1988–89 Detroit Pistons season

The 1988–89 NBA season was the 41st season for the Detroit Pistons in the National Basketball Association, and their 32nd season in Detroit, Michigan. Before the start of the regular season, the Pistons moved from the Pontiac Silverdome to the brand-new Palace of Auburn Hills.

The team won their first eight games of the regular season, and held a 31–13 record at the All-Star break. However, Adrian Dantley was unhappy with his role on the team, losing playing time to Dennis Rodman at the small forward position. At mid-season, the team traded Dantley to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for All-Star forward Mark Aguirre, a childhood friend of Isiah Thomas; Dantley felt that Thomas had a major role in engineering the trade, so that Aguirre could have the opportunity of winning a championship, an accusation that Thomas denied.

With the addition of Aguirre, the Pistons posted a nine-game winning streak in March, won eight consecutive games between March and April, then won their final five games of the season, finishing in first place in the Central Division with a league-best record of 63–19, and earning the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Thomas led the team with 18.2 points, 8.3 assists and 1.7 steals per game, and was selected for the 1989 NBA All-Star Game in Houston, Texas, while Joe Dumars averaged 17.2 points and 5.7 assists per game, and Vinnie Johnson contributed 13.8 points per game off the bench. In addition, Bill Laimbeer provided the team with 13.7 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, while Rodman provided with 9.0 points and 9.4 rebounds per game off the bench, and Rick Mahorn averaged 7.3 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. Also off the bench, James Edwards contributed 7.3 points per game, and John Salley provided with 7.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.

Dumars and Rodman were both named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team; Thomas and Dumars both finished tied in seventeenth place in Most Valuable Player voting, while Rodman finished in third place in Defensive Player of the Year voting, finished in third place in Sixth Man of the Year voting, and also tied in seventh place in Most Improved Player voting, and head coach Chuck Daly finished in fourth place in Coach of the Year voting.

In the Eastern Conference First Round of the 1989 NBA playoffs, the Pistons swept the Boston Celtics in three straight games, then swept the 5th-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in four straight games in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals. In the Eastern Conference Finals, they trailed 2–1 to Michael Jordan and the 6th-seeded Chicago Bulls, but managed to win the series in six games to advance to the 1989 NBA Finals, where the Pistons would win their first ever NBA championship, sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers in four straight games, as Dumars was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player. This series was a rematch from last year's NBA Finals, with the Pistons avenging their NBA Finals loss. The Pistons clinched every series victory on the road that was later followed by the 1999 San Antonio Spurs and 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers.

Following the season, Mahorn was left unprotected in the 1989 NBA expansion draft, where he was selected by the newly expansion Minnesota Timberwolves. However, Mahorn never played for the Timberwolves due to a contract dispute, as he was then traded to the Philadelphia 76ers soon after.

The Pistons and Lakers would face each other again 15 years later in the NBA Finals in 2004, where the Pistons won in five games en route to their third NBA championship, despite being underdogs to the heavily-favored Lakers.