Remember the Rivalry
It's pretty difficult to come to the Palace and not remember some of the great battles that we had with the Pistons when I was playing.
I remember when I was a rookie and the 7-game series we had with Detroit in the play-offs. Both teams played well at home, but we lost John Paxson for game 7 and Scottie Pippen was out most of the game with a headache. We were under-manned...BJ Armstrong and I were rookies, and it was really a baptism by fire in that game. After we lost, Michael Jordan told us all in the locker room, "This will NEVER happen again."
It was a natural progression back then...Detroit battled the Celtics, then finally won. Then we battled Detroit for 2 or 3 years before we won our first championship. It was a great rivalry and those rivalries where the cities are close together are good for the league. Right now, the Bulls are hopefully on their way up, while the Pistons are trying to remain one of the elite teams in the East. I don't know if this rivalry will ever be as intense as it was, but I'd like to see it heat up again.