The Detroit Pistons of the late 1980s and early 1990s, known to the world as the "Bad Boys," were all "notorious" villains from Isaiah Thomas to Bill Lambier, from Rick Mahone to Dennis Rodman. However, there is also a gentleman in this group of "bad boys", who is pure in nature, well-behaved, tenacious on the field, silent off the field, and can be called a model player. In 1996, the NBA began selecting the Sportsmanship Award, one a year, to encourage fair play, honest and honest players——— Joe Dumas became the first recipient. On March 10, 2000, the Pistons held a grand retirement ceremony for Dumas's No. 4 jersey, and the NBA league also announced that the Sportsmanship Awards would be renamed the Joe Dumas Awards.
Dumas spent his childhood in Nakitosh, Louisiana, a small town with a population of just 18,337, where his father was a truck driver, his mother was an administrator at Northwest State University, and Joe was the youngest child in the family, with five older brothers and an older sister above him. Basketball was not popular in Dumas's hometown, where the first sport was rugby, and Dumas's brothers were all excellent rugby players in school, with the exception of him. Joe once made a cameo as a quarterback in junior high school, only to be beaten by a group of older kids, and when he came home, he told his mom, "I'll never try this sport again." Giving up rugby, Dumas chose basketball as his hobby, his father built a basket for him in the backyard with discarded bicycle wheels and half an old door panel, and since then the teenager Dumas has spent hours practicing shooting skills every day to the chicks.
Dumas's silent personality stemmed from his father, who admired his father, who worked hard to earn money to support his family, and whenever his father did not go to work and rest, he always tried to stay at home with his father, and even skipped school for it. In 1985, his father was forced to amputate his legs due to severe diabetes, which dealt Dumas a heavy blow.
After graduating from high school, Dumas entered McNeese State University, majoring in business administration. While ensuring his studies, Dumas's basketball talent has gradually begun to emerge. During his four years in college, he averaged 22.5 points per game, including 26.4 points per game in his junior year and 25.8 points per game in his senior year, and the total score of 2612 points not only broke the school's record, but also ranked 11th in NCAA history.
Dumas's outstanding performance caught the attention of Pistons general manager Jack McCrosley. He was convinced the lad could succeed in the NBA, yet the Pistons were only 18th in the 1985 draft pick. Fortunately, none of the first 17 teams chose Dumas, and the Pistons got what they wanted--- McCrosley later said that this was the easiest decision he had ever made in the draft, and Dumas himself was very happy because he liked Isaiah Thomas so much in college that the two were able to play together and become the most famous golden combination in NBA history, which may be providence.
Although Dumas was known for his scoring ability in college, Pistons coach Daly asked him to be a tough defender first. In the beginning, Dumas was only a substitute for the team, and the playing time was very limited, but the team's record was not good, and Daly had to try to adjust the lineup. On January 15, 1986, in a home game against the Bulls, Dumas made his first appearance, helping the Pistons win 123-115 and establishing himself as a mainstay in the team ever since.
In the 1985–86 season, in the first 37 games of the Dumas substitute. The Pistons' record was only 16 wins and 21 losses, and in the last 45 regular season games he started, the Pistons improved to 30 wins and 15 losses, and finally entered the playoffs with a record of 46 wins and 36 losses, although the Pistons were eliminated by the Eagles led by Wilkins, the "essence of human cinema" Wilkins, but the Duma new was selected for the best rookie team with Ewing, Carl Malone, McDaniel and Oakley with their excellent performances in the regular season.
In the 1986-87 season, the backcourt combination of Dumas and Thomas gradually improved, and the Pistons, who were adjusted through personnel, also began to show their kingship. In the playoffs, the Pistons broke through two levels in a row, the Bullets and the Eagles, and reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time. Despite losing against veteran powerhouse Celtics, the performance of the second-year Dumas was unanimously praised. Especially in the seventh game, Dumas personally scored 35 points, fully demonstrating his super psychological quality of being good at fighting hard battles.
The following season, Dumas's personal data continued to improve steadily, averaging 14.2 points per game, surpassing Lambier to become the team's third point of firepower. The Pistons also went further with a regular-season record, finishing Second in the East with 54 wins and 28 losses, and that was just the prologue to the show. In the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Pistons faced the bulls, who were equally strong, and Daly used the famous "Jordan Rule", and Dumas was the main implementer of the tactic, responsible for keeping an eye on the great "flyer", and the Pistons defeated the opponent 4-1, and this was only the beginning of Jordan's pain - "The Flyer" later called Dumas the best defensive player he had ever played. After beating the Celtics, the Pistons reached the Finals for the first time, but ultimately fell short in a good situation. The Detroits' frustration fulfilled Pat Riley's defending promise and burned the "Bad Boys" to the extreme.
