Each NBA team’s most devastating injury in franchise history

Most devastating injury in Detroit Pistons history: Isiah Thomas

This one signified more of the end of an era more than anything else. In the brief period between the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls’ dominant runs atop the Eastern Conference, Isiah Thomas and the “Bad Boy” Detroit Pistons ruled the East.

Between 1987 to 1991, the Pistons won at least 50 games five times, made five trips to the Eastern Conference Finals and won back to back NBA Championships in 1989 and 1990.

As the aforementioned moniker suggests, the Pistons attained their success through pushing the limits of physicality toward their opponents. This is a nice way of saying that the Pistons were a notoriously dirty team — even by late 1980s to early 1990s NBA standards — that almost everyone outside of Michigan detested.

However, when Michael Jordan and the Bulls finally bested Thomas’ Pistons in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals, it marked the beginning of the end for those Detroit teams.

They got bounced in the first round the next season by the New York Knicks and failed to make the playoffs the season after that, as that core began to show its age. That included Thomas. He was still an All-Star, but it was clear that he lost a step.

The 1993-94 season effectively closed the book on this chapter of Pistons history. The incidents that brought this era to a close revolved around the Hall of Fame point guard. It began when frontcourt enforcer Bill Laimbeer retired early into that season. Why? Well, he did so out of fear that the fans would turn on him for instigating a fight with Thomas that caused Thomas to break his hand.

Not long after that, Thomas also elected to end his career after the season, but a torn Achilles tendon in April expedited that process. Oh, and the Pistons finished 20-62 that year, in case you were wondering.

Following that run, the Pistons enjoyed some success with a young Grant Hill — who would have been one of the best players ever had he stayed healthy — but they would not reach another conference finals until 2003. Detroit wouldn’t win another title until 2004.