AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – June 15 marks 19 years since the Pistons won their third, and most recent, NBA championship in 2004.
That’s a long time.
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George Bush was campaigning for reelection, Facebook launched that February, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake performed at the Super bowl, “Friends” aired its final episode in May, and the first iPhone was three years away.
In the NBA, 19-year-old LeBron James won Rookie of the Year, the Seattle Supersonics attempted the most 3-pointers each game at 23.6, and the Pistons held teams under 70 points 11 times during the regular season.
Today, the lowest number of 3-point attempts by an NBA team each game was 28.9 last season, 2004 NBA champion Darvin Ham 39-year-old Lebron James’ head coach, Chauncey Billups coaches the Portland Trail Blazers, two players each scored over 70 points in a single game last season, and rumors are circulating about details of the iPhone 15.
I’m not complaining about the championship drought, I don’t even remember the Finals that season, having just turned five years old. Plus, even if I did, I have far less credibility than any NBA player, having never played basketball past the middle-school level.
Or, to paraphrase former NBA player Brian Scalabrine, even the least successful NBA players are millions of light years closer to LeBron James and Michael Jordan than I am to the NBA’s least successful.
In the time since the Pistons’ last championship, I have watched nearly every Pistons game starting with the 2013-14 season, and while I am more excited for the Pistons’ future now than ever, I want to look back at a far more successful time in Pistons’ history. I also need something to help me block out last month’s disastrous draft lottery results.
Will the Lakers win in four or five games?
Almost no one thought the Pistons would win the championship.
The Los Angeles Daily News published a column pleading the Lakers to “beat [the Pistons] down” in four games before they “threatened to bore us to death.” The column also predicted the series would be the Lakers least interesting of the playoffs before saying the “mothers of the Pistons deserved better.”
Then ESPN contributor Peter May said the ‘04 Pistons were like the Bad Boys in name only, telling readers to make sure they “note that the ‘”bad”' in this case stands for their unrefined and artless offensive ways.” Even the Detroit News said the Pistons did not stand much of a chance, comparing their odds to buying “a crumpled up ticket that lay in the mud for 48 minutes. But the numbers are still good until the Lakers stamp them out.”
At least they gave them a chance.
Jalen Rose -- who played for the Toronto Raptors at the time -- worked as a television reporter during the series, and thought of my favorite game plan for the Pistons before game one.
“We’ve got to kidnap Shaq,” Rose said. “It’s going to be harder in L.A., but when he gets to Detroit, we have to find a way to get him from the hotel to the airport, instead of the arena.”
The doubt was understandable. The Lakers had future Hall of Famers Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Gary Payton and Karl Malone who by the end of their careers, had a combined 59 All-Star Game appearances, 52 All-NBA honors, and 120,980 points. The “best five alive,” -- Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace, Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace had 16 All-Star Game appearances and eight All-NBA honors at the end of their careers.
Fallout after the ‘five game sweep’
Of course, the Pistons dominated the series and won in what some refer to as a “five game sweep” at the Palace of Auburn Hills, and literally ended the Lakers seven-year dynasty. Plenty of teams have won an NBA championship, but it is infinitely cooler to have sent a franchise that then owned the second most titles in the NBA into a rebuild.
The Lakers sent Shaquille O’Neal to the Miami Heat -- who the Pistons beat to make the Finals in 2005 by the way -- for Caron Butler, Lamar Odom, Brian Grant and two draft picks in July, they sent Gary Payton and Rick Fox to Boston for a 2006 first-round draft pick, and traded role player Kareem Rush for two second round draft picks the next season. The Lakers finished 11th in the western conference the next season and won 34 games.
The Pistons on the other hand, went on to appear in the following four Eastern Conference Finals, make the Finals once and win the most games in franchise history in 2006.
Yes, the Pistons now have the longest playoff win drought in the NBA, having won their last playoff game on May 26, 2008. But, after finishing with their second worst record in franchise history last season, having a young core including Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, and a new head coach in Monty Williams, the Pistons can’t go anywhere but up.
I hope so anyway.