Joe and Mike always had mutual respect for each other, even though neither ever admitted they were friends.
The Detroit Pistons eliminated the Chicago Bulls in three straight playoffs from 1988 to 1990, the last two on their way to winning back-to-back NBA championships. But in 1991, Chicago finally ended Detroit’s reign.
To many, that was because the younger Bulls improved their talent and got tougher with every loss that they experienced at the hands of the Bad Boys until they finally became strong enough to get over the hump. The same goes for Michael Jordan, who bulked up significantly to better withstand the physical punishment he took in the prior years against Detroit. However, Isiah Thomas had a different explanation as to why Chicago was able to win.
According to Zeke, the Bulls solved the Pistons riddle after Jordan got to know people on the team. Thomas said MJ got to understand what drove Detroit and used that to divide them. When team’s writer Mitch Albom asked Isiah if the Pistons player he was referring to was Joe Dumars, he said yes.
“Yeah, they got to be friends, so Jordan got to get inside our inner workings and find out who was who and what made this guy tick. When you look back on it, you see the games that he played in the media and how he moved that guy and moved that guy. It was masterful,” said Thomas.
Isiah says Dumars and Jordan were friends
It’s unclear how close Dumars and Jordan actually were. What’s certain was that the two always matched up when the Pistons played the Bulls, but they never said a negative word to each other.
Joe also admitted that during those three years when the Bad Boys beat the Bulls, MJ would walk over to him, shake his hand, and wish him luck in the Finals. Dumars could feel how devastated Mike was with each defeat. But he never openly talked about being friends with Jordan. Thomas meanwhile insisted that they were.
“But I think Joe is smart enough as a person that he makes his own friends,” Zeke continued. “I don’t want to say that’s the reason why they beat us, but all of a sudden, we weren’t the big bad bear anymore. And when you’re not the big bad bear, they say, ‘OK, I’ll go in and take this layup.'”
Jordan saw Dumars as his toughest defender
If Dumars was guilty of one thing, it was making Mike a better player because of his defense. Jordan admitted that Joe was the toughest defender he had to face during his NBA career, forcing MJ to expand his offensive arsenal so he could get the better of Joe.
“He thought well, and he was very smart about his defense,” Mike said. “I think he approaches the game as trying to dissect his opponents and try to find weaknesses or try to force them to do things they didn’t feel comfortable doing. He introduced certain tricks to make me expand on my talents as an offensive player, and that is why I consider him one of the best.”
Isiah played nine seasons with Joe as his backcourt partner. It was crazy that he even thought about Dumars getting softened up because of his friendship with MJ, as Joe was as tough as a defender as anyone was during that era. It’s worth noting, however, that in the 1991 playoffs, Jordan shot 53.5% from the field against the Pistons, his highest percentage in the four series they played against each other. But then, we can say that Michael was starting to peak that year.