Isaiah Thomas believes that these nicks and pistons will be cut from the same fabric.
A fabric woven by him himself, that is.
The Pistons legend and former Knicks president and coach see the similarities between the two teams as Detroit’s “bad boys” team, and have not separated them much ahead of the first round series.
“It’s going to be a very close series,” Thomas told ESPN Radio on Friday. “Both teams match equally. They both have the same DNA and DNA that comes with the bad boys of the Detroit Pistons. Looking at the Knicks culture, looking at the Detroit culture, it’s creepy and very similar. What started out in Detroit, [Pat] Riley left LA and came to New York and adopted our bad boy culture. It’s the DNA found in both the Knicks and the pistons. ”
The bad boy’s DNA that helped the Pistons win two championships in 1989 and ’90 was physical, tough, and sometimes dirty across the line.
Thomas saw that DNA disappear from Detroit until it recently reappeared. He is very much thinking about the reason.
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“My answer may not be sitting well with some people, but from a perception perspective, it was stereotyped as dirty, bad or all negative languages, negative terms placed around Detroit culture, something I wanted to label Detroit people, people on the team, and the team,” Thomas said. “And if what you noticed is that everyone else, and I’m including New York from the Knicks’ perspective, everyone else was allowed to play a rough physical style and adopt it and support the media.
“Soccer, hockey, baseball, basketball, soccer, from Michigan to Michigan, hockey, baseball, basketball, and more, everyone in Michigan is back to getting us to be in Michigan. Detroit has now regained itself with its original roots.”
The Knicks have been criticized this year for losing some of the toughnesses they previously owned under Tom Thibodeau.
Much of this comes from the town of Karl Anthony. Karl Anthony’s town is Karl Anthony’s town, which has a “soft” reputation in the league.
Thomas disagrees.
“No, there’s no drop-off at all,” Thomas said. “The Knicks definitely have toughness. … What’s in New York should not question the toughness of those people in terms of playstyle and the DNA there.
“You may not like the way town play, but you can never question his heart, his commitment, his toughness,” Thomas said. “The rebound he can get and the point he can hold up every night. I have no doubt in my mind about the toughness of the pistons or the toughness of the Knicks. That’s not a concern.”
