Photo Credit: John Swart/Associated Press

Bill Laimbeer Doesn’t Regret Not Shaking Hands With Chicago Bulls After 1991 ECF Loss

Former NBA big man Bill Laimbeer has had a pretty successful NBA career. He is mostly know for his 11-year tenure with the Detroit Pistons, having been one of the infamous ‘Bad Boys’ who won back-to-back NBA championships in 1989 and 1990.

Then, after eliminating the Bulls from the playoffs for three straight years (1988, 1989, and 1990), the Bulls got the upper hand in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals. As the series ended, Laimbeer, Isiah Thomas and their teammates left the court before time expired, without a handshake or any congratulating gesture.

When asked by Rachel Nichols about the unsportsmanlike walk-off on ESPN’s ‘The Jump’, Laimbeer explained that he has no regrets, while saying that the Chicago Bulls were ‘whiners’:

“They whined and cried for a year and a half about how bad we were for the game, but more importantly, they said we were bad people. We weren’t bad people. We were just basketball players winning, and that really stuck with me because they didn’t know who we were or what we were about as individuals and our family life. So with all the whining they did, I’m not shaking their hands. They were just whiners.”

"All that whinning they did, why shake their hand? They were just whiners." — Bill Laimbeer

(via @Rachel__Nichols) pic.twitter.com/9nFK1HbZpf

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) April 27, 2020