Pistons’ Season Whines to Close at Boston Garden

BOSTON —  The Celtics might have understood if it had been Bill Laimbeer, the designated villain of this seven-game passion play.

But the last thing the Detroit Piston center did before walking off the court Saturday after the Pistons’ 117-114 loss to the Celtics was to congratulate Larry Bird, whose head he had tried to keep as a souvenir a week ago.

Laimbeer didn’t turn on Bird. The Worm did.

That’s Dennis (Worm) Rodman, the Detroit Piston rookie who had riled the Celtics with his on-court dancing, then really ticked them off when he proclaimed Larry Bird is overrated because he is white.

Rodman is black. He’s also 6-8, went to Southeastern Oklahoma State, was drafted in the second round by the Pistons, and started in one Detroit game this season.

Rodman is also a pinball wizard, and got his nickname for the way he wriggles when he flaps the flippers. For the way he flapped his mouth Saturday, Rodman was thought to be something less than a wizard by Boston’s Kevin McHale.

Try dumb.

“Overrated white guy . . . Larry Bird is a great player. To hear Dennis Rodman say something like that, they ought to hang Dennis Rodman by his feet from the Silverdome and slap the (bleep) out of him,” McHale said.

“How can a guy say that about Larry?”

In the final seconds of Saturday’s game, McHale--along with Danny Ainge and Dennis Johnson--mocked the way Rodman had pranced around the court like a Lippizaner stallion, waving his right hand in the air.

“Last time I saw that was in high school,” said McHale, who earned his last letter from Hibbing (Minn.) High in 1976. “Maybe it’s good for the sport, but I think it’s bush league, running around the court like that.”

But when Rodman stopped strutting and started talking, McHale really took exception.

“Until Rodman wins three championships and three MVPs, he might as well keep his mouth shut,” McHale said. “The way Larry ate their lunches today, Rodman should ask his coach to put him on a defensive slide this summer.

“He was smiling at the end of the game. I said, ‘Doggone Dennis, you shouldn’t be smiling right now.’ He said, ‘Don’t matter to me.’ I said, ‘That’s why I’m where I am and you’re where you are.’ ”

A brief review of the on-court facts, before the off-the-court denunciations, which included a startling seconding of Rodman’s views by Isiah Thomas, the Pistons’ best player.

Saturday, Bird scored 37 points, pulled down 9 rebounds and had 9 assists while playing all 48 minutes in a 93-degree Boston Garden steam bath.

Rodman had 1 basket, 0 rebounds, 3 points and 3 blocked shots in 18 minutes of play. When Adrian Dantley went out with a concussion with eight seconds left in the third quarter, Rodman drew Bird as his defensive assignment and was lit up for 10 fourth-quarter points.

All the while, Bird was talking to him.

“He said, ‘You can’t guard me. Let’s go, one-on-one,’ ” Rodman said.

“That’s fine with me. Take the referees away and we’ll go at it.

“He’s not God. He ain’t the best player in the NBA, not to me.”

Who is, Rodman was asked.

“Magic Johnson,” he said.

And if Bird and Rodman were allowed to play one-on-one for a full 48 minutes?

“I’d get it,” Rodman said. “He can’t run with me. He’s slow. He can’t run. And tell Larry that when you go over there.”

But wait. Rodman wasn’t through. When someone mentioned to him that Bird was a three-time winner of the league’s Most Valuable Player award, Rodman said:

“He’s white. That’s the only reason he gets it. Nobody gives Magic Johnson credit. He deserved it (the MVP) last year, too.”

One reporter, giving Rodman the benefit of the doubt not because he was black or white but because he was green, asked Rodman if he feared his words might come back to haunt him.

“I don’t care,” he said. “Go right ahead and tell him. You’ll put it in the paper, anyway.”

Thomas, whose Game 5 pass that was stolen by Bird may have cost the Pistons the series, sat in an adjacent cubicle.

Someone relayed Rodman’s comments to him.

After a long pause, Thomas said:

“I think Larry is a very, very good basketball player. An exceptional talent.

“But I have to agree with Rodman. If he were black, he’d be just another good guy.”

And while he was at it, Thomas made it clear that to him, Boston Garden was just another gym, too. To him, the so-called Garden mystique was as overrated as Rodman found Bird--even if the Pistons haven’t won here in their last 18 visits.

“This particular building don’t mean squat,” Thomas said. “We’re not scared of the building, we’re not scared of the fans. They don’t stop you from scoring, they don’t block shots or put it in the hole.”

To Thomas, the Pistons were the better team. If Dantley hadn’t been knocked silly when he bumped heads with teammate Vinnie Johnson, the Pistons would be flying to Los Angeles today to play the Lakers in the finals.

If nothing else, did they at least win the respect of the Celtics?

“That’s not important to me,” Thomas said, “if they respect us or not. I just don’t care.”