1989 NBA Finals

The 1989 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 1988–89 NBA season. The series was a rematch of the previous year's championship round between the Detroit Pistons and the Los Angeles Lakers.

During the season, the Lakers had won their division, with Magic Johnson collecting his second MVP award. The team swept the first three playoff series (Pacific Division foes: Portland, Seattle, and Phoenix), resulting in a rematch with the Detroit Pistons in the Finals. Johnson and Byron Scott were injured, with Scott suffering a hamstring injury in practice before Game 1 and Johnson pulling a hamstring during Game 2. The Lakers had won two straight NBA championships in 1987 and 1988.

The Pistons had dominated the Eastern Conference, winning 63 games during the regular season. After sweeping the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks, the Pistons beat the Chicago Bulls in six games, earning a second straight trip to the NBA Finals. In the season before, the Lakers had beaten them in a tough, seven-game series.

The Pistons won the series in a four-game sweep, marking the first time a team (Lakers) swept the first three rounds of the playoffs, and then be swept in the finals.

For their rough physical play, and sometimes arrogant demeanor, Pistons' center Bill Laimbeer nicknamed the team 'The Bad Boys'. The name became an unofficial 'slogan' for the Pistons throughout the next season as well.

Following the series, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar announced his retirement at 42, after 20 years with the NBA.

Pistons' guard Joe Dumars was named MVP for the series.

Before the Lakers won in 2009, the Pistons were the last Finals champion to have been the runner-up the previous season as they were in 1988.