PistonsNationBlog.com - Detroit Pistons News & Views

As a fan who’s an absolute geek for team history I love these classic video’s Pistons.com has been putting out.  The latest one focuses on my all-time favorite, Isiah Thomas’, first pro game on 10/30/81 against Bob Lanier and the Milwaukee Bucks.

(That move Zeke put on Quinn Buckner, no. 21, was BANANAS!)

A lot is being made of Brandon Jennings’ rookie debut (17, 9 & 9), but Isiah’s 31 & 11 was every bit as impressive plus he led his to victory.

The video reminded me that back in 2005 I actually did a pretty good write up on that game on an Isiah Thomas fansite -Zeke11.com- that I published for a couple of years before focusing on PN.  Below is that article.

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When the Pistons used their #2 overall draft pick on Isiah Thomas they were expecting big things, and it didn’t take long for Isiah to deliver.

The 1981-82 NBA season was about to come to start although the Pistons were less than impressive in their preseason play going 2-4, prompting one Detroit newspaper to exclaim “same old Pistons”. Pistons coach, Scotty Robertson, was not exactly calling his 20-year-old cherubic-faced rookie the savior of the Piston’s organization. He had talks with Isiah about his inconsistency on defense and his floor leadership.

“He’s just a rookie, and he’s still got to learn in what is the toughest basketball league in the world, Robertson said. For him to be the player he can be, it might take 20 games, a half a year, or maybe even a whole year. I can relate his progress to the length of time it takes a quarterback to develop in pro football. He is like a quarterback because he must read the other team and, on the offensive end he has the ball in his hands all the time”.

“Offensively I want Isiah to be mentally a physically defensive attention will be focused on him. He’s got a good NBA body, but he has to work on his strength. He’s got to be strong to last through an 82-game NBA season”.

To which Isiah would respond: “I think I’ll be all right”

The Pistons opened the 1981-82 season against the Milwaukee Bucks on October 30th, 1981. The Bucks won the Central Division the season prior going 60-22. The Pistons were just the opposite coming in dead last in their division with a 21-61 record.

The Buck featured a big man that Pistons fans were pretty familiar with in Bob Lanier. The Pistons had drafted Lanier as the leagues #1 overall pick in 1970 and he became the teams backbone for 10 years. Lanier was traded to Milwaukee on February 2nd, 1980 for center Kent Benson and a first round pick. Isiah remembers his pregame meeting with Lanier. “I remember walking on the court, shaking his hand, and saying ‘this man is going to break me in half if I drive to the basket’. I drove to the basket on our first play. I was afraid Lanier was going to hit me, but he didn’t. The next time I drove to the basket, he hammered me, but I didn’t stop driving to the basket. I eventually earned Lanier’s respect because I wouldn’t give up and I wasn’t afraid to do my best,” Isiah recalls.

9,182 fans showed up that Friday night at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan to get their first look at the Piston’s 6’1” rookie point guard. “There were only 10,000 people in a place that holds 80,000,” Isiah joked. Isiah said that he was nervous about the opener. “I was more nervous in pre-season games. Thank goodness for pre-season games.”

Isiah was matched against the Bucks Quinn Buckner. Buckner was former Indiana Hoosier by way of Chicago, Illinois just like Thomas. Buckner was a very formidable defender for Isiah, but even he was no match as it took Isiah but nine seconds to score the game’s first basket.

The Pistons got down early by 14 though. The Pistons clawed their way back to within 5 points in the closing moments of the first half, and then came Isiah’s 50 foot all-net shot at the buzzer!

Isiah’s 27 points through the first three quarters kept the game close. In the fourth quarter Isiah provided some foreshadowing for the kind of clutch performances that Piston fans would be treated to for the next 13 seasons. Isiah began to assert himself as the Piston’s floor general. His assist to Terry Tyler put Detroit in front for good at 109-110. He then stripped Quinn Buckner and fed Phil Hubbard for an easy lay-up. With 24 seconds left Isiah calmly drained 2 points at the free throw line to put the Pistons ahead 113-116, then with 3 seconds left in the game he made two more to ice the win, 113-118.

Isiah finished the game with 31 points and 11 assists in his 41 minutes of play, which drew praise all around for the guard that some said was too small to impact an NBA game.

“If I said he played well, I’d obviously be understating,” said Pistons coach Scotty Robertson. The Bucks coach, Don Nelson, was a little more descriptive in his take on Isiah’s opening act, “He’s so poised, so cool, so damn good,” he raved.

Quinn Buckner had these tongue-in-cheek remarks for his defensive assignment. “There’s no question he’s a player. He makes everyone else play well, that’s his biggest asset. He’s clever. He’s good at faking fouls. The officials don’t believe a young player has that much savvy, but he does.”

Bob Lanier, who was the man in days as a Piston, said, “the Pistons have needed a leader and it looks like he’s the one.”

After the game Isiah stayed level headed about his performance. “I didn’t think I would do that good,” he said. “Things just worked out.” He added that “I can’t feel too good about tonight, we’ve got to play tomorrow night in Chicago.”

The Pistons went on to win their next two games. This marked the first time they had won the first three regular season game in 11 years. For the season they won 18 more games than the previous season and attendance numbers from the year before were smashed at the Silverdome. What a difference a little guard makes.

Tags: Bob Lanier, Brandon Jennings, Detroit Pistons, Isiah Thomas, Milwaukee Bucks, Pontiac Silverdome, Quinn Buckner, Scotty Robertson

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Bucks, Isiah Thomas, Pistons historical society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.