I decided to split this article into two parts strictly because after writing it, I realized that I had far more to say than even I had initially realized. This first part will act as a kind of introduction to the main body of my arguments and opinions which will be included in the second part of this article. That being said, let me begin by saying I love sports. I'd even go so far as to say that after 22 years of life, that love has evolved into full-blown adoration. To me, my love for certain sports has very little to do with my ability to understand, read, or even physically play the sport, but rather my love for learning about sports I never chose to play coupled with the aspects and attitudes of certain players and certain teams which transcend entire eras, regardless of whether or not those eras are dominated by the players or teams in question. But through all of my interests, through all of my research, professional basketball holds a special place in my heart because it is the only sport where I can honestly say there are no players or teams which I absolutely could not stand simply because I can find it within myself to respect players for what they did for the sport rather than strictly who they were as people. Before I continue, however, I wish to express that this article is strictly based around my largely unprofessional opinion in regards to one of, if not the most controversial teams in professional sports history. I refuse to be biased in any way, shape or form towards any players, teams, fans, or otherwise despite the fact that I am writing this article as an opinionated piece. That being said, I am of course referring to the Detroit Pistons in the 1980's, the team which was notoriously known as 'The Bad Boys.'

Part of the reason I love professional basketball so much is that it is one of the only sports I regularly can find the same kind of exhilaration and entertainment through watching and learning about past teams as I can through watching the sports live in the modern day. I also enjoy it because in all honesty, I never competitively played the sport myself despite my understanding of the game gained through playing pickup games and actually watching and studying the sport. I played competitive ice hockey for upwards of 16 years of my life with little to no interest in playing any other sports competitively strictly because I knew it was what I was good at, and therefore felt I knew where I belonged. But basketball has always held a special place in my heart; the players, the history surrounding the game, but above all, the sense of aggressiveness and competitiveness which (and I am not saying other sports do not have this) I only ever felt when watching or playing hockey. Which is why when I first started following basketball nearly 4 years ago, I immediately began subliminally searching for that same feeling which was largely unrevealed to me due to the fact that basketball is, by definition, not a full contact sport. So of course when I began researching the history of the sport and learning about specific players and teams, I immediately became intrigued by the Detroit Pistons during the 1980's who were largely known (and hated) for their ultra-aggressive, and some would argue 'dirty', defensive mindset which earned them the epithet 'Bad Boys' by reporters and opposing players of the time. However, while what seemed like a massively one-sided majority of people who knew about this team only spoke of them with an intense undertone of hatred and disgust, I found what is perhaps my favorite team not just in NBA history, but sports history as a whole. Why? Because I saw the same level of aggressiveness and willingness to do whatever was necessary to win in the actions of the team, regardless of other people only seeing them for dirty and underhanded play which transcends the notion of poor sportsmanship.

It is because of my adoration for this group of players that I felt entirely obligated to find ways of defending my reasoning. While a large majority of basketball fans hated this team with a passion due to their ultra-aggressive play, through my independent research I also found an extreme sense of bias and ignorance that, prior to my research, I had seen very little of in other professional sports; fans who would gladly piss on the graves of players like Bill Laimbeer, Isiah Thomas, and Dennis Rodman if given the opportunity strictly because they had such an intense hatred for them based almost exclusively around how they played the game against their opponents. The issue that I have found, however, is not in that some of these people hate the 'Bad Boys' for how they played, but because they express such a level of ignorance to the fact that the players they themselves adore and defend had the capacity to play just as dirty, just as underhanded, and be just as unsportsmanlike as this group of men they routinely branded as disgraces to the game of basketball. For example, it doesn't take someone who has followed basketball for decades on end to be able to recognize names like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, or Michael Jordan to name a few. These perceived "Gods of Basketball" were coincidentally some of the most vocal people in their immense hatred of the Bad Boys even to this day. But what I have found is that an extreme level of bias and protection for these players by fans and professional analysts alike has in effect blinded them to the fact that they have become hypocrites in their own right when voicing their reasoning for hating the Pistons during this time period. During the 1980's, the NBA was dubbed the "Showtime Era" due to the emergence of mega stars Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, who played for the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers respectively, and the domination these two teams had over the sport as a whole during the decade that followed. It was because of this domination that the fans of each team revered these men as nothing short of gods, which to this day seems to be the primary reason for the bias I have previously mentioned. Their fans seemed to believe that they were incapable of wrongdoings, even going so far as to fiercely defend them when they acted just as dirty, underhanded, or otherwise as the Pistons did in this time period (examples of which will be touched on in Part II of this article).

To conclude this first part, I feel entirely obligated to explain that I have no intentions of offending and/or sparking arguments based around the words I write and my inevitable defense of the Bad Boys as well as my criticism of the fans and analysts even I myself have gotten into heated debates with strictly based on my intolerance of bias in any spectrum. This article is entirely intended to be an opinionated piece which will touch on whether or not the immense hatred of this team was actually well founded, as well as my criticism of the hypocrisy of fans and certain players alike who refuse to admit that they had the capacity to be as bad or worse as the men they vocally despised, some even to this day. Isiah Thomas himself put it the best by stating "Everyone could play like the Pistons, but the Pistons couldn't without being hated for it."