Sports / Press & broadcasting
Rick Mahorn
born 1958 · basketball player, coach, broadcaster
Enforcer on the late-1980s "Bad Boys" Pistons who won the 1989 NBA title in Detroit and has stayed connected to the city for decades as a coach and broadcaster.
- Born
Hartford, Connecticut
age 68- Birth name
- Derrick Allen Mahorn
- Detroit years
- 1985–1989, 1996–1997, then broadcasting to present
- Field
- Sports, Press & broadcasting
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Mahorn became a core piece of the physical, defense-first Pistons teams nicknamed the "Bad Boys" after teammate Bill Laimbeer took him aside and explained his role: enforcer alongside Laimbeer in the frontcourt. In 1989 the Pistons swept the Los Angeles Lakers to win the franchise's first NBA championship, with Mahorn dubbed the "Baddest Bad Boy of them all" by Pistons announcer George Blaha. Two days after the title, in a moment still remembered in Detroit, the expansion Minnesota Timberwolves selected him out of the roster in the NBA's expansion draft while the Pistons were still celebrating. He returned to Detroit for one more season in 1996–97, then stayed in the city for good: he became a Pistons radio analyst, an assistant coach and later head coach of the WNBA's Detroit Shock under former teammate Bill Laimbeer, winning two WNBA titles as a coach, and later coached the BIG3 league's Detroit team, the Amps.
Highlights
- 1989 NBA champion with the Pistons "Bad Boys"
- Selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 1989 expansion draft, two days after winning the title
- Assistant coach on two WNBA champion Detroit Shock teams (2006, 2008)
- Long-running Detroit Pistons radio color analyst
- Head coach of the BIG3 league's Detroit Amps
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Played here · 1985–1989
Joe Louis Arena
Demolished · 1979–2017
Home arena of the "Bad Boys" Pistons during his championship run; the Pistons played there before moving to the Palace in 1988.
Played here · 1988–1989
The Palace of Auburn Hills
Demolished · 1988–2017
The Pistons' new suburban arena for the end of his playing tenure; demolished in 2020.