Chucky Atkins is returning to Detroit. Well, kind of. It’s not happening like I suggested it might, but he’s visiting with his new team, the Memphis Grizzlies. This won’t be a walk in the park — the Pistons needed two overtimes to scrape by the Grizzlies the first time they played, and that was before they added a streaky three-point shooter who had a hand in derailing the Pistons back in November. Memphis is allowing the fewest points in the league, so expect a grinder tonight.
Archive for January, 2006 Page 2 of 11
Does anyone remember how the NBA changed the rules of the game after the Pistons won their second straight championship in 1990? How the original Bad Boys’ physical style of play was squelched by David Stern so that his shining star, Michael Jordan, could start actually winning titles (rather than getting smacked around by the Pistons)?
Anyone recall how Isiah Thomas–one of the iconic players of the 1980s–was left off of the 1992 Dream Team for John Stockton–purportedly at the behest of Jordan? Stockton–a great (and irritating) player in his own right–was coming off his fourth All-Star appearance in ‘91-92, and had established himself as one of the best point guards in the game. But Zeke was coming off his ninth All-Star season in the previous ten and had established himself as one of the great PGs of all time. The Olympics were a swan song for Magic and Bird who were responsible for pushing the NBA into the pantheon of professional sports leagues (joining the MLB and NFL) before Jordan took it to yet another level. And they should have been a celebration of Isiah’s contributions as well. But apparently Jordan’s disdain for Zeke was enough to eclipse Isiah’s role in the league’s ascent.
Healthy or not, for the premature ending he caused the Bad Boys, I still hold a special place for Jordan amongst the likes of Ron Artest, Claude Lemieux, and the Ohio State Buckeyes.
So when I stumbled across Chris Tomasson’s article in today’s Rocky Mountain News about how former players from the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls are nervously eyeing the Pistons as they approach the regular season record of 72-10, it gave me a long-dormant pleasure. A sampling:
“I was talking to Jud Buechler,” Steve Kerr said of a recent conversation with his San Diego neighbor and former teammate on the 1995-96 Bulls. “He said, ‘Steve, I’m getting nervous.’ ”
“I’m not going to lie,” Kerr said. “I love having that record. I’d like to be part of that forever.”
I’m glad to see that years of “Jordan, Pippen, and the seven dwarves” jokes haven’t diminished the spirits of Jud Buechler and Steve Kerr. I’m fairly certain that Darko could have started on that ‘95-96 Bulls team. (Toni Kukoc? Luc Longley? Bill Wennington? Jason Caffey?) But I’m digressing here–the point is, if Kerr and Buechler are fidgeting, don’t you think Michael Jordan–the supreme ego of all egos–is probably mumbling and rocking himself to sleep at night as the Pistons move closer to another of his resume bullets?
Well I think so–and it gives me peace.
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As an aside, check out these comments by Piston assistant coach Ron Harper, a member of that ‘95-96 Bulls team, in the same Tomasson article:
Harper, though, isn’t making any wagers with former Chicago teammates about Detroit breaking the mark, calling the Bulls the “more focused team” for such a task.
And he didn’t hesitate to pick a winner in the event the teams could be matched up.
“The Bulls would win it in five,” Harper said of a seven-game series. “That team was just so strong. . . . We had more guys and we had M.J.”
Ron Harper is insane. You “had more guys”? Are you kidding me? Players like Buechler and Wennington and Randy Brown and Dicky Simpkins saw minutes on that team! Luc Longley was your starting center! What’s wrong with you?
I’m starting to think that if the Pistons do make a run at 72 wins, the guys might want to be a little leery of Ron springing out from behind a corner and clubbing them in the knee.
Tomasson: Old Bulls warily eyeing Pistons [Rocky Mountain News]
Maurice Evans had this reaction to his former team, the Sacramento Kings, acquiring Ron Artest:
“I still have friends who play on the team now, and I don’t think that’s a great deal,” Evans said. “I don’t think that guy is helpful. He’s just now coming back from a suspension, and this is how he reacts, demanding a trade. You should be happy to be playing if you’re really rehabilitated and have it out of your system.”
You know, it is probably tough for a new guy to get acclimated to his surroundings during his first year with a team. I bet it is especially difficult to adapt after joining a veteran team like the Pistons who have been together for a few years. But it is nice to see that Maurice Evans understands that, as a Piston, he is never to say anything positive–or even ambivalent–about Ron Artest, no matter which team Ron plays for. Never.
Well done, Maurice. Well done.
