Vinnie Johnson: The Microwave Heats Up Fast, 1986

[When Vinnie Johnson came of the Detroit Piston bench, it was like waiting for a cluster of firecrackers to go off. He would pop, pop, pop, and usually score, score, score. Special player, and a special memory from Detroit’s Bad Boy era. But rather than me wax on, let’s turn over the floor to Dave Dye of the Detroit News. In his article, published in the April 1986 issue of Basketball News, Dye tells it like it was when the seven-year-pro Johnson . . .“The Microwave”. . . heated up in the 1980s NBA. His lead paragraph says it all.] **** At times on the basketball court, it is Vinnie Johnson’s world and everyone else is only a participant. He can make nine talented athletes disappear at once—including the all-star trio of Larry Bird, Julius Erving, and Isiah Thomas. And no matter what anyone does to compensate, once he gets started, only Johnson’s own actions determine when the show ends. “He’s an offense by himself,” Thomas said. “When he gets going like that, we just give him the…