NBA's Most Hated Player Episode 2: Bill Laimbeer

everyone who's an nba fan has idolized certain players growing up whether it's because they create the most buzz maybe they're the best player from your local team or perhaps they're even the best player in the entire league whatever that reason is we all have one player who has inspired us to love the nba and these players have the responsibility of being a good role model however some of these athletes play as the greatest villain instead in this series we will take a look at some of the nba's most despised players whether it's because they didn't get along with teammates and coaches or concerning off the court issues that caused fans to turn on them i will review why this player is hated share stories from other players and coaches about them and determine whether the criticism is fair or not but real quick if you guys like this series and want to see more of it drop a like so i know and i'll make more videos like this in the future and if you're new please hit that subscribe button with post notifications turned on it is completely free and it literally just takes one second so you guys can be up to date on all my new videos but without further ado let's discuss today's player the nba in the 80s is remembered for the lakers and celtics dynasties as at least one of them made the finals every year with the lakers coming away with five titles and the celtics winning three the 90s is remembered for the dominance of michael jordan and chicago bulls as they made six finals appearances and didn't lose a single time however what's not brought up as often is that there's one team wedged in between those eras who stopped all three of these dynasties from adding to their collection and that team was the detroit pistons now the pistons didn't quite have the star power of the lakers celtics and bulls but what they did have was a lot of depth and a vicious style of defense that led them to having a top five defensive rating for five consecutive seasons and at the forefront of all of that was none other than bill lampere fans and other players around the league outside of detroit couldn't stand lampere as he was famous for instigating fights and violently fouling his opponent regardless of whether they get hurt or not but something that's actually a little bit overlooked is how good lambie actually was he used his size and physicality to be a dominant force on the glass as he averaged a double-double for six consecutive seasons including 1986 when he led the league in rebounds recording over 13 a game during that same stretch he made four all-star teams with averages of 16 points and 12 rebounds a night he was even one of the nba's first stretch bigs as he averaged 32 percent from deep for his career and that may not sound all that great but you have to remember that three-point shooting had yet to evolve in the 80s and the league average was never higher than 34 percent in lambert's playing days and most of the time the average was around 30 percent but despite this numbers will never be the first thing you think about with bill lampere what we will remember are the stories and how lambeau became one of the nba's most hated players so let's get into some of these stories number one bill lambert vs larry bird and the boston celtics it's game 2 of the 1985 eastern semifinals and after the celtics won game one the pistons badly needed a win in game two we pick up in the third quarter when the pistons down by four give the ball to lambear who turns around for a jump shot and clocks bird with his elbow which was called for an offensive foul a few minutes later towards the end of the third quarter lambeau gets the ball down low and goes up for the layup once again knocking bird down with his elbow this time however it was enough to make larry start bleeding at the jaw he could have exited the game after that but i think we all know that wasn't who larry bird was instead he goes right down the other end of the court and immediately scores on two defenders then in the fourth quarter he erupted for 17 points and led the celtics to victory scoring 42 points total on 14 of 26 shooting so moral of the story don't mess with larry bird because he will make you pay and on this night lambear and the pistons surely had to pay the price number two bill lambert vs larry bird in the boston celtics again apparently bill didn't quite get the message as just two years later in game three of the 1987 eastern conference finals things were pretty physical for the entire game but it culminated in the fourth quarter when bird pump faked rodman and was suddenly tackled by bill lambert knocking him straight on his back bird then immediately starts punching lambeau on the ground before the fight was broken up and both men would be ejected from the game but not before larry got just one more shot in the pistons would go on to win this one but after the game lambeau claimed the fight wasn't his fault saying he was just trying to break his fall but that couldn't seem further from the truth there's no reason for lambear to grab bird the way he did and it looked like he grabbed him simply to take bird down to the floor with him if this happened today lambie would have probably been suspended for at least one or two games and he should consider himself lucky that he wasn't or maybe not