Pistons Corner: Pacers must adjust with Peja [Detroit Free Press]
With Wednesday’s win against the Bucks, the Pistons matched the ‘84 Tigers with a 35-5 record. The Tigers went on to win the World Series, but before doing so they went just 69-53 (.565) the rest of the way, finishing with a .642 winning percentage for the year. Basketball records and baseball records are apples and oranges, I know. . . but if the Pistons finished with a .642 winning percentage, they’d win just 53 games. And for that to happen, Detroit would have to go 18-29 the rest of the way. Kind of puts things in perspective, eh?
So what do you think the Pistons final record will be? Leave your answer in the comments. I know there are a lot of frequent readers out there that have yet to make their first official comment, so this is a great time for you to finally make your voice heard.
I’ll leave the first comment to get this started. . .
Don’t look now, but with All-Star starter Jermaine O’Neal going down for 2 months+ with a torn groin injury (ouch), Rasheed Wallace has jumped up another notch amongst potential All-Star forwards in the Eastern Conference.
The top two vote-getters amongst forwards will be named starters for the East squad. But while Rasheed ranked third behind LeBron James and JO in the voting, it is NBA Commissioner David Stern who will select O’Neal’s replacement in the starting five. With Sheed having publicly stated (on WDFN) that he does not want to play in the All-Star game–he has a vacation scheduled with his kids–it is unlikely that Stern would select him as a starter. (Chris Bosh or Paul Pierce are likely candidates.) Still, with Flip Saunders and the remaining Eastern Conference coaches voting in the reserves, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Sheed getting T’d up on All-Star weekend.
Jermaine O’Neal out EIGHT weeks! [FakeTeams.com]
Quick announcement: in conjunction with SportsBlogs Nation, I’m helping launch a new fantasy sports blog called FakeTeams.com. From my first post:
I started working for the Roto Times just before it officially launched in 2000. Back then, there were only a handful of sites devoted to fantasy sports. Now, there are dozens — nay, hundreds.
Why create another one?
Because Fake Teams is going to be more than about just the latest player news, injuries or transactions. Fake Teams won’t be just a blog about sports, it’ll be a blog about fantasy sports. Sure, we’ll spend a lot of time talking about players and games, but we’ll also spend time talking about what stat services we use and what we like and dislike about them, which sites we like to go to for news, and what articles are worth checking out.
What’s with the name, you ask? Well, if you haven’t figured it out already, it’s what fantasy sports is all about: real players, fake teams. But while they may be fake, we take them seriously, even if we give them silly names that would make your grandmother blush.
And mind you, when I say “we,” I mean it — this is going to be an actual conversation. Whether it’s commenting on my posts or creating your own user diaries, Fake Teams is going to be a reader-driven experience.
OK, that’s enough self-promotion for now, but I’m sure I’ll be cross-linking between the two sites in the future — like now with this post talking about Jermaine O’Neal being on the shelf for eight weeks.
Two days ago most news outlets reported the Ron Artest for Peja Stojakovic trade as “completed, pending league approval.” Then Ron Ron torpedoed the deal by publicly debating whether he would report to Sacramento. After a meeting yesterday between Artest, his agent, and Donnie Walsh and Larry Bird of the Pacers, the deal has been finalized. I say this with the greatest sense of irony–Ron Artest is a King.
My initial thoughts were, “good deal for both teams.”
In Artest, (when he’s mentally stable) the Kings get a legit top-20 player, and Sacramento is now a contender for one of the last playoff seeds out West. The more-frequent Artest matchups against Kobe, T-Mac, and Ginobili guarantee a few more Sacramento games on TNT/ESPN. The Kings were bad before this trade–now they can strive for mediocrity.
In Peja, instead of that giant sucking noise coming from Artest’s vacant locker, the Pacers get a three-time All-Star who could excel playing the inside/outside game with Jermaine O’Neal. Furthermore, should the Pacers decide they want a guy who can actually hit a clutch shot in the post-season, they can always settle for cap relief and let Peja walk after the season. (Yet another scenario has the Pacers shipping Peja to Golden State for Troy Murphy.)
Sacramento had to do something; the Pacers got something for nothing. Makes sense, right? Well, I’m not so sure anymore. The Kings got what amounted to a do-over after the first trade fell apart. They caught a glimpse of what life would be like with Ron Ron and–I thought, smartly–called off the deal. Artest and his agent had publicly criticized not only the Kings, but the city of Sacramento as well–why would they want him now? (I’m actually hoping this ends terribly for the Kings–in flames even–given Sac-town’s potshots at the city of Detroit earlier this year.)
From a Pistons fan perspective, its all good. One of the most hated figures in Detroit sports history has been sent to purgatory (Sacramento), and since the Pistons have already swept the Kings this season, its highly unlikely that they will face Crazy Ron again before next season. And while the Pacers will be improved, my buddy Nate astutely points out that they could have been a much tougher matchup for the Pistons had they completed the rumored Artest for Corey Maggette swap with the Clippers. Let’s also hope that this also limits the incessant brawl references we’d have heard during upcoming contests against Indiana.
