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Cut it out Salley!

• Rasheed is our boy.  No matter what we’ll always hold a special place for Roscoe.  Wait, what? He’s (reportedly) talking to who??  Rasheed WTF!  You kidding me?… Hold the phone, Dave Dial has this thing under control:
  

  The only chance Cleveland has to sign Rasheed Wallace for $10 million per season is if Joe Dumars agree to do a sign and trade. Dumars is not going to give the Cavaliers Rasheed, taking on salaries that would use up almost half of his cap space, for their overpaid bench players. Besides LeBron James, there is not a player on the Cleveland roster worth using the cap space Dumars obtained this summer

• Probably the oddest Rasheed Wallace swag you’ll come across.
• What happens when the stinky hyper kid forgets to take his Ritalin? He “guarantees” NBA titles in 2010 and 2011
• C’mon Raptors.  The writing’s on the wall.  Get something before it’s too late.
• Gotta feel for the Orlando Magic.  They make it to the Finals for the second time in franchise history and all the focus is still on LeBron James.
• Here’s the main reason some of my friends won’t even talk NBA hoops with me anymore:
  

  A study by three economics researchers has concluded that NBA referees favor home teams, teams trailing in a game, teams trailing in a playoff series, and teams from large media markets in the playoffs, according to the Oregonian – Free Press

• DBB (via Draft Express) addresses the rumor that has the Thunder getting the #15 pick and Amir Johnson for cash.  Treating this just as a rumor I’ll say this; I like Amir but don’t see him reaching his potential here.  He along wth that young OKC cast could be one of the more exciting teams in the league to watch.
• A point guard at the #15 pick?  All things considered Dan over at Piston Powered thinks it makes sense if a quality floor general is there for the taking.
• I can forgive John Salley for his fear of spiders.  So he turned some people of by eating a rat tail after all his devoted vegan braggadocio.  Where the line has to be drawn though is John turning into a sniveling, blubbering invertebrate on camera.  Rick Mahorn would like a word with you Sal.
• Watch a 15 year old Grant Hill (15 yr old frame, current head) dominate some inept peers

There’s being a lot made of LeBron’s failure to congratulate the Orlando Magic after they eliminated his highly favored Cavs team.  The Kingsy’s display of poor sportsmanship is drawing a lot of comparisons to the walkout staged by the Pistons after being swept out of the playoffs by the Bulls in 1991.

Now I don’t want to excuse the Bad Boys actions at all.  I wish it never happened personally.  But I want to draw some separation between LBjer’s  explanation that that he’s a “winner” and “competitor” and couldn’t find it within himself to shake hands and the reasoning behind the Bad Boy’s refusal to knuckle under Jordan’s Bulls.

There’s a big difference in my opinion.

“OK, on the count of 3 say karma’s a bitch” Pic: TheLakersNation.com

In the past the Pistons had always honored the tradition of the on-court congratulations at the end of tough series.  They did it year after year with Boston despite all the bad blood.  They did it after a gut-wrenching and controversial 7 game NBA Finals series with the Lakers in ‘88. Whether they accepted the defeat or not the paid their respects to the advancing team.

Much like the Celtics knew in ‘88, the Pistons probably knew they could no longer hold the Bulls down.  It was Chicago’s time.  After three straight years of playoff exits at the hands of the Pistons the Bulls were finally ready to take Detroit’s place as the Eastern Conference’s representatives.

If was a tough season for the Pistons.  Age and injuries were catching up to them. All they had left going into that series was pride and that wasn’t going to matador the Bulls.  MJ and his supporting cast was matured, battled-tested and ready to wear the belts.

The problem was that the Bulls had a little brother complex that they wouldn’t let go of.  Instead of saying the right things they set out on a smear campaign that disrespected the Pistons and their legacy.

It’s no secret that the Bad Boys played rough, but it was always within the frame work of the rules of the day.   The “Jordan Rules” made you earn your points.  They were as much psychological as they were physical.

Instead of accepting the challenge the Bulls whined and cried that the Pistons played too rough and even went as far to suggest that their championships weren’t legit.  The politicking won out.  Instead of a competitive series it was a whistle fest.

So the walk-out wasn’t due to a culmination of what transpired on the court, it was a result of what was said off of it.  It wasn’t a spur of the moment thing.  Isiah, Billy Lambs, and the rest knew they were going to do this to show the Bulls what they thought of their disrespect.  Basically, take the torch and shove it up your ass.

It’s said that the walk-out played apart in Isiah being left off the ‘92 Dream Team.  The irony is that walking out did more to tarnish the Bad Boys legacy than the Bulls contempt for their style of play ever could.

After the jump video of the last 6 minutes of game 4 of the ‘91 ECF. (more…)

Great vid.  Tearing up, not really, but still.

