The Detroit Pistons Might Be Back. It’s Time I Am, Too.

— 12.28.24 —

Look, I haven’t offered my coverage of the Detroit Pistons in over four years.

It’s currently 5:31 in the morning, and for over five hours now, I’ve been experiencing a visceral, internal murmur coming from (what feels like) the inside of my eardrum. I haven’t been able to sleep or keep my mind still, and a few minutes ago it dawned on me why: I needed to write something about the Detroit Pistons.

Two nights ago, just past midnight, Jaden Ivey got a late-closing DeAaron Fox to bite on a pump fake, side-stepped, and took contact to his left shoulder as he rose for a corner three. As Fox stumbled into the courtside row behind an airborne Ivey, whose legs flailed out from underneath his horizontally-rotating body, referee Brett Nansel blew his whistle on the shot attempt.

For just a few tenths of a second, the ball remained in flight after Nansel’s whistle and before it arrived at the rim, where it bypassed the iron entirely and softly splashed through the netting.

Swish. Tie ballgame. Ivey to the line for one free throw to win it.

Those few tenths of a second, though, birthed a palpable sense of dread in the Kings fans packing the Golden 1 Center. Looking at the replay, there is a clear moment where the facial expression of nearly every fan behind the play simultaneously sinks and morphs into a look of inevitable pain.

Those few tenths of a second are why I needed to write this for Pistons fans.

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Tenths of a Second,

Tenths of a Century.

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Like I said, I haven’t written about this team in four years. I’ve been checked out. You should see the messages I send Zariq every week about this team, the belief tank has been on E for a long time now.

Like many of you, the last four years (of life, not just the Pistons) have kind of fucked me up. Alas, I’m compelled to write – about this team, and at this moment – for one reason more than any other: I got my start in sports media by blogging about the Pistons in 2019. That start then led to some other opportunities, covering teams in different professional leagues for multiple outlets across the country.

Recently, though, I realized that it also led to me forgetting why being a fan can be so special.

Being a fan is watching the game on your own, but not feeling alone, because you get to hang out with your childhood self for those 60 minutes.

Much like the Pistons, I have let outside circumstances beat me down and I’ve shown very little fight on a human level the past few years; I think that’s why I’m so captivated by those few tenths of a second that Ivey’s shot was in the air.

Pistons fans have been living on the wrong end of those few tenths of a second for what feels like a few tenths of a century. (Okay, in reality, it’s only been a couple tenths of a century, but still … holy shit)

It’s been more than 20 years since June 13, 2004, when the Pistons hoisted the Larry O’Brien trophy after a gentleman’s sweep of the Lakers, culminating in a Game 5 curb-stomping that, let’s be honest, nearly all of you have watched back in its entirety on YouTube at some point. Ever since then, though, the Pistons fan experience has been akin to a 70mm IMAX viewing of a slow motion plane crash, beginning back when my dad still wore a pager on his belt and continuing all the way up through today, when I had ChatGPT write all of this for me from a one-sentence prompt! (I kid.)

In fairness, the fan experience remained engaging and hopeful for years after the 2004 title, advancing to the Finals again in 2005 – we won’t talk about Robert Horry today – and to the Eastern Conference Finals every year through 2008.

Sometimes, though, it’s not obvious that an airplane will crash until the pilot has already made a fatal error. A plane can still fly when the landing gear isn't working, but things become grave once the plane runs out of gas over the middle of the ocean because the pilot was too distracted trying to fix the landing gear.

In the late 2000s, Joe Dumars piloted the Pistons right out of the runway’s path and out over the ocean in a series of moves that some argue began with trading away Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess to the Nuggets for Allen Iverson. In reality, the foundation in Detroit was beginning to crack even prior to that, but that move essentially served as the storm that brought the flood inside of the house.

In every season since 2008, the bleakness of the Pistons situation seemed to amplify year over year. Initially, the core of the ‘Going To Work’ teams (Wallace, Wallace, Billups, Hamilton, Prince) either departed, grew disgruntled, or simply aged out of their contract value, bringing the franchise to a limp to open the 2010s. From there, the team floundered for nearly the entire decade (sans one playoff appearance in 2015-16), failing to commit to a plan in any direction, – whether tanking or swinging for the fences – until 2018, when Stan Van Gundy at least threw something at the wall to see if it stuck, trading for Blake Griffin midseason and providing a jolt to a nearly asleep fanbase. The move to acquire Griffin showed that the Pistons finally might seek to give the fanbase a competitive product and reason to show up to their new downtown home, Little Caesars Arena.

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This is where the Pistons story intertwines with my life story, and I wouldn’t be shocked if this is where the Pistons story intersects with a lot of yours, too.