In the 1988-89 season, the Detroits made a comeback with only one goal, which was to use the championship as a gift of revenge. The Pistons have been invincible since the beginning of the regular season, ranking first in the league with a record of 63 wins and 19 losses. Dumas's performance on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends is particularly commendable, not only did he average 17.2 points and 5.7 assists per game, setting a new personal high, but he was also named to the defensive team with teammate Rodman after the regular season.
In the playoffs, the "bad boys" are even more unstoppable, except for the two victories taken away by the Bulls led by Jordan in the Eastern Conference Finals, the rest of the games have swept the opponents, with a whirlwind of 15 wins and 2 losses to complete the championship. In the Finals with the Lakers, Dumas played to the extreme, not only the defense was impeccable, but also scored 27.3 points under the supervision of Michael Cooper (1987 Best Defensive Player, 5 times selected for the First Defensive Team), shooting a staggering 58%, becoming the deserved Finals MVP. Still, Dumas was as introverted as ever, not as ecstatic as his teammates. While the Pistons were sipping champagne in the locker room, only Dumas was drunk and alone on the phone, calm and calm, as after every game.
The 1989–90 season was another milestone for Dumas, who was finally named to the All-Star team as one of the most underrated players in the league. Despite a period of injury in the regular season, when the playoffs began, Dumas returned to normal, averaging 18.2 points and 4.8 assists per game, helping the Pistons defeat the Pacers, Knicks, Bulls and Trail Blazers all the way to defend their title. In the finals with the Blazers, the first two games were divided between the two sides, and the third Dumas scored 33 points to lead the team to victory, but after the game, the bad news of his father's death came. When Dumas was preparing to return home to visit, his mother asked him to stay in the team and continue playing. Dumas heeded his mother's advice and helped the team win the last two matches, using a championship ring representing victory to comfort his father's spirit in heaven.
In 1990-91, Dumas became the Pistons' new top scorer with 20.4 points per game and replaced injured Thomas as an All-Star starter, setting a team record for the season — 62 consecutive free throw hits. But the aging of the Pistons is an indisputable fact, such as the "Bull Dynasty" in the sky has become unstoppable. After eliminating the Hawks and Celtics in the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Pistons were exhausted, and finally swept by the Bulls 0-4, the disparity was the "Flyers"'s ruthless revenge against the "bad boys", and also announced that the NBA had once again changed hands.
In the following seasons, with the departure of the "bad boys" and the resignation of the veteran coach Daly, the Pistons declined day by day, and only Dumas continued to stick to the team's backcourt as always. In 1993, the Pistons were locked out of the playoffs for the first time in 10 years, gradually reduced to a second-rate team, although the team's state continued to decline, but Dumas's outstanding performance is still obvious to all, he averaged 23.4 points per game in the 1992-93 season, setting a career record, the fourth time in the NBA's best defensive team and all-Star team, in the summer of 1994, Dumas as the captain of the "dream team", led the U.S. men's basketball team to win the championship with an unbeaten record at the Toronto World Championships. In the 1994-95 season, with the arrival of rookies such as Grant Hill and Alan Houston, Dumas began to take on more organizational work on the field, and he also shouldered the responsibility of leading these newcomers to rebuild the Pistons.
In May 1999, the Pistons were eliminated 3-2 by the Hawks in the first round of the playoffs, and the 36-year-old Dumas bid farewell to his NBA career. In his 14 years with the Pistons, he made 1,018 appearances and shot 990 three-pointers, all of which are in the team's history, and he also ranked second in the history of the pistons in four historical statistics of total points (16401), total assists (4612), total steals (902), and playing time (35139 minutes), making him one of the greatest stars in pistons history.
Just a month after retiring, Dumas returned to work as vice head of the Pistons' player affairs, a position he held for a full year, eagerly learning about player trading, salary caps, and how to deal with lawyers and NBA officials. On June 6, 2000, at the age of 37, Dumas was appointed as the new president of the Pistons, officially taking control of the team's management.
Dumas took office with a radical overhaul of the Pistons, not betting on a superstar, but focusing more on stocks that can play seriously in adversity, be good at teamwork, and try to prove their potential. After four years of painstaking management, it finally brought the team a third championship trophy.
"Unity, justice, confidence," is the motto of Joe Dumas, the birthplace of --- Louisiana, and it is the truest portrayal of his career.