Word out France is that Big Herm is thinking about taking all his R’s and N’s over to Spain.  Like I’ve stated recently, I’m pretty indifferent about Walter Herrmann.  He’s got a lot of game, but it didn’t seem like Michael Curry (Flip either) was able to tailor it to the Pistons.  Often times ‘hands‘ wasn’t able to help Tay like we’d hoped for. Here’s a little more from the Free Press:

Free agent forward Walter Herrmann may return to Spain, according to a French-language Web site. The report said that the club Pamesa Valencia is rebuilding after losing three key players and that club president Manuel Llorente wants to bring Herrmann back. Herrmann played four seasons in Spain after beginning his career in his native Argentina.

Also makes you wonder if there’s going to be another Euro-exodus this summer?

 In Other Pistons News…

• Derrick Coleman has his fingers crossed in hopes that Joe D might add him to the coaching staff.  D.C. says he can teach big men the “lost art” of post play.  Great.  Now we just need some big men!
• The Salt Lake Tribune believes Mehmet Okur could command big bucks should he opt out of his Jazz contract.  Could Coleman get the Turkish Sheed to play in the post?
• If it hasn’t been said 10-gillion times; Rodney Stuckey looks like Fiddy.  Ten-gillion one.

  

• Vince Thomas of NBA.com has high praise for Chauncey Billups.  Thomas campaigns against Big Shot being lost in the shuffle of great guards because he should be a first ballot HOR’er.  Then hop on ove to HoopsWorld and check out Luke Byrnes’ piece on why Chauncey is the league’s real MVP.  Both are solid must reads, but be careful.  It might make you want to strangle Joe D.
• John Salley ( via DBB tweet) talks about how the NBA has followed societies lead by being soft and overly image conscience.  I fully endorse Salley’s sentiments:
  

  I think the whole society has just gone soft. I don’t think it’s just the NBA. Think about this, dude: we sit around and cry about everything. It used to be, ‘Yo, man, don’t cry. Toughen up’ … You can’t even say at work that a girl is beautiful. That’s sexual harassment. That’s bull sh*t. I just think that whole mentality is really some bull sh*t. I’m not bull sh*tting you. I just think that whole toughness is gone.

  I really couldn’t agree more. Liberalism is ruining this country. How long do we put up with this backwards crap?  This could actually use a whole post and not just a measly bullet point, but people would probably be too offended, and that brings us back to the point…</rant>

•   Dennis Rodman will be on season 3 of VH1’s Celebrity Rehab. Of course The Worm is a now a seasoned vet at these reality shows but it’d be great if he takes this one to heart and cleans up.  Still, no matter how many of my beloved Bad Boys do these different shows I’ll continue to be of the opinion that reality T.V. f ‘ing blows.
• Should Joe D take a page out of Jack McCloskey’s playbook and go with an unheralded guard from a small school?  While you’re at it here’s a lists of Dumars drafts through the years courtesy of LoD.
• OT: The Orlando Sentinel is at it again, but for some strange reason I kinda like it this time.

  

NBA Draft rough draft

• Matt Watson of Detroit Bad Boys got a phone interview with Louisville’s Terrence Williams whom just finished up his work-out with the Pistons. Williams is an athletic wing that should be pretty high on the Pistons draft board when the 15th pick rolls around.  If you’re looking for a little more on Terrance Williams check out A. Sherrod’s profile on him from a couple of weeks ago. You can also follow Williams from his Twitter account.
• Keith Langlois sees PG Ty Lawson as a safe pick for the Pistons.  Lawson is a compact Will Bynum-type with a winning pedigree helping UNC win the National Title this past season as a junior.  Drafting a point guard would do little to follow the Piston’s “point guard of the future” storyline they’ve laid out for Rodney Stuckey.  SI mocks Lawson to go at #11 to the Nets and has the Pistons with Ohio State 7-footer B.J. Mullens.  Drafting size might be the way to go for the Pistons with the Dice and Sheed situation. If Kwame is somehow able to get more than his $4.1 million option with the Pistons from another team then we’d be left with no true center.
• There’s also a rumor out there that the Pistons may be looking to trade the #15 pick
• mLive has a run down of the guys the Pistons worked out this week
• Chris Ford, a member of the Pistons 50th Anniversary Team, interviewed for the 76ers head coaching position. He’d been serving as a scout for Philadelphia.  Ford was drafted by the Pistons with the 14th overall pick in 1972 and spent his first 6 years here in Detroit.
• Former Piston (2003-04) Bobby Sura is suing General Motors.  Sura, the co-owner of a Nashville Saturn dealership, says GM’s plans to cut the Saturn brand would make his dealership worthless.



