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The Detroit Pistons of the late 1980’s were noted for there rough and rugged and often downright dirty play. In 1989 these ‘roustabouts’ from the Motor City would win Detroit’s first ever NBA title. Led by a terrific Guard tandem of Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars they were the perfect compliment to the team’s front line bullies. The Pistons won 63 games during the regular season. No other team came within 6 games of that mark. They stormed through the Eastern Conference playoffs sweeping Boston and Milwaukee in 3 and 4 games respectively in the first two rounds. Then they came up against another up and coming team in the Chicago Bulls in the conference finals. The Pistons prevailed in 6 games which set the stage for their rematch with LA in the finals. But Los Angeles would never know what hit them! The Pistons took down the Lakers in 4 straight.

 

Sadly these would be the last 4 games of Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s incredible career. Jabbar retired after the 1988-89 season but not before he had amassed over 38,000 points, 17000 rebounds, a field goal percentage of 56% and not to mention 6 NBA championships over a 20 year Hall of Fame career.

 

In the Western Conference the Lakers were challenged mainly by Phoenix and Utah the only two other teams to win over 50 games in the West. The Lakers went 11-0 in the Western Conference playoffs before being manhandled by the domineering ‘Bad Boys’ from Detroit.

 

There were 25 teams in the NBA in 1988-89 as the league added two new expansion teams from the southwest corner of the country that season. Charlotte and Miami now had NBA teams they could call their own. Charlotte would win the ‘expansion championship’ by winning a grand total of 20 games - 5 better than Miami.

 

The scoring title would go to Michael Jordan with his 32.5 per game average. Karl Malone was the only other player close the 30 ppg mark with his 29.1 average. An almost all but forgotten player, Dale Ellis, averaged 27.1 for the Seattle Supersonics. (Remember them?) Hakeem Olajuwon turned in his typical productive season 24.8 ppg, 13.5 rpg for the Rockets but they could still do no better than 45 wins.

 

The MVP honors, though, went to Magic Johnson (22.5 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 12.8 apg) in a failed attempt for the Lakers to achieve a Three-Peat! Unfortunately, Magic’s long-time rival, Larry Bird would miss virtually all of the 1988-89 season due to injury. Without Bird the best the Celtics could do was third place in the Atlantic division just two games over .500.

 

I sincerely hope you enjoy this recreation of the 1988-89 NBA season. This version of my Statis-Pro Basketball computer game is employing two new features which I hope most of you will respond to positively. The ‘Stamina’ rating now reflects a players minutes played per half instead of the usual (FGA’s + Rebs + Pfs). Players are also now given a S/A (shot attempt) rating. This indicates the likelihood they will be able to get a shot. Low S/A players (1-5) will not get as many shot attempts as (6-10) rated players. All of this is being incorporated into the game in the hope of bringing more accuracy and more realism and most important More Fun into the game. Please let me know your thoughts on the new features and as always Enjoy Playing My Games!