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Bill Laimbeer
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William "Bill" Laimbeer, Jr. (born May 19, 1957) is a retired National Basketball Association player for the Detroit Pistons. Playing at center, the 6'11" Laimbeer was a four-time All-Star and integral part of the Pistons teams that won two championships. Initially raised in the Chicago, Illinois suburb of Clarendon Hills, Laimbeer attended Palos Verdes High School in Southern California and then the University of Notre Dame. Laimbeer is currently the head coach of the Detroit Shock in the WNBA.
beer was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1979.
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Encyclopedia
William "Bill" Laimbeer, Jr. (born May 19, 1957) is a retired National Basketball Association player for the Detroit Pistons. Playing at center, the 6'11" Laimbeer was a four-time All-Star and integral part of the Pistons teams that won two championships. Initially raised in the Chicago, Illinois suburb of Clarendon Hills, Laimbeer attended Palos Verdes High School in Southern California and then the University of Notre Dame. Laimbeer is currently the head coach of the Detroit Shock in the WNBA.
Playing career
Laimbeer was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1979. He played professionally in Italy for a year before returning to play for the Cavaliers in 1980. On February 16, 1982, he was traded to the Detroit Pistons, where he would remain for the rest of his career. During his playing career, Laimbeer was one of the most notorious players in the NBA. While highly popular among Piston fans, Laimbeer was despised by opposing players and fans for committing hard fouls himself, while seeming to bait officials into calling fouls on opponents by flopping to the ground after slight contact. In the public eye, Laimbeer's reputation for physical play tended to overshadow his skills. Even his former teammate Dennis Rodman noted this in his book Bad As I Wanna Be, saying, "He (Laimbeer) was more than a thug, but that's what he'll be remembered for." Laimbeer was also the subject of criticism in the Beastie Boys' track "Tough Guy" from their 1994 album Ill Communication. Laimbeer was one of the top outside-shooting centers of his era, draining over 200 three pointers for his career, and excelled at running the pick and pop with guards Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars. Then-head coach Chuck Daly utilized Laimbeer's skills by having him fade to the perimeter rather than roll to the basket. Laimbeer was selected to the NBA All-Star Game on four occasions (1983, 1984, 1985 and 1987) and finished among the league leaders in rebounding and free throw percentage several times, winning the rebound title in the 1985-86 season. Laimbeer started on the Pistons' 1989 and 1990 NBA championship teams.
Bill Laimbeer is the only player, other than his Detroit teammates, to have a winning record in the playoffs against NBA legends, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan.
Altogether, Laimbeer spent 14 seasons in the NBA, 12 of them with Detroit. Laimbeer became the 19th player in league history to amass more than 10,000 points and 10,000 rebounds. Laimbeer was most effective off the defensive glass, From 1982 to 1990 no player in the league totaled more defensive rebounds. His streak of 685 consecutive games played (which ended due to suspension) is the fifth longest in league history. Laimbeer retired early in the 1993-94 season at age 36, and his jersey number (40) was eventually retired by the Pistons. He remains the franchise's all-time leader in career rebounds.
Despite his statistics, his central role in the rise of the Pistons and their two world championships, and his legacy as one of the top centers of his era, Laimbeer has not yet been considered for the Hall of Fame.
Laimbeer's reputation as one of the Pistons' "Bad Boys" was such that in 1991 he even came to endorse a video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System called Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball, a futuristic basketball game in which physical play is encouraged.
Post-NBA life
In 1994, Laimbeer and his father William Sr. co-founded Laimbeer Packaging Corp., a company located in Melvindale, Michigan, a Detroit suburb, producing corrugated cardboard boxes. The company struggled through the late 1990s and closed in early 2002.
His father was a ranking executive with the Owens-Illinois corporation, and it was said (only partly tongue-in-cheek) during his career that Laimbeer was the only NBA player who earned less money than his father.
After retiring from the game, Laimbeer maintained his ties to the Pistons as a broadcast commentator.
In the middle of the 2002 WNBA season, Laimbeer took over the head coaching position for the Detroit Shock. A year later, he led the franchise to its first WNBA championship and was named Coach of the Year that year. It marked the first time in WNBA history that a team other than Los Angeles or Houston won the title. On September 9, 2006 Laimbeer led the Shock to their second WNBA championship against the Sacramento Monarchs in 5 games. This is the second championship in 4 years.
Laimbeer has talked about the possibility of one day coaching in the NBA. The New York Knicks, whose former team president, former Piston teammate Isiah Thomas, once considered Laimbeer as a possibility. The Pistons, presided by former teammate Joe Dumars, had considered the possibility of Laimbeer replacing departing coach Larry Brown, before ultimately hiring former Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Flip Saunders. Laimbeer is a former color commentator for the Pistons and was a Studio analyst for ESPN in 2003.
Bill Laimbeer won the Shooting Stars competition at the 2007 NBA All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas along with Chauncey Billups of the Detroit Pistons and Swin Cash of the Detroit Shock.
Laimbeer has led the Detroit Shock of the WNBA to its third league championship in six years defeating San Antonio on October 5, 2008.
Notable on-court incidents
- Fought with Larry Bird during Game 3 of the 1987 NBA Eastern Conference Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Detroit Pistons held at the Silverdome. Both Laimbeer and Bird were ejected.
- Was punched in the face by Robert Parish during Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals.
- Was punched in the face by Michael Jordan during Game 3 of the 1988 Eastern Conference Semifinals.
- Fought with Brad Daugherty in 1989. This incident led to a one-game suspension that ended Laimbeer's consecutive games-played streak at 685.
- Fought and wrestled with Charles Barkley during a regular-season game in 1990. Laimbeer and Barkley spoofed the incident in a cameo appearance in the 1991 comedy film Hot Shots!.
Other media
Bill Laimbeer is the subject of the Beastie Boys song "Tough Guy".
Bill Laimbeer appeared as a video game character in Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball, a Super Nintendo game.
While in high school, Laimbeer appeared as a Sleestak in several episodes of the cult favorite Saturday morning television show, Land of the Lost.
External links
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