because just two games later lambie was boxing out robert parish for a rebound and pushed him with his elbow just a little bit too aggressively and parrish would retaliate to the ground and not to pile on land beer and the pistons anymore but this also happened at the end of that same game give the ball to detroit steals it johnson way up boston one second left number three bill lambert versus michael jordan in the bulls now this rivalry wasn't quite as personal as the one he had with bird because jordan had beef with just about everyone in the pistons mainly isaiah thomas which i have touched on in a previous video check that one out if you haven't already but there certainly was still tension between the two now jordan has always known what kind of player lambie was but didn't truly experience it for the first time until the 88 playoffs when lambeau set a questionable screen that jordan aggressively tried pushing through which caused lambert to start a shoving match with jordan but that was just the beginning what really set everything off was when the jordan rules became publicly known in 1989. for those of you who don't know what the jordan rules were it was basically a defensive scheme to solely stop jordan by playing aggressively when he was on the ball and knocking him down if he tries to drive inside and lambear was the main guy who had knocked jordan down throughout the 89 playoffs lambeau was an absolute menace like in game one when he unnecessarily threw a ball at scottie pippen at the end of the quarter or in game three when he pushed mj for no apparent reason but my favorite moment was at the beginning of game 6 when lembere knocked pippen out with his elbow while trying to grab a rebound pippin laid unconscious on the floor for the next two possessions before the bulls were able to call a timeout however over the next two possessions jordan got some revenge for him [Applause] a flawless move from jordan because he knew lambert was going to take him out if he didn't spin around him but nonetheless detroit still closed out the series in this one and they would go on to win the 1989 nba finals so i guess you can say lambear had the last laugh for that year anyway number four bill lambert's streak you would think that a man who was involved in as much chaos as bill lambert was that he must have been suspended for a lot of games but that wasn't the case for bill lambert proved to be one of the nba's greatest iron men playing all but 11 possible games prior to his retirement one month into the 94 season including a seven year streak of 685 consecutive games played the streak only came to an end in 1989 when lambeau and brad daugherty were both suspended for a game after getting into a fight while lambeau was boxing out doherty for a rebound it looks to me like bill instigated it by grabbing brad's neck which had already responded by pushing lambert thus leading to the fight regardless lambeau's streak came to an end but it's remarkable that it was even that high to begin with as only four other players in nba history have a streak longer than lambears number five lambear's tactics dirty or clever even though it's pretty clear that bill and beer was a dirty player i think there's a decent argument that he mainly acted this way because it was going to give his team the best chance to win you see lambert wasn't a very athletic player but he made up for that with his fierceness and drive to win by any means necessary lambie even said himself that he doesn't fight he agitates and then walks away even though lembere was definitely downplaying how far he took it he's not entirely wrong for example let's go back to his incident with bird in 87. i know lambeau was in the wrong for this and he could have severely hurt larry when he tackled him to the ground but what did this eventually lead to it led to both men getting ejected and the celtics lost the game granted the pistons were up by 16 heading into the fourth meaning a comeback was unlikely anyway but there was no chance the celtics would be able to pull it off without larry bird thus solidifying the win also after getting knocked out by robert parish in game five when lambeau woke up the first thing he asked was if parrish had been ejected cause all he cared about was getting the best chance he could to win i think former mavs coach richie adubato described limbear the best when he said he's intelligent he's dirty he's a great actor i think he's a fierce competitor and i think he's a winner to sum it up he's a guy that everyone hates i think that just about sums up who bill lambiere was as a player someone who won at all costs and is undoubtedly the dirtiest player in nba history thus making him one of the nba's most hated players i hope you all enjoyed the video my name is t pointer don't forget to like and subscribe and i'll see you guys next time [Music]

Channel: T-Pointer

Views: 66,202

Keywords: Bill Laimbeer, Brad Daugherty, Bulls, Celtics, Detroit Pistons, Hated Player, Isiah Thomas, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, NBA, NBA 1980s, NBA 1990s, NBA Dirtiest Player, Pistons, Rick Barry, bill laimbeer dirty plays, bill laimbeer gets destroyed, laimbeer, most hated nba players, robert parish bill laimbeer

Id: ixhfp6Sb0CI

Length: 10min 10sec (610 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 07 2022