| Detroit Pistons HISTORY
Quick facts:
Founded: 1941
Arena: Palace at Auburn Hills
Division Championships: 10(1955, 1956,1988, 1989, 1990, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007)
Western Division 2(1955, 1956)
Central Division 8(1988, 1989, 1990, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007)
NBA Finals: 7(1955, 1956, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2004, 2005)
NBL Titles 2(1944, 1945)
NBA Titles: 3(89,90,04)
Playoffs: 41
Best Season: 2005-06 64-18 .780
Worst Season: 2023-24 14-68 .171
Ice Capades over NBA playoffs:
On March 12, 1960, the Detroit Pistons were hosting game 1 of the Western Divisional Semi-finals vs the Minneapolis Lakers, but the Pistons ran into a big problem: Nobody booked Olympia Stadium for the Pistons to play. One reason for this was that the Pistons were not very good and won just 30 games that season, but somehow still made the NBA playoffs.
The Pistons called around but nobody could host the game on such short notice. The Pistons ownership even called nearby venues in Flint, Monroe, Toledo and even went as far as asking venues in Chicago, Toronto and Buffalo. Eventually Grosse Point High school came through for the Pistons and game 1 was a go.
Sadly for the Pistons, all their work did not pay off for them. The Pistons lost a surprising close game to the Lakers 113-112. The next day the teams travelled to Minneapolis where the Lakers got a 15 point victory and the sweep. The Lakers would lose in the next round to the St Louis Hawks.
First Coach of the Month:
The first coach of the month award winner was Scotty Robertson in November 1982. He led the Pistons to an 11-6 record. The Pistons finished 37-45 and Robertson was fired and never coached in the NBA again.
Robertson coached 5 seasons in the NBA with the Jazz, Bulls and Pistons.
The Bad Boys:
The name Bad Boys has been associated with the 80s Pistons, but it was not until 1987-88 when the moniker picked up. At the start of the season the owner of the NFL's Los Angeles Raiders, Al Davis, sent the Pistons Raiders merchandise in appriciation for their like minded hard physical play. Davis went as far as to have custom Raiders warmups for the Pistons when they traveled to the Bay area to play the Warriors.
The players really liked the moniker and it fit what many players percieved as their identity. The Pistons were also often seen as dirty as their physical style of play was rough even for the era.
Players such as Dennis Roman embodied the imagery and it stuck to everyone on those teams for their entire careers and even into the post NBA careers.
Detroit Riot:
On June 14, 1990, the Pistons won their second NBA title defeating the Portland Trail Blazers 92-90 in Game 5 of the Finals in Portland. The Palace of Aubrun Hills hosted over 21,000 Pistons fans to watch the game. The event at the palace was relatively peaceful withonly one arrest.
When the game ended Pistons fan began to loot the city and set fired. Riot police were called out and immediately escalated the situation by pepper spraying, gassing and shooting rubber bullets into the mob. This did cause the mob to disperse somewhat, but did nothing to quell the violence.
In total 124 people were injured and 8 people died in one of the worst incidents of sports violence in American history.
Malace at the Palace:
On November 19, 2004, the Indiana Pacers were leading the Detroit Pistons 97-82 with 45 seconds left. The game was all but done. Pistons center Ben Wallace attempted a layup but was fouled from behind by Pacers forward Ron Artest. Wallace and Artest had a history together as the Pistons and Pacers were rivals. Wallace shoved Artest and the players needed to be seperated in a scrum that has been seen several times in the NBA which usually results in offsetting technical fouls, but this time things would be different.
Artest, who had a reputation of being a hothead, actually was relatively calm and went to the scorers table and laid down on it. This angered many Pistons fans who began throwing objects. One of the objects hit Artest and Artest rushed into the stands trying to grab the fan who threw the object. Artest actually grabbed the wrong fan.
Following Artest's charge into the stands, several Pacers teammates followed suit. This caused many of the Pistons fans to continue to throw objects and players and fans started to throw punches.
It took several Pacers players and law enforcement officials to eventually pull Artest from the stands, and as the Pacers tried to exit Pistons fans continued to throw objects at them.
The NBA handed down some of the stiffest punishments in league history. Artest was suspended a total of 86 games, and fined $5 million dollars. Pacers forward Stephen Jackson was suspended 30 games, Pacers forward Jermaine O'Neal got 15 games, Pacers guard Anthony Johnson got a 5 game ban and Pacers guard Reggie Miller got a 1 game ban. Pistons center Ben Wallace was suspended 6 games, Pistons guard Chauncey Billups, and Forwards Derrick Coleman, and Elden Campbell were given 1 game bans. All players involved were fined.
Five Pacer players were also chared with assault; Artest, Jackson, O'Neal, Johnson and center David Harrison. All faced fines, 100 hours of community service and served 1 year of probation. Five fans were also charged with assault and given lifetime bans from attending Pistons home games.
The NBA also imposed new security guidelines on February 17, 2005, for all of its arenas. These new policies included a size limit of 24 US fl oz (710 ml) for alcohol purchases, a hard cap of two alcoholic beverages per purchase for any individual person, and the discontinuation of alcohol sales after the end of the third quarter. The NBA also later ordered that each team put at least three security guards between the players and the fans.
The NBA did not punish the teams or the officials for the incident. The three referees worked games the next night, though one of the officials Tim Donahgy eventually would face other legal issues related to gambling.
Losing Streak:
The Pistons started the 2023-24 going 2-1, then proceeded to lose a franchise record and NBA tying 28 games in a row. The Pistons lost every game f rom October 30th until December 30th. They became the 13th team in NBA history to have a winless month going 0-15 in November.
The Pistons finished the 2024 campaign with the worst record, dispite losing 28 games in a row they somehow got jumped in the standings by the Washington Wizards. Eventually, though, the Pistotns reclaimed the worst record in the NBA and finished the season with just 14 wins to Washington's 15.
