As the NBA Playoffs push forward, the participants become ever fewer. One team’s ascension to the next round must logically correspond with another’s fall. As the vanquished head home for the summer and begin organizing their respective golf vacations, The On Deck Circle will pay our respects and give each team its last rites via the running segment “Now on the Tee…” First up, the Detroit Pistons.
The kings are dead, long live the King (James). The perennial Beasts of the East are no longer a part of the playoff landscape, though really it would be a stretch to suggest they ever presented more than a mere speed bump for LeBron’s merry men.
All season long Detroit proved that these were not your older brother’s Pistons; they were no longer a collective that leaned on one another for strength while drawing inspiration from always outworking opponents, and instead had morphed into a slow, uninspired, uninterested group of quitters.
The blame for that belongs only to the passing of time. This was not Iverson’s fault, as you cannot take a square peg and become upset when it refuses to be round. This was not Rasheed’s fault, as you cannot expect a player who lived on the razor-thin line between out of control and fiery to stand in line forever. This fall doesn’t belong to Tay, or Dice, or Stuckey, or Kwame. It isn’t Dumars’ fault either (though Rip’s extension certainly is).
No, what killed the Pistons was the simply truth that nothing lasts forever, be it in sports or in life. Time marches on and leaves us behind, and all we can do is hope we capitalized on the opportunities it gave us. For the most part, these Pistons did that. Sure, a second championship might have been possible a few years ago if they had kept a bit of their underdog attitude and not become so entitled. But in today’s NBA, with how brief most team’s windows-to-win now are, what they achieved together was something to behold.
This summer, it will end. Rasheed will leave, AI will look for greener pastures, and Antonio might retire. The roster that takes the floor in the Palace next November should and will look very different from the one that rolled over against the Cavs on Sunday. At least LeBron and company had the decency to put an end to things quickly and not string out this funeral march that has been going on since January.
The New Millennium Bad Boys for the memories likely rank third, behind the Lakers and the Spurs, as the team of the last decade, which is nothing to scoff at. Thank you (assume Mason’s voice) DETROIT BASKETBALL, for the memories.
Now don’t let the door hit you on the way out, because there are real teams that deserve our attention.