Classic Pistons editorial cartoons
Posted by Skull N. BallI’ve always been obsessive about my Pistons. When I was younger I couldn’t wait to get the Detroit Free Press every morning so I could cut out anything pertaining to the Bad Boys and add the clippings to my collection. Well, I recently came across some of those clippings (I kinda save everything).
The clippings that I found most interesting, being an art loving kind of guy, were the editorial cartoons. So, I thought I’d share them with the Pistons Nation while we count down the days until the season starts.
This cartoon is by legendary Free Press cartoonist, the late Dick Mayer. Actually all but one of these cartoons are Mayer’s.
Back before John “Spider” Salley was wimping out on celebrity reality shows he was doing stand up comedy.
Anyone familiar with the Bad Boys knows that Daddy Rich was always riding Sal’s ass. So a crowd full of Dalys would surely be a nightmare scenario for John.
Personally I’ve never really found Salley to be all that funny. But, whatever.
Back in 1991 they did one of those celebrity roast things for Daly. Get it, “Chuck roast“?
When he was in the red, white and Pistons’ Blue Dennis Rodman was an absolute joy to watch. Rebounding, blocking shots, diving into the crowd for loose balls. He had more energy than 10 Energizer Bunnies combined. Even my mom got a kick out of watching “The Worm” get after it. I love the way Mayer captures Dennis’ famous split leg rebounding style.
This cartoon is from around the 1991-92 season when Dennis was leading the league in boards pulling down more than 18 a night and coming off his second straight season as the league’s DPOY.
This one is kind of a sad one. On September 5th, 1991 the Pistons “unplugged” the Microwave after 10 seasons in the Motor City. VJ was replaced by a younger Darrell Walker (now a Pistons’ assistant). As Bill Days’ toon indicates, even at the age of 35 Vinnie was built like a tank.
This one by Dick Mayer is the same unplugged Microwave theme as the Bill Day cartoon above.
After being waived by the Pistons Vinnie went on to play one more NBA season signing with the Spurs. Vinnie averaged 8 points in 60 games with San Antonio.
Tags: 1991, Bad Boys, Bill Day, Chuck Daly, Darrell Walker, Dennis Rodman, Detroit Free Press, Detroit Pistons, Dick Mayer, editorial cartoons, Energizer Bunny, John Salley, San Antonio Spurs
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 6:30 am and is filed under Chuck Daly, Dennis Rodman, John Salley, OT, Pistons historical society, Vinnie Johnson. 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.
Thanks —- I really enjoyed these! Great work — very glad you saved them. Today I would call them priceless!
September 2nd, 2009 at 6:47 pm[...] has a rather fantastic collection of classic Piston editorial [...]
September 4th, 2009 at 5:15 amClassic Pistons editorial cartoons…
I’ve always been obsessive about my Pistons. When I was younger I couldn’t wait to get the Detroit Free Press every morning so I could cut out anything pertaining to the Bad Boys and add the clippings to my collection. Well, I recently ca…
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