before becoming a high school basketball coach. After graduating he played one game with the Philadelphia Warriors of the N.B.A. McCloskey lettered in baseball, football and basketball in high school, then played football at the University of Pittsburgh before serving in the Navy at Okinawa during World War II.Īfter the war he finished his education at the University of Pennsylvania, where he continued to play three varsity sports. His mother, the former Beulah Spade, was a homemaker his father, Eddie, was a miner. John William McCloskey was born in Mahanoy City, Pa., a coal mining town, on Sept. He worked with the Timberwolves until 1995, during which time they never had a winning record.
McCloskey told The Associated Press that May. “I’ve been here a long time, perhaps too long,” Mr. McCloskey moved to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who were in desperate need of better front-office management.
Shortly after Tom Wilson was appointed president of the Pistons in 1992, Daly resigned and Mr. But Detroit flagged after that the next two years in the playoffs, losing to the Bulls in the Eastern Conference finals and then to Patrick Ewing’s Knicks in the first round. The Pistons repeated as champions the next season, defeating the Portland Trail Blazers in five games. He picked the players and the coach and made all the moves.” “There’s the man who deserves a lot of the credit for this championship,” Thomas told The New York Times as Mr. McCloskey drafted in 1981, praised his general manager in the locker room after the game. Thomas, the small but dominant point guard whom Mr. This time they swept the Lakers (Johnson was injured during the series) to win the first championship in franchise history. In 1988, the Pistons made the finals for the first time in decades before losing to the Lakers, four games to three.īut the next year, the Pistons had the best regular-season record in the N.B.A., at 63-19, then went 15-2 in the playoffs. McCloskey, Detroit made the playoffs nine times in a row, the Eastern Conference finals five consecutive seasons and the N.B.A. They were known for an implacable defense that wore down dominant 1980s teams like Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics and Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers, as well as the ascendant Chicago Bulls led by Michael Jordan. McCloskey and Daly, the Pistons became a sharp-elbowed team nicknamed the Bad Boys. McCloskey replaced him in 1983 with Chuck Daly, a future Hall of Famer. McCloskey also engineered a string of trades, earning the nickname Trader Jack after acquiring the rugged center Bill Laimbeer, power forward Rick Mahorn, the 7-foot-1 center James Edwards and the dependable sixth man Vinnie Johnson.įans were furious when he traded Adrian Dantley, a six-time All-Star forward, to the Dallas Mavericks for Mark Aguirre, a forward and a three-time All-Star - until the Pistons won the championship the next season.Īfter three losing seasons under Coach Scotty Robertson, Mr. It’s something we’ll be reminded of frequently as we watch episodes 3 and 4 of The Last Dance, whether it’s filtered through the prism of Michael Jordan’s perspective or not.Mr. Many elements went into the making of the Michael Jordan we know today, but the most important of them all may have just been the Detroit Pistons, the Bad Boys and Isiah Thomas. Isiah Thomas is the only star to defeat the trio of Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan in the playoffs, and he handled the greatest of them all three straight times. Isiah Thomas and the Bad Boys had a 12-6 record in playoff games against Jordan’s squad before the Bulls got the upper hand in 1991 and finally became THE BULLS en route to a sweep victory. In their first three matchups, the Pistons held off the upstart Bulls each time. In the playoffs, while things ultimately ended badly, the Pistons held it over the Bulls as well. Not bad for the lesser light in the matchup. Thomas averaged 21 points, 9.3 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1.7 steals. It’s fine though, Isiah Thomas and the Pistons had the winning edge. Of course, Jordan had the statistical edge, scoring 31.6 points per game, but not many players outscored him anyway. In the regular season, the Pistons had a 24-19 record in games where they both played.