The circus is in Philadelphia today, but a few of the clowns didn't show up for work [per Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News]:
A day after the trade deadline passed, half the Pistons players missed Friday morning's shootaround in what a team source called a "player protest."
According to team spokesman Cletus Lewis, McGrady was out with a headache, Prince had the stomach flu, while Wilcox and Hamilton apparently missed the bus without a reason. A team source confirmed Prince's and McGrady's illnesses, adding Wilcox overslept.
Tracy McGrady, Tayshaun Prince, Richard Hamilton and Chris Wilcox did not show up to Friday's morning shootaround. Ben Wallace also wasn't present, but has been dealing with an ongoing family matter for the past several weeks. [...]
Chris Iott at MLIVE said Austin Daye and Rodney Stuckey missed the bus, but showed up toward the end of practice. Iott is also treading a little more carefully on whether or not it was a "player protest," citing that The News and Free Press were the ones who called it that.
As our own Skylar pointed out in the comments of the FanShot on this (H/T joejoejoe), The Detroit News' Terry Foster said on 97.1 The Ticket that it’s a "team mutiny" and that the mutineers "planned it last week but due to Kuester’s family issue ... they rescheduled it for this week."
So, assuming Wallace's excuse is legitimate because he has missed practices in the past with family matters, we have a headache, stomach flu, and overslept as the three excuses from the team spokesman as to why McGrady, Prince, and Wilcox missed (and no comment on Hamilton must mean they honestly don't give a shit about saving face with him anymore or we're supposed to assume that fierce groin injury has him bed-ridden). Yeah, those are three excuses, very fake excuses, I think every hung over college kid has used to miss class the next day. I don't believe them for a second, just like I no longer believe there are no sacred clowns on this team.
I mean, seriously, how many stomach flus can a team have in a season? If the Pistons expect us to believe that PR nonsense, they better make it really believable by publicly beheading a team caterer. This team is a joke. J-O-K-E. Joke, JOKE, JOKE! Let's just hope Tom Gores isn't witnessing all of this and deciding to tilt his head the other way and run for some real hills, not Auburn Hills. Dude needs to come in, knock down the circus tents, and start cleaning up.