He has been gone from the NBA for four years, but Bill Laimbeer
still enjoys boxing out the competition. "In business
I'm trying to be the same as I was as a player," says
the 40-year-old president of Laimbeer Packaging, a company
in Melvindale, Mich., that
makes corrugated containers. "I enjoy the mental
challenge of trying to figure things out and get an
advantage. My style before is my style
now."
Not that SI's two-time cover subject (June 27, 1988, as
well as
Nov. 5, 1990) is giving purchasers forearm shivers or slamming
rival manufacturers to the hardwood. As the baddest of the
Detroit Pistons' Bad Boys in the late '80s, Laimbeer was as
famous for being a crybaby
jerk as he was for his contributions to the Pistons'
back-to-back championships. The list of players Laimbeer, a
6'11",
260-pound center, provoked is an NBA Who's
Who of that era: Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Sidney Moncrief,
Robert Parish, Scottie Pippen, Dominique Wilkins,
teammate Isiah
Thomas.
Laimbeer retired as Detroit's alltime leading rebounder,
and instigator, early in the 1993-94 season and joined his
father, also named Bill, in the box business. "People
miss how I
... we
... played the game," says Laimbeer, who lives in
suburban Orchard Lake with wife Chris, son Eric, 12, and
daughter Kerriann, 10. "We were entertainers. Look at
basketball today—low scoring, lots of physical
defense—and that was all the Pistons' doing.
When we were winning, people moaned how we were ruining
basketball. Actually, we sort of defined its
future."
Although this may not necessarily be a good thing, it does
suggest that Laimbeer was more than a goon. He was one of
the league's best weakside defenders, as well as a rugged
rebounder, a solid scorer and an all-star actor (no one did
a better flop).
Villain or no villain, he could play, and there's a
number 40 hanging from the rafters of The Palace of Auburn Hills
to prove it. "Actually," he says, "I think
people who saw me regularly recognize that I wasn't such a
bad
guy."
Sure, Bill. Though Laimbeer considers the 1989 and 1990
titles the highlights of his 13 years with the Pistons, he
rarely breaks out his championship rings. "Just
winning was enough for me," he says. "If you've
got it, why show it off? People will
remember the fun
times."
Fun? Laimbeer? Somewhere, Robert
Parish is
laughing.
—by Jeff Pearlman
photograph by Theo Westenberger/Sygma
Issue date: November 10, 1997
Past Editions of Catching Up With...
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