PistonsNationBlog.com - Detroit Pistons News & Views

As some of you might know, mainly those who have been members of the Pistons Nation message forum, I used to write the site zeke11.com (which no longer is up). It was an Isiah Thomas fan site. There’s a few different reasons why I stopped publishing that site but that’s neither here nor there. Since there isn’t too much going on in Pistons land I deceided to reprint an article I did for the Zeke11 site. It’s a look at the often enigmatic Pistons career of Adrian Dantley with an emphesis on his realtionship with team captian Isiah Thomas.

Pistons’ General Manager Jack McClosky had been coveting Adrian Dantley for two years, but Jazz GM, Frank Layden, wasn’t interested in dealing Dantley until Adrian held out for more money and the two began to fued.

Adrian Dantley came to the Pistons by way of trade on August 21st, 1986 in exchange for forward Kelly Tripucka and center Kent Benson. This was not the first time Dantley was dealt in his NBA career. He saw the “business end” of sports, in 1977 following his rookie year with the Buffalo Braves when he was traded to the Indiana Pacers where he played 23 games before being dealt to the Lakers. He spent the rest of the 1977-78 season in L.A. and played one more there before being again dealt to the Jazz where he stayed 7 seasons, his longest stint of his career.

Dantley enjoyed much individual success as a member of the Utah Jazz. He racked up four consecutive 30 plus points per game years that included two scoring titles to go along with his six All-Star births. But, Dantley did not realize much team success. His Jazz teams didn’t make it into the playoffs until his final two years in Utah, but they could get out of the second round.

Adrian now had a chance to get in Detroit what had eluded him to this point of his NBA career, a World’s Championship. Jack McClosky had been had been drafting and trading for years prior, assembling a team that could eventually overthrow the Celtics reign in the Eastern Conference, and A.D. was his latest prized acquisition. Dantley was a rugged low post player that was brought in to do battle with Boston’s famed front line of Bird, McHale, and Parrish.

Dantley acknowledged that it was “Isiah’s team” on his way in and said that he looked forward to fitting in to the team first mentality of the Pistons. The Pistons took the Celtics to the final game of the Eastern Conference Finals best of 7 game series in A.D.’s first season. In a cruel twist of fate Dantley and Piston’s reserve guard Vinnie Johnson knocked each other unconscious after colliding head on going for a loose ball in the third quarter, and Dantley didn’t play in the fourth quarter as a result of a concussion.

Dantely got a lot less touches then he was accustomed to in Utah and his scoring dipped down around to 21.5 points per game, which was nearly 10 points off his total the year prior. He suggested times he needed the ball more. “I try to get the ball to whoever’s got it going” Thomas would say. “We’ve got a lot of scorers on this team. Nobody gets the ball gets the ball as much as they would like to have it. I feel everyone’s pretty satisfied. The most important thing is that we win games.” This was a contrast to how A.D. thought he was most effective. “Our philosophy here that everything is geared to the guards. We’re a perimeter shooting team. But I’m the type of player who has to play a lot of minutes and wear my opponent down. Then just give me the ball.”

“It does seem funny to go three, four, or five minutes without the ball,” said Dantley. “That’s something I’ll have to work on this summer and I’ll deal with it better next year. I’ll be prepared”

The next season the Pistons finally got themselves out from under the curse of the Celtics only to meet the high octane machine that was the Showtime Lakers in the 1988 NBA Finals. It was glitz and glamour of Los Angeles versus blue collar attitude of the Motor City. The Pistons gave the Lakers all they could handle extending the series to seven games. But with Isiah hobbling on a severely sprained ankle suffered in game six they could not overcome the Lakers in L.A. in a game seven.

They were that close to realizing their dream. Close enough to begin to make plans for the $35,000 Disney gives the series MVP for saying “I’m going to Disneyland!”. Isiah, Laimbeer, and Dantley were the three top candidates for the honor. Isiah and Bill agreed that if either one of them was to win it they would split the money with the rest of the team. They approached Dantley with the idea and he felt he should not have to split the money. This upset Zeke and Lambs because they viewed it as selfishness, especially seeing Dantley was the highest paid player on the Pistons at that time. Dantley finally gave into agreeing to keep half and split the other half, but it was too late, the rift had been created.

