Bill Laimbeer is regarded as one of the toughest players in NBA history. An intrinsic part of the Detroit Pistons Bad Boys, his rough and hard-nosed playstyle catapulted the team to back-to-back titles in 1989 and 1990.
But once upon a time, Laimbeer was not known as a threatening basketball presence. He came from a well-off family, as his dad was an Owens-Illinois executive who rose to be as high as company president. No one, especially Pistons legend Isiah Thomas , thought of the big man as a tough son of a gun.
Thomas’ first impression of Laimbeer
Bill donned the Pistons jersey in February 1982 after he was traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers. He shook hands with Thomas, the team’s star guard. In their first meeting, Zeke felt he was not like most NBA players from the inner cities.
“When I first met him, he acted exactly like a rich kid from the suburbs,” Thomas said , per The Los Angeles Times. “He knew how to eat lobster and go to the beach.”
But the guard soon found out that while he may not have had a rugged childhood, Laimbeer was built for battle. The center became renowned for its extremely physical play and poor sportsmanship.