Chris Broussard: “Joe, one of the big storylines from the documentary was when they finally beat you guys 1991… Tell me about everything that went down and what was your thought process.”
Joe Dumars: “I’m not sure how it came about. I think I heard Isiah say that Lam [Bill Laimbeer] said something to him about walking off. When everybody started walking out, that was all that I heard. I just heard ‘we’re leaving’. I don’t know how many seconds were left on the clock but we were like ‘okay, we’re out.’ It never dawned on me not to shake their hands. In the three previous years we had beaten them, and we had just ended their season. I can tell you every single time that we eliminated them, Mike found me, shook my hand, and whispered ‘man, tough battle, great battles, good luck in the Finals, Joe.' So when we’re walking off I saw him, stopped, and said the exact same thing to him.” (Full Interview Above)
Listen to NBA Hall of Famer Joe Dumars, an integral part of the Detroit Pistons ‘Bad Boy’ dynasty, explain what exactly happened that fateful night on May 27th, 1991, when the Pistons walked off the court before the buzzer sounded in Game 4 and refused to shake Michael Jordan and the Bulls’ hands as Chicago advanced to their first ever NBA Finals.
Check out the video above as Dumars details to Chris Broussard and Rob Parker how he and Pistons forward John Salley were the only two Pistons players who waited around to shake Chicago’s hands, despite the story always being told that the entire Detroit team left the arena in unison.