In short (and despite my long-windedness), good riddance.
Done deal: Pacers trade Artest to Kings for Peja [ESPN]
A. Sherrod Blakeley’s Blog [MLive]
The Pistons looked like a team playing their second game in two nights on Wednesday. They had the Bucks on the ropes several times, but they just couldn’t deliver the knockout punch to put the game officially out of reach. As such, the Bucks took the Pistons to overtime when Michael Redd caught fire in the fourth by scoring the final seven points of regulation.
The Bucks then jumped out to a four-point lead in the extra frame, but Chauncey Billups, who spent most of the night distributing the ball (he had 15 assists), went on a scoring binge. He had 11 points in overtime to finish with 23 for the game. Did you see Tayshaun Prince’s line? I swear, it’s one of the ugliest you’ll see by any player all year: four points off 2-8 shooting with one rebound, two assists and a steal in 42 minutes. I’d have been disappointed if Mo Evans did that in 20 minutes, let alone Tay in over 40. Thank goodness for Rip Hamilton — he was simply on fire almost the entire game, finishing with 35 points on 15-23 shooting.
The way I see it, the Pistons are really missing Carlos Delfino, who had been offering a nice burst of energy and a solid scoring touch in recent games before missing the last two games with the flu. Mo Evans and Antonio McDyess have been solid off the bench, but Delfino gives the team an added dimension on offense.
Unfortunately, the game was too close for any of the rookies to get into the game. Not that it would have mattered too much, as Amir Johnson was inactive in favor of Alex Acker tonight. Nothing against Acker, but I want to see Johnson play after seeing what he’s capable of doing on Tuesday.
As for the Bucks, Redd is some kind of scoring machine. He was 5-6 from three-point land and 17-26 from the field to finish with 41 points, not to mention nine boards and eight assists. His scoring average has climbed each year he’s been in the league, and he’s now putting up over 25 a night. Too bad he’s a former Buckeye, or he could be on my team any day.
I like to think of myself as an educated basketball fan, but here’s a newsflash that made my jaw drop: Toni Kukoc is still in the league, as is Ervin “not that one” Johnson. I just checked: they’re 37 and 38, respectively. If you asked me before the game, I’d have told you they retired at least a year or so ago. Shows what I know.
I lamented recently about the individual performances of the NBA trumping the greater team accomplishments like the Pistons 35-5 start. Well, Marc Stein fully admits to this being the case in a chat transcript posted on his latest Daily Dime:
Ben (Detroit): I’ll be a Kobe believer this Sunday when he plays the Pistons. Throw up 60+ on them and I’ll be impressed. Meanwhile . . . why has the 70-win pace talk died down? The Pistons are still on pace — and if not for the Utah Jazz sweep (???) they’d be 35-3!
Marc Stein: It’s only died down because a lot of us have been too wrapped up with other chaos. But hopefully you saw that the ESPN.com NBA Power Rankings committee (of one) noted Monday that the Pistons are on the verge of trumping even the Tigers’ famed 35-5 start and thus still on a 70 pace. I’m sure we’ll all be back on that one soon enough. Fact is, though, that the interminable Artest trade saga and Kobe’s numerous detonations have dominated discussion all season. Reader response to everything we do says those are the issues that interest the masses most.
To Stein’s credit, he did use some space to write about little-known Amir Johnson and his indoctrination to the boys in blue.
Tuesday’s Best
Detroit F Amir Johnson:
Johnson’s windmill dunk, on a fast-break lead pass from none other than Darko Milicic, accounted for the 18-year-old rookie’s first NBA points . . . and gave the Pistons a perfect capper to their 24-point rout in Flip Saunders’ triumphant return to Minnesota.
If you haven’t witnessed Amir’s windmill–the first two points of his NBA career–Matt posted it earlier today in his T-Wolves game recap (courtesy of Need 4 Sheed).
Daily Dime [ESPN]
I wasn’t going to write about the whole Isiah Thomas/Anucha Browne Sanders sexual harrassment suit because, let’s face it, I don’t know anything more about this than the next guy, and snarky commentary just seems a little out of place when dealing with a subject that really isn’t all that funny.
But then, I found this little gem:
The lawsuit also alleges that Thomas told Browne Sanders he was pushing for more home games at noon on Sundays. His plan, according to Browne Sanders, was to have opposing players go to certain clubs, including strip clubs, that Thomas had connections with on Saturday nights and get them drunk so they would be sluggish for the game the next day.
It might not be PC, but it’s still three shades of awesome.
Knicks’ Thomas sued [SI.com]
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