Though Times:
The Pistons won just 94 of 384 games they payed between 2019 and 2024, for a win percentage of just .244. That is the 2nd lowest win percentage in a 5-year span in NBA history and the lowest of any non-expansion team in history.
The Oldest Continually Operated NBA Teams
The NBA began in 1946 as the BAA, this is a fact most fans know. But what many fans do not know is that some of the leagues teams predate the formation of the NBA.
Only three of the original 11 teams are still in existence today. The 1946-1947 had many teams fans are familiar today, they include: The Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, and Philadelphia Warriors. Those are the 3 oldest purely NBA teams, but what often gets left out of NBA history is the history of other leagues besides the NBA, most notable the NBL.
The National Basketball League or NBL was a league born out of other Midwest leagues in the mid 1930s. The League was able to survive the Great Depression and World War II before it finally merged with the BAA to form the NBA. The NBA pretty much washed away the NBL's history and the history of the teams who joined.
Still, most NBL and BAA teams from before 1960 did not make it. Of the 18 teams who were in the NBA during the 1949-50 season, only the Celtics, Knicks, Warriors, Minneapolis Lakers, Syracuse Nationals, Rochester Royals, Tri-Cities Blackhawks, and Fort Wayne Pistons are still around today. And there you have it, the oldest 8 teams in NBA history. But the age of a team does not tell its history, and in some cases a teams history goes way-way back.
So here we go, the 10 oldest teams in the NBA.
Complete Article |
|
|
5 Greatest Detroit Pistons Teams in Franchise History
The Detroit Pistons have a long-running history in the NBA, founded in 1937. The Eastern Conference Central Division team plays in Little Caesars Arena and, over the years, has produced some of the best teams in the league. Let's take a look at the best of the best below.
5. 2005-2006 Team
Going back a few decades, the 2005-2006 team led by Flip Saunders was a force to be reckoned with. The team won 64 games during the regular season and featured the third-best defense in the NBA. The team only gave up an average of over 90 points per game.
The team reached the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals after defeating the Milwaukee Bucks and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Unfortunately, the team lost the finals to the Miami Heat in six games. Members of this team included Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace, and Tayshaun Prince.
Complete Article
| |
NBA Players turned Politicians
With the recent unrest in America, a lot of current and former NBA players have made comments online and let their feels and opinions be known. For some, this is seen as the players stepping out of their industry; for most it is just the players exercising their 1st Amendment rights. But, players getting political is nothing new. Many former athletes have left the court and gone on to have very successful playing careers.
Most people will recognize that several former football players have made some very high profile runs of office. The most famous of these, and successful, is former University of Michigan star Gerald Ford. Ford served 25 years in the House of Representatives, before in 1973, being nominated by Richard Nixon to become the Vice President. When Nixon resigned the office following the Watergate scandal, Ford became the 38th President of the United States. Ford would lose his re-election bid in 1976 to Jimmy Carter.
Another famous football star, Jack Kemp ran for the office of president in 1996 as the Republican challenger to Bill Clinton. Kemp, a star quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, selected another former athlete to be his running-mate. Kemp selected former New York Knicks forward Bill Bradley to be his Vice-Present.
Complete Article
|
|
Military Veterans who have played in the NBA
The United States Military has been a big piece of American history and American lore. Before every basketball game fans stand an honor America and the men and women who have served with the playing of the Star Spangled Banner. The song immortalizes the defense of Fort McHenry from the war of 1812. The Veterans Administration (VA) estimates that 22 million Americans have served in the military. Countless famous Americans have served in the armed forces and that includes several NBA players.
During the early days of one of the NBA's precursors, the NBL, it was not uncommon for a player to leave the league to join the military. The military offered better pay and better accommodations than the league did.
World War II was nearly the end of the NBL as the majority of players left to serve. The lack of players caused the first racial integration in any major sport in American history
Complete Article |
|
History of early professional basketball in Indiana
Before the Indiana Pacers joined the ABA and eventually the NBA, the state of Indiana was the hot bed of professional basketball. From 1935 until 1953 the state hosted no less than 11 different teams in the major professional basketball leagues. Unfortunately, almost all of them would end and leave the state with no professional basketball teams for nearly two decades.
Indiana is synonymy with the game of basketball. The University of Indiana is one of the most storied programs in all of college basketball winning 5 NCAA titles, but it was Purdue who would bring the state its first NCAA basketball title in 1932.
Through out the early years of basketball a lot of fly by night leagues and teams called Indiana home, in fact Indiana even had its own semi-pro league of teams completely made up of teams in the Indianapolis region. It was not until 1935 when the Midwest Basketball Conference formed did the state of Indiana start seeing regular professional basketball at the highest levels and quality
Complete Article |
Game advertisement from a Royals vs Pistons game in most likely 1945. The game is one of the first examples of the NBL trying to branch out into new markets. The game was played in Toronto, ON. The Midwest Basketball Conference, a precursor to the NBL, did have a team in Windsor, Ontario, which is just across the river from Detroit.
Fort Wayne @ Milwaukee 1956
Dave Bing goes for a layup vs Seattle.
Bob Lanier goes for a hook shot vs Wes Unseld.
Isiah Thomas dumps cold water on Bill Lambeer during the bad boys Pistons days.
Ben Wallace blocks Shaquille O'Neal
Andre Drummond dunks of Kyle O'Quinn of the Orlando Magic.
Blake Griffin played a couple of seasons for the Detroit Pistons
Ben Wallace blocks Shaquille O'Neal
Cade Cunningham in 2022
In 2022 Cade Cunningham became the first #1 overall pick for the Pistons franchise since 1970 and the third overall.
|
NBA History
|
