Wednesday’s Layup Drill

Mini "Let's talk about something else" Edition:

• In case you missed it, here's the video of Rasheed Wallace accidentally throwing his jersey into someone's (Ronald Dupree, is that you?) face after the game. It's not supposed to be funny to a distraught Pistons fan, but it is.
• Why was Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick hobnobbing with LeBron James outside the Cavs locker room after Game 4?
• Brian from Empty the Bench is already thinking about rebuilding the Pistons -- including Flip Saunders:
  

  And what about Flip Saunders? He’s near the end of that magical two-year timeframe of a Pistons head coach, a time after which both his predecessors, Rick Carlisle and Larry Brown, were shown the door despite differing levels of success. If–and it’s still a HUGE if–the Pistons were to lose this series to Cleveland, some of the blame is bound to fall at his feet and could result in his dismissal. It’s no secret that anything short of an appearance in the NBA Finals would be considered failure in the eyes of the Detroit front office and ownership.

• Michael Rosenberg calls out Chris Webber:
  

  Hey, the Pistons have already bolted their first starting center, Nazr Mohammed, to the end of the bench. Hey, look at the upside: They could become the first team ever to take two starting centers totally out of the rotation and still make the Finals! I know how they liked to be trendsetters.

  Webber did not play the final 17:40 of the game. The Pistons are now staring at two ugly scenarios.

  One is that Tim Duncan chews up Webber in the Finals.

  The other is that Duncan chews up Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

• I think MJD speaks for most basketball fans when he rails against the prevalent flopping in the NBA today. And I also think he speaks for me when he singles out Manu Ginobili:
  

  I'd never condone a fan throwing something on to the court, but Monday night in San Antonio, as foreign objects rained down on the Spurs, I've got to confess that I wouldn't have been terribly upset if a rusty tire iron flew down from the upper deck directly into Manu Ginobili's face.

  Insert blatant product placement here: our No Ginobili T-shirt, which debuted back in February, is relevant now more than ever.