In the week before the game, Pierce, then the interim coach, expressed to his team that they need to “hate the color red” and showed them videos of famous boxing and MMA fights and how the NBA’s Detroit Pistons approached playing Hall of Famer Michael Jordan in the late 1980s, with a tough defensive game plan devised by coach Chuck Daly.
“We’ve got the Jordan rules and what I’m calling, from now on as long as I’m here, the Patrick Mahomes rules,” Pierce said on the podcast. “So, you remember when Jordan was going through it with the Pistons, all those guys in the ’80s; before he became Michael Jordan, Air Jordan, the Pistons used to whup his ass. Any time he came to the hole? Elbows, feeling him, love taps. We touched him. We’re in the head, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, I’m touching you. So, I showed those guys Jordan getting his ass whupped.”
