Rick Mahorn formed one half of Detroit’s notorious “Bruise Brothers” with fellow enforcer Bill Laimbeer, but his individual contribution was arguably greater. As UPI put it, Mahorn gave the Bad Boys “their swagger.” Celtics great Dennis Johnson said the swag-alicious Piston “made it so Bill (Laimbeer) could say he was a Bad Boy, too.” A daunting on-court presence, Mahorn was a rebounding machine that didn’t just attack backboards. In 1988 he started a brawl with the Bulls by throwing Michael Jordan onto the floor.

In 1989 the Minnesota Timberwolves claimed Mahorn in the NBA expansion draft but traded him to the 76ers when he refused to play. After moving to Philly, Mahorn didn’t get much brotherly love from Bill Laimbeer, who shoved a basketball in Mahorn’s face during competition and incurred the wrath of non-Detroit bad boy Charles Barkley.

Mahorn played for various teams during the 1990s, including Detroit again, before calling it quits. That didn’t mean the end of his battles though. Despite coaching in the CBA and later taking the reins from Laimbeer as head coach of the WNBA’s Detroit Shock, Mahorn lost a fight with financial debt and filed for bankruptcy in 2010. He kept fighting, though, and worked as radio broadcaster for the Pistons. In a touching tribute to his late mother, Mahorn went back to school and completed his undergraduate degree in 2015.

People called Vinnie Johnson the “Microwave” because … well, nicknames were inspired by household appliances during the 1980s and ’90s. Boston’s Danny Ainge dubbed Johnson the Microwave in part because the Chicago Bears had a dude called the “Fridge.” Also because Johnson “heated up in a hurry” and scored 34 points (22 in the fourth quarter) against the Celtics despite coming off the bench.

“Handmixer” might have also worked as a nickname because Johnson beat the Portland Trail Blazers like eggs during the 1990 NBA Finals. With 0.7 seconds remaining in Game 5 and the score tied at 90, he buried an off-balance shot to secure Detroit’s second championship. In the 1990-91 season the Microwave didn’t look so hot to the Pistons, and they parted ways. Johnson took his cooking skills to San Antonio and played 60 games as a Spur.

In 1995 Johnson started Piston Automotive, an auto parts supplier that has grown from 200 employees to over 8,000 and made billions in revenue over the years. After acquiring a competitor for $175 million in 2017, Johnson has set his sights on making Piston Automotive a global supplier.

NBA.com described the acquisition of James Edwards as “the most overlooked move in the construction of the Bad Boys.” Obtained in exchange for a No. 2 draft pick and an obscure big man, Edwards was a bench player with a starter’s stamina, nimble feet, and an “unblockable” jump shot. Dubbed “Buddha” by his teammates because of his trademark Fu Manchu and relaxed personality, he wasn’t quite as bad as the other boys in Detroit. However, in 1990 he slapped Chicago Bull Ed Nealy during the Eastern Conference Finals.

At 34, borderline geriatric for an NBA player, Edwards filled the void when Rick Mahorn got drafted to the Timberwolves. Apparently, he had plenty left in the tank because he scored the third most points on the team and didn’t hang up his basketball shoes until age 40. He ended his career as a member of the Pistons’ bitter rivals, the Chicago Bulls. Weirdly, it was also a Bad Boys reunion since former Pistons Dennis Rodman and John Salley had also joined the Bulls. All three would win another championship together as part of Chicago’s fabled 1995-96 roster.

For Edwards a nice coaching job would have been the cherry atop his retirement sundae, but alas he settled down in Seattle, which no longer has the SuperSonics. In a 2008 interview he said he did “a little bit of” work with a sports agency and some PR work.

A prolific rebounder with more heart than height, defensive virtuoso Dennis Rodman went after basketballs like they owed him money. Rodman wasn’t just talented; he revolutionized the forward position, proving you didn’t have to be a 7-footer to play like one. In fact, the 6-foot-8 Rodman out-hustled taller men night in and night out. He “terrorized teams,” per Sports Illustrated, and even when opponents double-teamed him he still might grab 34 rebounds in a game.

Nicknamed the “Worm,” Rodman had a slim frame and frenetic, almost wriggly defensive style that made him a useful weapon against Michael Jordan. Somewhat mislabeled as a “back-up Jordan-stopper” by Sports Illustrated (Jordan was unstoppa-Bull), Rodman was Detroit’s reliable second option behind Joe Dumars for defending against arguably the greatest NBA player who ever lived. Not too shabby.

Rodman left Detroit with two championship rings and roughly 20 bajillion rebounds. He later went to Chicago and grabbed three more titles. A fan of the spotlight, he became a bestselling author, dyed his hair every color in the crayon box, and starred in hilariously bad movies like Double Team, and that’s only the tip of his post-Pistons iceberg. Rodman was also married to Carmen Electra for a few months, had a pro-wrestling feud with Karl Malone, a real-life feud with the law, an ill-fated romance with Madonna, an ill-conceived bromance with North Korea’s dictator, and got involved with the cryptocurrency PotCoin. What hasn’t he done?

The biggest badass of the Bad Boys era didn’t actually play on the team. General manager Jack McCloskey, affectionately known as “Trader Jack,” proved his toughness before the Bad Boys were Bad Zygotes. The son of an Irish coal-miner who started working at age 12, McCloskey learned basketball by playing among the potholes and standing water of a dirt road with a metal hoop. A World War II veteran, McCloskey commanded roughly two dozen men in the Battle of Okinawa as a 19-year-old, per Savannah Now, because the previous captain was killed.

After coaching several college and NBA teams, McCloskey rebuilt the previously floundering Pistons in his own image, creating a team of (literal) fighters. Known for bold trades, he once reportedly offered to give away all the Pistons in exchange for Magic Johnson. In the end he created his own magic through a series of successful gambles that brought future super coach Chuck Daly and unexpected legends like Dennis Rodman.

Thanks to Trader Jack’s brilliant risk-taking, the Bad Boys made it to the playoffs nine years in a row and appeared in three consecutive NBA finals. Sadly, that priceless mind was lost to Alzheimer’s. McCloskey passed away in 2017 at age 91.