Rick Mahorn

Derrick Allen "Rick" Mahorn (born September 21, 1958) is a retired American NBA basketball player who, at 6'10", played power forward and center. He is currently a radio analyst for the Detroit Pistons.

Mahorn was dubbed by Piston announcer George Blaha the "Baddest Bad Boy of them all." Mahorn gained a reputation for physical play, which he used to compensate for his relatively limited leaping ability. He served as a team leader of the Detroit Bad Boys teams of the late 1980s, winning his only NBA Championship in 1989 along with captain Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, and Dennis Rodman among others.

College career

Mahorn played college basketball at Hampton University. He was a three-time NCAA Division II champion and NAIA All-American and owned 18 school records.

Professional career

In 1989, Mahorn won his only NBA championship with the Pistons. Though the Bad Boys went on to repeat in 1990, Mahorn was picked up in the 1989 NBA expansion draft only days after hoisting the '89 trophy, as teams were only able to protect 8 of their players from being "drafted." After he was selected by the new Minnesota Timberwolves, Pistons general manager Jack McCloskey tried in vain to trade to get him back. In ESPN's 30 for 30 feature film about the Detroit teams in this era, Mahorn shed a tear when talking about being dealt away from the Pistons. Despite being out of Detroit, Mahorn never played for Minnesota, being traded instead to the Philadelphia 76ers, where he teamed with superstar Charles Barkley (despite previous rivalries with him) to form the top-rebounding duo of "Thump N' Bump." After two seasons, Mahorn moved to the Italian Serie A for the 1991–92 season.

Detroit Pistons

The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Eastern Conference Central Division. The team plays its home games at The Palace of Auburn Hills. The team was founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as the Fort Wayne (Zollner) Pistons in 1941, a member of the National Basketball League (NBL). The Pistons joined the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in 1948. In 1949, the NBL and BAA merged to become the NBA, and the Pistons became part of the merged league. Since moving to Detroit in 1957, the Pistons have won three (3) NBA championships: in 1989, 1990 and 2004.

Franchise history

1941–1957: The Fort Wayne (Zollner) Pistons

The Detroit Pistons' franchise was founded as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, a National Basketball League (NBL) team, playing in the gym of North Side High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Owners Fred Zollner and his sister Janet's Zollner Corporation was a foundry, manufacturing pistons, primarily for car, truck and locomotive engines. Fred Zollner, who currently owns a professional softball team known as the Zollner Piston softball team, was eventually persuaded to start a basketball team due to the fact that Indiana was so basketball minded. The Zollner Pistons were NBL champions in 1944 and 1945. They also won the World Professional Basketball Tournament in 1944, 1945 and 1946.

Rick

Rick is a masculine given name which may refer to:

People:

Bill Laimbeer

William "Bill" Laimbeer, Jr. (born May 19, 1957) is an American retired National Basketball Association player who spent most of his career with the Detroit Pistons. Teaming with Hall of Fame backcourt guards Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars, Laimbeer won back to back NBA Championships in both 1989 and 1990. He is the current head coach of the WNBA's New York Liberty. Playing at center, the 6'11" Laimbeer was a four-time NBA All-Star and integral part of the Pistons teams that won two championships. Initially raised in the Chicago, Illinois suburb of Clarendon Hills, Laimbeer attended Palos Verdes High School in Southern California and then the University of Notre Dame.

After his playing career, Laimbeer served as the head coach and general manager of the Detroit Shock in the WNBA from 2002 to 2009, coaching the team to three league championships, and New York Liberty since 2013.

Early life

Laimbeer was born to a successful businessman and grew up in the wealthy outskirts of Chicago, before moving with his family to Palos Verdes Estates, California, where his father practiced dentistry

Isiah Thomas

Isiah Lord Thomas III (/aɪˈzeɪ.ə/; born April 30, 1961) is an American retired basketball player who played professionally for the Detroit Pistons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The 12-time NBA All-Star was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Thomas has also been a professional and collegiate head coach, a basketball executive, and a broadcaster.

Thomas played collegiately for the Indiana Hoosiers. He went on to play professionally as point guard for the Pistons from 1981 until 1994 and led the "Bad Boys" to NBA championships in the 1988–89 and 1989–90 seasons. After his playing career, he was an executive with the Toronto Raptors, a television commentator, an executive with the Continental Basketball Association, head coach of the Indiana Pacers, and an executive and head coach for the New York Knicks. He was later the men's basketball coach for the Florida International University (FIU) Golden Panthers for three seasons from 2009 to 2012. In early May 2015, amidst controversy, Isiah was named president and part owner of the Knicks' WNBA sister team, the New York Liberty, subsequent to the re-hiring of Thomas's former Pistons teammate, Bill Laimbeer, as the team's coach.