FOR BETTER OR WORSE, DUMARS MOVES BOLDLY
Things change. Sometimes this is true in a slow way and sometimes true in a fast way, and right now in Pistons Land it’s true in an avalanche way, and Michael Curry just got buried underneath it.”The fact is, we’re going through this transition right...
Daly, A Regular Guy, Was Coaching Royalty
And his hair was perfect. Every time I think about Chuck Daly, I think about that old song lyric. Chuck coming down the tunnel, nodding just before going out, and his hair was perfect. Chuck charging down the sidelines, screaming “GIMME A BREAK!” and his hair was perfect. Chuck speeding through a shopping mall, fingering the suits, Chuck grinning through a TV interview, Chuck wearing Armani or Hugo Boss, and his hair – wavy, thick, blown back like a Roman statesman’s – was perfect. It gave him the image of a man in control, always coiffed, always ready.
DUMARS’ PISTONS GATHER NO MOSS
Say this about Joe Dumars’ Pistons: They’re more interesting when they’re not playing than the Lions are when they are.
Dumars, criticized by some for standing pat over the summer, just shot a cannon through the Detroit roster, and nothing is standing pat anymore. Out goes Chauncey Billups and crowd favorite Antonio McDyess. In comes Allen Iverson.
Yes, THE Allen Iverson.
But before anyone hyperventilates, let’s take a breath and look at it two ways: the basketball way and the business way.
SAME FACES (SURPRISE?) AS PISTONS REV IT UP
They were supposed to be different. Not the same old Fab Four. Either Chauncey or Tayshaun, maybe Rasheed, maybe Rip. Someone was going. That’s what fans figured this summer. Joe Dumars, the team president, said it publicly and loudly – after the Pistons fell short of the NBA Finals yet again – he would trade one or more of his Mt. Rushmore faces if the right deal came along.
What happened?
“It didn’t come along,” he says.
BROWN VS. PISTONS: A GAME OF CHICKEN
For weeks, Larry Brown has said he’ll go to the Mayo Clinic, spend three days, then let the Pistons know if he can coach.
Those three days are up today. But if you’re expecting a yes or no, forget it. For one thing, this is the Mayo Clinic, not Lourdes.
For another, this is Larry Brown, where the answer is rarely yes or no, but more like “Well, if these guys want me, and if these guys don’t ”
FEEL THEIR PAIN AS THE PISTONS CONFRONT LIFE AS EX-CHAMPS
SAN ANTONIO – They were taking Richard Hamilton to the interview area, and because the Pistons’ locker room was on the other side of the arena, the walk was long and he had to look at everything. This is what he passed. He passed a huge open area with tables full of Spurs fans. He passed a group of Frenchmen, soaked with champagne, cheering Tony Parker. He passed Spanish-speaking journalists, emerging from the steamy San Antonio locker room, gushing over Manu Ginobili. He passed a curtained area where Spurs VIPs posed for photos with a giant golden trophy.
IT’S OUR PISTONS VS. THE WORLD
OK, we get it. It’s Detroit against the world. It wasn’t enough that in the Heat series, it was Detroit against South Beach. Or in the Lakers series last year, it was Detroit against Hollywood.
No, now the stakes are higher. Now it’s the 2005 NBA Finals. So the basketball gods sent the good people of Detroit the entire planet as an opponent, wrapped in the black-and-white uniforms of the San Antonio Spurs.
PISTONS 79, CAVS 76 | DEJA TWO!
And after all that, after the crazy second quarter, the crazy third quarter, the emergence of a bench star, the circus shot by Rasheed Wallace for the lead, after all that, here we were again, LeBron James out top, with a decision to make, the game in his hands.
And here he came, down the lane.
In Game 1 at the Palace, he dished the ball to Donyell Marshall, who missed a three-pointer, and a rainstorm of criticism came down on LeBron’s head. Why’d you pass? You’re the best in the league – shoot it!
PISTONS PROVE GOOD PLAY MOWS A GARDEN
BOSTON – It might not be the old Garden, with the rats and the bad air and the leprechauns, but this new Garden has been magical to the Boston Celtics. Now that magic is gone. Whatever role the parquet floor played in the 2008 playoffs – allowing the Celtics to go a perfect 9-0 – was smashed Thursday night by the only team these days that seems unaffected by geography, or anything else for that matter.
Beat the House. The Pistons had to do it at some point if they wanted to win these Eastern Conference finals, and they did it in Game 2 the old-fashioned way: They tried harder.
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