End of an era

I usually don't do sports here, since no one who reads this cares, but I'm going there this time. This week, the Detroit Pistons traded their starting point guard, Chauncey Billups, to Denver for Allen Iverson. The combo of Billups, Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Tayshaun Prince, and Ben Wallace won Detroit its most recent championship in 2004. Billups and Hamilton have led the Pistons to 6 straight Eastern Conference Finals appearances, and two NBA finals appearances. Suffice to say, it's been a successful run.

Billups, Hamilton, and Big Ben had bounced around the league for awhile before being picked up as spare parts by the Pistons. Prince was a first round draft pick in 2003, and Rasheed came aboard in 2004 after gaining a reputation as a head case with a short fuse. Rick Carlisle did an admirable job of coaching these motivated castoffs and youngsters to be the class of the Eastern Conference, and then Larry Brown swooped in and molded them into the perfect team. There were no superstars on that team, just unselfish, hungry talent. They destroyed the Shaq and Kobe-led LA Lakers in that year's championship series. Literally. The team was effectively blown up in that offseason.

I watched almost every game of that season, sitting on my couch, drinking cheap beer. I had come to Michigan as a Charlotte Hornets fan, but the Hornets moved to New Orleans a year after I left Charlotte. Almost every Pistons game was televised, so I started watching. It was hard not to get to like the individual players, as they so obviously loved to play together. I really started to pay attention in 2003, the year they drafted Prince. It was often frustrating to watch them, because they would often have huge scoring droughts during the games. I often thought, "Man, they really need someone who can slash to the basket--a true scorer. A superstar-type." I waited around for the big trade that would put them over the top.

However, during the championship run, the Pistons embodied the Larry Brown mantra, "Play the right way". Meaning, share the ball, make the extra pass, take high percentage shots, and above all, play as hard on defense as you do on offense. The same media that gave Detroit no chance at all throughout the playoffs quickly changed their tune once the writing was on the wall in the Finals. The team was celebrated as heralding a new paradigm for an NBA team. It was a real feel-good ending for a bunch of castoffs who committed to each other and to a strong work ethic.

Needless to say, the NBA hated the concept. Superstars sell all the merchandise, and the league. When the Pistons lost in the Finals in 2005 (to the Spurs, another "ensemble" team), the critics began talking about how perhaps the 2004 Lakers team was due for a big fall anyway. When they lost in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2006 to Shaq's Miami Heat, the first rumblings of how the "pure team" model was failing to hold up against "superstar with supporting cast" model. Last year, the Pistons again fell in the Eastern Conference Finals, this time to LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers. The president of the team, Joe Dumars, swore to make a huge trade this past summer, which never emerged.

So now, we're here. After winning their first three games of the season, the trade was announced. The team captain, Billups, would be sent to his hometown Denver for an aging superstar. The duo of Billups and Hamilton, one of the top scoring guard combos in the history of the NBA, was to be broken up. Hamilton did not speak to the media for three days after the trade. Other team members had only the most cursory comments. While I'm sure that Iverson will fit in with the crew in Detroit, and I'm sure that the team will contend for the Eastern Conference crown again, it won't be the same, and it's going to take some time for everyone to get used to it.

In 2006, Nazr Muhammad was traded to Charlotte. He was picked up the previous summer in free agency to replace Ben Wallace. He started for about a month, then came off the bench for a few months, and then disappeared from the rotation. The media was not kind to him. They cast him as an outsider, and said that he really didn't fit in with the rest of the Pistons. Upon arriving in Charlotte, at his first news conference, he said that Detroit was the only place he'd ever played where he genuinely liked every player, all the way down the roster. That's the way I've felt about this team from afar. They all seem like good guys, and the chemistry is palpable.

There are some sports writers who are now saying that this trade is tantamount to an admission that the team concept is a failed strategy. I remind you: an NBA record-tying six straight Conference Finals appearances, two straight Finals appearances, and one NBA title. The most consistently strong team in the East for the past seven years. 100% sold out seats and a reenergized, rabid fan base. The most recognizable starting five in the NBA. The perennial understanding that any road to the Finals would go through Detroit. "DEEE-TROIT BASKETBALL!!!" reverberating through the Palace of Auburn Hills. There is no failure in any of that.

I'm excited to see the new-look Pistons when I can actually get a game on TV out this way. I'm looking forward to the new sets on offense, and the faster style of play that Iverson will bring. He wants to win so much, you can see it on his face every night. That kind of hunger will serve the team well. But I just want to raise a glass one more time to the Chauncey Billups era in Detroit. Cool, collected Chauncey: directing traffic like a general, rock solid from the stripe, protecting the ball, backing down pretty much every other guard in the league, dropping bombs from downtown. The guy you want with the ball in his hands at the end of the game. You will be missed.