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The Pistons are why I fell in love with basketball, which ultimately influenced a lot of my childhood. I was young, but I remember 2004. I remember watching every game on Fox Sports Detroit in my room. I remember when Mark Blount hit a shot to put the Celtics up 81-80 with 0.8 seconds remaining in the second game of the 2005-06 season, and I remember Rip Hamilton coming off a screen and hitting an elbow jumper at the buzzer to win 82-81, their second victory of eight straight to open that season. I also remember crying, because in their ninth game, they were down 40-16 after the first quarter against the Mavericks and that meant we wouldn’t go 82-0 that year. Obviously they were never going to go undefeated, but my point is that I remember being fully invested in those Pistons teams.

The Pistons entered this era of mediocrity as I entered middle school, and throughout my teenage years, I disconnected spiritually from the franchise. Between the middling-to-subpar Pistons basketball product on the floor and finishing middle school, high school, and moving out of my childhood home to a different city, I engaged with and cared very little about the franchise anymore. That is, until Blake Griffin arrived.

I remember where I was when the Blake Griffin trade was announced, that’s how shocking it was for us as Pistons fans.

“What the fuck, we got Blake Griffin??? Are we about to actually be good??”

The Griffin trade was easily the biggest shockwave sent through the Pistons organization since the Billups-Iverson trade a decade earlier, and was the first true bastion of hope for fans in the same span of time. As unexpected and confusing as the trade was, the fact the organization did something – ANYTHING – to spice things up was a welcome sight. Although the end of the 2017-18 season didn’t yield playoff results, the heartbeat of a comatose fanbase moved off of its flatline ahead of Griffin’s full first season in Detroit. From the opening tip of the opening night of the 2018-19 season, the onus was on the new star to carry the team, keep them in every contest, and impact the game in a way that resulted in wins, not just pride.

In the third game of the season, he galvanized the fanbase by doing it all, and this game is probably the most significant positive moment in Griffin’s tenure as a Piston. He dropped 50 points on not just Joel Embiid, but the entire Sixers defense, displaying clutch poise, consistent playmaking ability, and a deep ball NBA fans had only seen flashes of in his time with the Clippers.

We all remember the fake handoff to Reggie Bullock out of the timeout and Blake driving in the lane, arm out palming the ball, taking contact and letting the ball go. Do you remember those few tenths of a second after the referee’s whistle and the ball was in the air? The dopamine rush when it fell in the hoop? The visual of Blake sitting underneath the basket, rocking the stanchion with adrenaline-fueled haymakers?

Those few tenths of a second gave way to a renaissance of energy in the fanbase, the Pistons finally being on the winning side of those few tenths for the first time in a decade. That game convinced any fringe Pistons fan that it was time to come back and go all in on the team, that Detroit Basketball was must-see TV again.

That game, simply, was hope.

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I needed to be a part of this.

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That Sixers game stirred my soul. I felt the same unbridled attachment to the team that I hadn’t experienced since I was literally 12 years old.

Almost 23 at the time and living with my ex-girlfriend in East Lansing and working a dead-end job, I felt something completely unfamiliar within myself. In almost all of my free time, I consumed Pistons content. I followed every beat writer, every blogger within the Pistons Twittersphere, meme accounts, you name it. It became insatiable. All I wanted to do was discuss the Pistons, read about the Pistons, watch Pistons highlights, and there was no simply zero let up.

The season went deeper, the team remained in the playoff picture (led, of course, by Griffin’s most brilliant season as a pro), and I started having internal dialogue about how I could get even more involved with the Pistons community. I had always liked writing assignments in school, and I enjoy numbers and statistics, so I eventually thought maybe I could contribute to a blog, and I reached out to Aaron Johnson with Palace of Pistons.

Within a couple weeks, I published my first blog and the reception was out of this world. I would’ve been happy to get just a few interactions with other fans, but it reached way more people, hundreds, than I ever even considered it might. At that juncture, I realized that the feeling I had experienced is the feeling that people describe when they talk about finding their passion in life, something that brings fulfillment within the heart, and a blossoming of the mind to what one can do in life when they have a purpose.

I found my calling and my voice because of that 2018-19 Pistons team.

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And then I almost lost it.

So did they.

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This is not the time nor medium to deeply introspect on the last four years in my personal life in detail, but to give the reader an idea, my last four years and the Pistons last four years have been nearly identical: highlighted by a lot of loss. Since 2021, I’ve lost my dad, lost my grandfather, lost my last uncle, lost my dog, lost a relationship, lost a lot of money, and lost a bit of dignity, too. And, for a really long while there, I lost my purpose.

For better or worse, this brings me to my concluding monologue about the significance of those few tenths of a second at the end of that game two nights ago.

