SOME SMART ANSWERS FOR DUMB QUESTIONS
Let’s face it. We ask some dumb questions in sports writing. It is the only line of work I know where you can go up to a perfect stranger, pull out a notebook, and say: “So. How’s the groin?”Still, if you really want to chuckle, you should hang...
A BAD BOYS BLOWOUTPISTONS CRUISE PAST LA IN OPENER, 109-97
One-derful. Marvelous. If they were all like this, the parade would already have started. Here were the Pistons Tuesday night, with all the cobwebs cleared, with full concentration, jaws clenched, eyes narrowed, attacking the National Basketball Association Finals as...
Mikey, Stop Kidding Yourself:You And The Lakers Look Old
Listen, Los Angeles. Hello? Excuse me? Los Ang—-
QUIET ON THE SET!
I figured that would get your attention.
Sorry to disturb the morning cappuccino, kids. But I have come from the Motor City to pass on a message that dates back to the Bible (you remember the Bible, don’t you? Charlton Heston? Lots of sand?). When God made heaven and earth, He looked it over, leaned back, and said: “Nice job, Big Fella.” And he left it alone.
Get the message?
Not everything has to be done twice.
The Joe Nobody Knows: Lots To Tell About Piston With Little To Say
He stepped inside the hospital room and took a deep breath. There lay his father, a strapping truck driver who had always been the image of strength. The sheets were pulled up to his waist.
“Come here, son. I want you to see this.”
Joe Dumars walked slowly to the edge of the bed.
“It won’t do any good to feel sorry for me, you know. I don’t need that now. Just look and get it over with.”
He pulled back the sheets. The left leg was gone, amputated at the knee. Diabetes. Dumars looked down and fought back the tears.
IT’S ON TO THE FINALS
CHICAGO — When the buzzer sounded this time, there were no leaps of joy, no screams, no hollers. They walked off the court like professionals, bruised, exhausted, breathing hard, yes, but still standing and maybe even . . . grinning. They won the game. They won...
I PROPOSE A TEST: REFS, GET THOSE PENCILS READY
Can I be blunt? We might already be done with this Detroit- Chicago basketball playoff were it not for the referees. In both of the Detroit losses, controversial calls helped decide the finish: in Game 1, an offensive foul on Rick Mahorn with less than a minute to go;...
Pistons Can See La, 94-85On Vj Day, Detroit Finds Its Long-Lostshooting Touch
He was a breath of cool air in a stuffy closet. A splash of water in a sun-baked desert. Vinnie Johnson was doing something most of his Pistons teammates had suddenly found nearly impossible — hitting his shots. Hitting? Try insisting. He would not take “no good” for an answer. He rose like destiny over any defender, in his face, in his skin, didn’t matter how close, didn’t matter if the guy ate onions and garlic for dinner. Vinnie wanted it. The Pistons needed it.
Cook, baby.
AIR SHOW GROUNDED BY PISTONS DEFENSE
CHICAGO — The bottle came flying from the stands. It narrowly missed the Pistons’ players and smashed on the court into a thousand pieces. The crowd erupted into an ugly roar. Joe Dumars felt a ping in his back and spun around. “Somebody threw a...
Pistons Can’T Seem To Find A Mr. Clutch
CHICAGO — Long after he fired the shot that sank Detroit Saturday afternoon, Michael Jordan sat by his locker, glanced around the empty room and contemplated the enemy.
“They don’t have that go-to guy right now,” he said of the Pistons, a team his Bulls suddenly lead, 2-1, in the Eastern Conference finals. “It used to be Adrian Dantley. We could never stop him. If they needed a basket at the end, they could go to him in isolation and he’d get a shot or a foul.
“I was real happy when they traded Dantley for Mark Aguirre. It’s a lot easier for us now.”
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