Isiah Thomas believes that these Knicks and Pistons are cut from the same fabric.
The fabric himself wove, that’s.
The legend of the Pistons and the former president and coach of the Knicks sees similarities in both teams to their “Bad Boys” teams in Detroit and does not see much separate them before their first round series.
“It’s going to be a very closed series,” Thomas said on Friday at ESPN Radio. “Both teams match. Both have the same DNA and the DNA that come with the Bad Boys Bad Pistons of the Detroit. When you look at the culture of the Knicks and look at Detroit’s culture, they are honorably very similar. What we started in Detroit, [Pat] Riley left Los Angeles, came to New York and adopted our Bad Boy culture. That is the DNA that you see both in the Knicks and also in the pistons. “
That Bad Boys DNA, which helped the Pistons win two championships in 1989 and ’90, was physical and hard, sometimes crossing the line until dirty.
Thomas saw that DNA disappeared from Detroit until he recently resurfaced, and has a strong idea of why: he believes for what the Pistons were punished, Riley’s Knicks teams were praised.
Follow the coverage of the post Knicks in the NBA playoffs of 2025
“My answer could not be well with some people, but from a perception position, it was stereotyped as dirty, or whatever you want to label all negative lengths, the negative terms that were placed around Detroit tea, the people of the people, the people of the people, the people of the people, the people of the people, the people of the people, the people of the people. And if you have not been that everyone else, and that only the new terms include. Everyone else was allowed to play a hard and physical game style and adopt it and make the media support it. I couldn’t play it, but everyone else could.
“You have had and what you have seen is coaches who have come in Detroit, be it football, hockey, baseball, basketball, from the state of Michigan to Michigan, where all in the state of Michigan really go to what we defend from who and what we represent for wheat and wheat for wheat and wheat for whom and the one we have in the sports culture and as a state.
The Knicks have been criticized this year for losing part of the hardness they previously owned under Tom Thibodeau.
Much of that voice of Karl-Anthony Towns, which is very adequate or incorrect, a “soft” reputation in the league.
Thomas does not agree.
“No, there is no fall at all,” Thomas said. “Knicks definitely have hardness … What you have in New York in terms of game style and DNA there, you should never question the hardness of any of those people.
“Although sometimes you don’t like the way the villages are playing, you can never question their heart, their commitment and hardness,” Thomas said. “The rebounds that can acquire and the points that you can put in a night base. I have no doubt in my mind about the hardness of the pistons or the hardness of the Knicks. That is not a concern.”
