Bill Laimbeer

William Laimbeer Jr. (born May 19, 1957) is an American former professional basketball coach and player who spent the majority of his career with the Detroit Pistons.

As a senior in high school in 1975, Laimbeer led Palos Verdes to a CIF basketball title and a stunning upset over 6 time defending champion Verbum Dei.

For college, Laimbeer attended Notre Dame where he played basketball, but he flunked out after his freshman year.

To regain his eligibility, he spent two semesters at Owens Technical College in Toledo, Ohio.

Laimbeer then re-entered Notre Dame.

He spent two years playing for Notre Dame's basketball team.

For his last two years of college, he averaged 7.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per game while playing 20 minutes a game, primarily as a substitute.

With the Fighting Irish, Laimbeer appeared in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament in 1978, and the Elite Eight in 1979.

Laimbeer was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1979, but spent his first professional season in Europe.

He played in Italy for Pinti Inox Brescia, where he averaged 21.1 points and 12.5 rebounds.

Known for his physical style of play, he played a big part in the Pistons earning the nickname the “Bad Boys" in the mid-1980s before helping them win back-to-back NBA championships.

In his National Basketball Association (NBA) career, Laimbeer was known for his 11-year tenure with the Detroit Pistons during their "Bad Boys" era.

Although a solid shooter and rebounder, Laimbeer became notorious for his physical play and reputation for delivering hard, often flagrant fouls.

Laimbeer returned to play for the Cavaliers in 1980.

He was a reserve for the entire 1980–81 season and started only 4 games for the 1981–82 team.

On February 16, 1982, Laimbeer was traded to the Detroit Pistons, where he remained for the rest of his career.

He was immediately installed as the Pistons starting center.

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 his disdain of his opponents, his poor sportsmanship, and his dangerous play, such as repeatedly committing violent intentional fouls.

In the public eye, Laimbeer's reputation for physical play tended to overshadow his skills.

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 played at center with Hall of Fame backcourt guards Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars and forward Dennis Rodman, winning back-to-back NBA Championships in 1989 and 1990 with the Pistons, and being named an NBA All-Star four times.

Prior to the NBA, he played for the University of Notre Dame and Palos Verdes High School in Southern California.

In an interview for the 1990 NBA Home Video release "Pure Pistons," teammate Isiah Thomas also talked about Laimbeer's effect on opposing players, saying, "He frustrates people," but then added, "He frustrates people...because he's good."

In the ESPN 30 for 30 film Bad Boys, Laimbeer said his approach to the game was all psychological.

When the Pistons would take to the court before a game, Laimbeer made it a point to lead the rest of the team out from the locker room and he always did so with a scowl on his face to show he was not intimidated by anyone.

While a serviceable and solid player for most of his career, Laimbeer knew there were better skilled players than him.

However, there were not as many players who were as physical on the court as he was, and Laimbeer was able to use that to his advantage.

The hard-nosed approach he used was designed to wear on opposing players to the point where they began focusing more on retaliating against him and the rest of the Pistons instead of trying to win the game; Laimbeer said if he was able to do that to an opponent during the course of a game, he had broken them down.

He even said the local media would play a role as his and the team's reputation preceded them: "When the Pistons came into a town, all the media would write about were the 'Bad Boys' and how rough we played. They'd be asking players if they were going to stand up to us. And once we got teams thinking like that, we had them. We already got them out of their game."

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 used Laimbeer's inside-outside skills to great effect.

After his playing career, Laimbeer served as the head coach and general manager of the Detroit Shock in the WNBA from 2002 to 2009, coaching the team to three league championships in 2003, 2006, and 2008.

He was the head coach of the New York Liberty from 2013 to 2017 and the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces from 2018 until 2021.

He has twice been named the WNBA's Coach of the Year.

Laimbeer was born in Boston and raised in the Chicago suburb of Clarendon Hills before moving with his family to Palos Verdes Estates, California.

His father, William Laimbeer Sr., was an Owens-Illinois executive who rose as high as company president.

The younger Laimbeer once famously joked, "I'm the only player in the NBA who makes less money than his father."

Laimbeer played a Sleestak on the children's TV series Land of the Lost before attending Notre Dame.

He was a Palos Verdes High School student, and the Land of the Lost show solicited their basketball team for tall people to play Sleestaks.