Bill Laimbeer is standing his ground.
Episode 4 of “The Last Dance” highlighted the Bulls’ rivalry with the Bad Boy Pistons in the late 1980s and early 1990s — culminating in the Pistons walking off their home floor without shaking hands after being swept by the Bulls in the 1991 Eastern Conference finals. In one of the best moments of the series so far, Isiah Thomas offered a retrospective explanation for the snub that visibly displeased present-day Michael Jordan.
But unlike Thomas, Laimbeer didn’t mince words when asked about the walk-off by Rachel Nichols in a segment on ESPN’s “The Jump!” Monday morning.
“They whined and cried for a year and a half about how bad we were for the game. But more importantly, (they said) we’re bad people,” Laimbeer told Nichols. “We weren’t bad people. We were just basketball players winning. And that really stuck with me because they didn’t know who we were or what we were about as individuals in our family life.
“So all that whining they did. Why shake their hands? They were just whiners. They won the series. Give ’em credit. We got old. They got past us. But, OK, move on.”
At least — even all these years later — he offered the Bulls sincere credit for supplanting them.
Asked by Nichols if he regretted the incident, Laimbeer was even more direct.
NBA
“No, why would I regret now, today?” Laimbeer told Nichols. “I don’t care what the media says about me, if I did I’d be a basket case, especially back then.
“So, no. I was about winning basketball games and winning championships, and did whatever I had to do to get the most out of my ability and our team, and we did. At the end of the day, we’re called world champions.”
And so are the Bulls. Six times over.
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