Isiah also publicly stated that he felt he was underpaid and pointed to A.D. being the higher paid of the two as a sore spot. Before the 1988-89 season the Pistons worked out a deal with Isiah that put in the Jordan, Magic, and Ewing class.

Training camp seen Dantley distance himself from the rest of the team. He was angered by the notion that he was competing for his job with Dennis Rodman. There was more talk of him needing the ball more on offense. “You know Dantley wants the ball all the time”. “But, damn it, I ain’t going to give the ball to him all the time. It’s not that I don’t like him. It’s just sometimes I’m going to Dumars or to Salley”, Isiah said.

The first half of the 1988-89 season was a rough one for the Pistons. They were unable to beat the elite teams in the East, especially Cleveland who had a talented group who looked to overthrow the Pistons in the Central. Teams had figured the Pistons out. Dantley’s pound it down style bogged down the flow of the Pistons offense. Adrain’s strained relationship with the team now included coach Chuck Daly who he pretty much ignored because he was angry that some of his minutes were going to the younger defensive minded Dennis Rodman.

Jack McClosky knew the team needed a shake up. The team dynamic wasn’t working. Many trades were put on the table that included Adrian Dantley, Michael Williams, and John Salley among others. He considered Steve Johnson and Kiki Vandeweghe from Portland, Herb Williams in Indy and New Jersey’s Buck Williams.

McClosky concluded that the best player available to him though was the Maverick’s Mark Aquirre. Dallas wanted Aguirre out. He was viewed as a malcontent who was poisoning the team. Rick Sund of Dallas wanted to package Sam Perkins with Aguirre for Dantley and Salley, but McClosky was confident he wouldn’t have to give up the budding shot blocker Salley. To sweeten the deal McClosky offered a draft pick, but Dallas declined. Shortly before the trade deadline the Mavs had a change of heart and the deal was done.

Why trade one ball hog for another? Why gamble with your top scorer? “Aguirre is bigger than A.D. And he’s about four years younger. He’s a more inventive passer, he keeps the ball moving better, and he’s a little better rebounder”, Jack would say.

Dantley thought the deal had very little to do with basketball. He viewed it Isiah using his leverage as the teams star to get rid of him and bring in his old childhood buddy. His mom Virginia seem to think the same thing. She told the media “You shouldn’t blame Jack McClosky. He’s not the one. It’s that little con artist you’ve got up there. Whatever his royal highness wants he gets”.

Isiah and Aguirre did grow up together on Chicago’s tough Westside where they had dreams of one day teaming up in the NBA, but this was not Isiah’s call. McClosky didn’t earn the nickname “Trader Jack” for sitting idle. He saw a chance to upgrade and he took it. He saw a chance to get back team chemistry. He didn’t even consult Isiah because he knew Isiah would take a beating in the media, and that was the last thing Zeke needed after the Larry Bird debacle in 1987.

Pistons fans were unhappy with the move as well. Dantley was a fan favorite. Aguirre had a poor reputation to live down. When he arrived in Detroit some of the Pistons vets, including Thomas, had a sit down with Aguirre to let him know what was expected of him and what it meant to be a Piston. The agenda was to sacrifice individual glory for the good of the team. Mark Aguirre came to the Pistons as a 24 point per game scorer with three All-Star selections to his credit, but all that was left at the Palace entrance as the Pistons went 30-4 to finish the season. Aguirre came off the bench to help win the franchises first NBA title in 1989 and then again in 1990.

Dantley remained bitter over the trade and held out for some weeks with the Mavericks. When he finally joined the team he was a good performer for them, even though they failed to reach the post season. A.D. returned to the Palace as a member of the Dallas Mavericks on March 3rd, 1989. He was treated to a standing ovation from the Palace crowd when he met Isiah at mid court. They touched hands and Dantley said something to Thomas in his ear. The crowd was elated because they thought this was a reconciliation for the two stars. Dantley later said that what he had told Isiah was “I’ll never forgive you for what you did to me”. The Pistons beat the Mavs 90-77.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Adrian Dantley, Isiah Thomas, PN articles, Pistons historical society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.