• Rip Hamilton is slapping a $1 million lawsuit on his sleazeball former business manager for cheating the Ripster out of a ton of loot.
• Pistons assistant Dave Cowens was named to the coaching staff for the USA Basketball men’s national team program minicamp on July 22-25 in Las Vegas
• Some of the inner-working the the blockbuster Billup/Iverson deal at Pistons Powered.  The Pistons originally wanted ‘Melo but the Nuggets said nahhhh. In the same post over at Powered Dan Feldman looks at the possibility of a Manu Ginobili and Fabricio Oberto for Tayshaun Prince and Amir Johnson trade.
• Need4Sheed was tipped off by an Eli Seckbach tweet to a awesome vid at former Piston Alex Acker’s Cali home.  It’s pretty interesting stuff, like how out-of-control the overseas hoops fans are.  Ak also tells a funny story about the first time he met ‘Sheed during a pick-up game where Wallace was basically looking like a crazy bummy dressing left-handed jump shooting football helmet wearing nut job.  Classic!
• HoopsWorld spotlight 6 players they expect to have break out season in 09/10.  Amongst the six is 3rd year Piston Rodney Stuckey. (via mLive)
• Ben Gordon’s name has been thrown out their as a possible Piston target to help boost the offensive output.  New Bulls GM, Gar Forman, says he wants to keep Gordon in the Windy City.
• OT: The WWE is making the Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke their new top heal over the scheduling conflict for their Monday Night Raw program.  Wait, so Vince McMahon is carrying this thing on to promote his company?  That’s not like him.

The Nuggets pulled even at a game a piece in their series with the Lakers and Chauncey had this heads up play at the expense of Kobe Braynt. 

Chaunceyness is next to Godliness!

• Last night Chauncey helped the Nuggets dispense of the Mavs in 5 games.  Denver is going to the franchise’s 3rd conference finals, first since 1985.  Mr. Big Shot had a big game going for 28p / 12a / 7r.  This will be Chauncey’s 7th straight conference finals, becoming only the 5th player (Magic Johnson, Michael Cooper, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kurt Rambis) to do that since 1970.  We’re behind you all the way Smooth!  –By the way, if you haven’t read this ESPN OTL article clear some time (it’s long) and get after it.
• Chauncey was named to the All-NBA 3rd team.  No Piston received an All-NBA vote, nor should they have.
• Did you tune into that Nuggs/Mavs series?  Got pretty heated yo.  Do you like the movie Dazed and Confused?  You like shit that’s funny? Well then alright, alright, alright.  Peep this hilarious Tirico Suave mash-up.
• The Bad Boys came together to pay thier final respects to Chuck Daly.  Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Vinnie Johnson, Bill Laimbeer and former Piston coach and Daly assistant Rick Carlisle served as pallbearers.  David Stern, Michael Curry, and John Salley were also among the 100’s who turned out to say good-bye to Daddy Rich.



• “It’s not a good day,” said Laimbeer, his eyes reddened. “But it’s also a day of celebration because everybody got up and spoke about what a great man Chuck was. And they were right.” (Via DetNews)
• Where’s Dennis Rodman?  Apparently he and his crew have been playing dine’n'ditch down in Miami.  Weak sauce Dennis, weak sauce.
• Take a look at this awesome vid of Chuck Daly huddles from NBA.com
• The Washington Post’s Michael Lee implores the blog Bullets Forever on what the Wizards should do if they’re not to end up with any of the top three ping pong balls:
  

  One hypothetical trade I particularly like is swapping the fourth pick, Mike James’ expiring contract and Nick Young for Hamilton/Prince and the 15th pick. Detroit could then draft Harden to replace Rip, for example, and the Wizards could upgrade their wing by adding an ace catch-and-shoot player like Hamilton or a premier perimeter defender like Prince.

  Dave Dial doesn’t see many upsides for the Pistons with that proposed scenario.  He believes that James Harden replacing Rip would be a lateral move at best.  Since I don’t know much about Harden I’ll take Dial’s word for it, plus I’m a big Rip guy.  If you’re wondering the NBA Draft Lottery is Tuesday, May 19th.

• There’s a new Pistons blog on the block called Life on Dumars. Welcome aboard! LOD is part of the FanSided blog network.  They’ve already succeeded in having the coolest name for a Pistons blog, but they didn’t stop there.  They’ve got a good write up debating the merits of Rodney Stuckey as a viable star point guard in the league.
• Very good and candid Isiah Thomas interview (audio) from the Dan Patrick show.  They cover everything from Chuck Daly, Isiah’s Knick failures, his new position with FIU, Zeke’s sleeping pill scare, comparing Rodman to Artest and Kareem Abdul-Jabber as an underrated great.
• ESPN SportsNation does a Q&A with Arron Afflalo.  What did the astute SportsNation crowd want to know from ‘Flo??…who’s better Kobe or LeBron!? Good grief.
• A couple of goodies via DBB via brgulker: McDyess is the Pistons MVP and the Great Taydini preforms his disappearing act in playoff elimination series
• A little something on former Piston (1993-94) Pete Chilcut. About. Damn. Time.  Petey was one Chill dude. (purely speculation)
• Dave Bing was officially sworn in as Detroit mayor.  If he can turn this city around I believe he’ll have a good shot at supplanting Chandler as the most popular of the Bing boys. H/T String Music
• OT: If you make phat bank then you’re bound to be photographed swimming with smoking hot topless chicks even if you do look like a smelly wet hippy like Joakim Noah.  But, other than that I can’t hate on’em.