over the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, Detroit had possession. Then momentum shifted: A referee made a much-discussed foul call on the Pistons’ controversial center, Bill Laimbeer. The decision put Lakers star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at the line; he made both free throws. LA went on to win, then prevailed in a similarly dramatic Game 7 for the title.
This is a pivotal moment from a new book by Rich Cohen called When the Game Was War: The NBA’s Greatest Season. The book argues that the excitement, excellence and revolutionary star play of the 1987-88 season set an unparalleled standard.
“One of the reasons I love that season,” Cohen says, “is that I think it had the most Hall of Famers who were not just Hall of Famers but at the top of Hall of Famers, the top 20 of all time, the greatest players of the era.”
The book focuses on the four top teams of that memorable season, and their respective leaders. The Showtime Lakers of Magic Johnson captured their second consecutive championship. Thomas’s Pistons fell just short, but went on to win the next two titles. The up-and-coming Chicago Bulls of Michael Jordan still had to wait for their incredible run of six championships in eight years during the following decade, while the Boston Celtics of Larry Bird saw their dynasty crumble, largely due to age and injury.
Appropriately, that season’s finals featured plenty of drama, including between Johnson and Thomas. Despite playing on rival teams, they were longtime friends, and before each game of the championship series, they kissed each other at center court. Then, according to the book, Lakers coach Pat Riley challenged Johnson to choose between his friend and his team.
“He made that choice,” Cohen says. “He laid out Isiah, knocked him down coming in the lane. It escalated from there.”
Both stars delivered clutch performances in the series. Despite a crushing ankle injury, Thomas nearly led the Pistons to a title. In Game 7, Johnson started a key sequence with a 360-degree spin move. Beyond the team leaders, there was plenty of talent on both squads. Although Johnson’s spin was a catalyst, it was his teammate James Worthy who eventually scored, while in the final seconds, AC Green closed things out with a layup.
As for the oldest player featured in the book, Cohen says, “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, you can argue, was the No 1 player of all time – the top three or four, for sure.”
The book is written in an engaging style, occasionally referencing history and culture, even as it chronicles the hard-nosed, expletive-filled narrative on the court and in the locker room.
“It’s just the way that I experience the world,” Cohen says. “I always look for things that transcend the game.” Yet, he adds, he wrote the book out of admiration for “the game, the players”, an admiration that includes those who made unconventional choices in retirement. On that list is Detroit standout Adrian Dantley, who later became a school crossing guard.
As for Dantley’s teammate Dennis Rodman, the book notes his colorful post-Pistons career, from joining the Bulls dynasty to relationships with Madonna and Carmen Electra to visiting North Korea. “You probably know what happened to Dennis Rodman,” Cohen writes, “because it’s still happening.” He adds, “Of all the great players of his era, Dennis has lived the weirdest and most uniquely American life.”
In addition to the talent at the championship level, there were many other brilliant players in the league that season. Atlanta Hawks star Dominique Wilkins engaged in an epic playoff duel with the Celtics’ Bird. The Utah Jazz boasted the duo of Karl Malone and John Stockton at the onset of the historic partnership. Patrick Ewing, Clyde Drexler and Akeem (later Hakeem) Olajuwon were making impacts on the New York Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets, respectively.
“All were playing at the same time,” Cohen marvels. “There was an incredible variety of talent out there.”
As you might guess, the author is an NBA fan. Raised in the Chicago area, he and his siblings grew up playing basketball with their father as the hometown Bulls blossomed into a contender. In 1987-88, when Cohen was 19, the sensational Jordan averaged 35 points per game. Yet the era was about more than scoring: Cohen could also appreciate the defensive approach the Pistons used to shut down the Bulls star: the Jordan Rules.
Cohen explains that this unorthodox strategy meant letting Jordan score for the first three-plus quarters of a game. Late in the third quarter, the tactics would shift: When Jordan got the ball and approached the basket, Detroit would clobber him. According to the author, the benefits were multiple – Jordan might get angry and lose his composure, or he might pass to a teammate who was open but hadn’t shot much by that point.