In the past four seasons of Pistons basketball, unquestionably the darkest period in the historic franchise’s history, us fans have been on the shit end of the stick in nearly every moment of consequence. I’m willing to bet that for most in this fanbase, there is a numbness to pain at this point.

There is a numbness to those few seconds when they’re announcing the NBA Draft Lottery results, knowing that pick No. 5 was coming the whole time.

There is a numbness to blowing double-digit leads in the second half of every game the Pistons show any promise, to watching the final few tenths of a second expire as the Hornets get a putback rebound to beat us.

There is a numbness to entering free agency and knowing that certain players Detroit can afford financially won’t even consider signing here because of the reputation professionally.

There is a numbness to going to the Pistons website for Media Day every September only to sit down and look at the ‘Your Event Will Begin Shortly’ screen while you wait for the 2:00 press conference to start at 2:38.

There is a numbness to knowing that even once it starts, you’re going to hear Tom Gores wax poetic about the two different head coaches in each of the two previous seasons, using perfectly vague complimentary terms and overusing the words ‘impact’ or ‘culture’ or ‘toughness’ to describe the vision for the season.

As Pistons fans, we are all numb.

To suggest the Pistons don't have a good fan base, though? That would be blasphemous. This is a strong community with informed voices, solid perspective, and true dedication to an organization who has tested the patience of everyone in recent years.

So, two nights ago, as that Ivey three-ball floated through the air for those few tenths of a second, I thought I felt something for this team again. And when I watched the replay, seeing the looks on the faces of the other team’s fans for once – and to move to 3-0 on a West Coast road trip (first time since 2008) – I knew I felt something.

But I didn’t just feel it for me, I felt it for all the other people in this community who have been diligent and consistent in making content about this team throughout this years-long deluge of losing. I felt it for the ones keeping fans engaged, or even simply participating in online banter.

I mean, fuck it, let’s go down the list and give some shine, all of us deserve to follow along with a competitive team, but these are just some of the lighthouses who have guided us to port continually since 2021:

People like Zariq Turner and people like Aaron Johnson.

People like Ku Khahil, he busts his ass every single day to lead compelling discussions about the team – he’s truly special with this shit.

People like PistonsThoughts, a true rider from out on the West Coast, who got to breathe in those few tenths of a second two nights ago … in person!

People like Dustin Schandevel, another out of town grinder who doesn’t miss a game … the guy was probably tweeting out Pistons updates during his wedding.

People like Jason Traeshmaen. People like Eli Bashi. People like MobHoops. People like Eric Vincent. People like Detroit Kool Aid. People like Keith Black Trudeau.

People like AshtonDaTrainer – I mean, our star player’s cousin and trainer! – who interacts with all of us, always remaining positive and rebuffing negativity.

For Pete’s sake, we have a guy in fucking Australia, we all know Pistons Jack, who puts on harder for Detroit than Lakers Jack Nicholson does for Los Angeles, and the Pistons are flying him out for a game next month! Well deserved, mate, safe travels.

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This community is the lifeblood.

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The spark of feeling I experienced two nights ago in those few tenths of a second reflected how grateful I am to the Pistons community. I found my passion by shooting the shit with you guys about this team five years ago, and they nearly lost me since then. They almost lost all of us, but they didn’t.

The Pistons are lucky to have a fanbase like this, because the quality of the Pistons fanbase involvement compared to the quality of the team’s performance in the past few years are polar opposites. But, we’re still here, and yes, it probably will be a while before the team wins anything of true significance.

But, the good news is that we find out with each and every game that there are finally foundational blocks here. For starters, we have a coach who gives a shit now. Beyond that, we know that Cade Cunningham is the gospel, plain and simple, the Word is true when it comes to him. Between the young wings and proof that elite shooting outside unlocks Cade’s next level, combined with the cap space availability, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to see rapid growth in the coming months.

Yes, there will be setbacks. They might lose tonight against Denver, they might even get blown out (but they also might not). Certain guys may not blossom, and those bridges will be crossed when the organization arrives to them. For the time being, instead of stressing about if Jalen Duren will figure it out on defense or Tobias Harris can contribute to the growth of the team, take a few tenths of a second to think about this: the Pistons are on a three game road win-streak, and if they win even half of their next ten games (four against teams under .500), they’ll sit firmly in a play-in playoff seed at the halfway point of the season.

So, one last time, take a few tenths of a second to breathe, maybe even smile, because things will turn around eventually. This franchise has a pulse now.

Detroit isn’t always going to be on the losing side, neither are you.

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The Detroit Pistons Might Be Back. It’s Time I Am, Too.

It Must Be Different for The Detroit Pistons.