Fabulous 50

What a great night it will be next Tuesday when the Pistons commemorate their 50th season in Detroit by naming the franchise’s all-time team, honoring the players who’ve elevated the franchise to among the NBA’s elite. When I think back to when I started as the voice of the Pistons in the 1970s, our franchise didn’t have anywhere near the history of the city’s other pro teams – the Tigers, the Lions and the Red Wings.

But the players who will be at The Palace for Tuesday’s game against the Knicks – and if you’re a Pistons fan, you’re going to want to be in the building that night to be a part of it – are the men responsible for giving the Pistons their history. Think about it. Many of the players who made the Tigers, Lions and Red Wings what they’ve become aren’t with us anymore. But almost everyone who elevated the Pistons to their elite status will be in one place on the same night – that’s pretty special.

I’m just thankful that we’ve had so many great players. As great a front office as we have in terms of ticket sales and marketing, without those great players we wouldn’t have all these sellouts. We wouldn’t be an elite franchise. Certainly without those players we wouldn’t have championships – and without those championships we wouldn’t have the stature that we have. Not only in Detroit and Michigan and the Midwest, but throughout the league.

I don’t really think that we can honor these fine players enough. I hope that their Monday night party and all of the applause on Tuesday night and the afterglow following the game shows them how much we appreciate them. When I came aboard in the NBA, I loved the game and I know how much it had to offer. And in some NBA cities, the fans already knew how much it had to offer. But Detroit still had to learn. As much as they loved basketball here and as much history as it had in terms of playground legends and high school legends and success at the University of Detroit, Michigan and Michigan State, this down didn’t really understand what the NBA was all about.

The players that played at Cobo during my time were floored by what I call the aficionados. Ernest Hemingway called the people who went to bullfights “religious aficionados” – they understood it. And our fans completely understood our game – there were just never that many of them. The ones who were there were among the most knowledgeable fans in the league. Even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, when he played at Cobo, said as much. We just didn’t have the kind of acceptance you need throughout the entire population to turn a profit and be able to operate the Pistons in a way that gave them a chance to win championships.

The contributions of Dave Bing and Bob Lanier – two of the players I’m sure you’ll see next Tuesday – were immense. Even if you were a casual fan and you only went to Cobo once or twice, you knew what Bob and Dave did for the Pistons. And before that, you knew what a guy like Dave DeBusschere did for the Pistons. To those gentlemen, I tip my hat. They got it started.

At some point, the Pistons needed another great player. And they got one and then some in the 1981 draft. Isiah Thomas is one of the finest to ever lace them up in our league. He had the heart of a lion. What he did for this franchise, for pro basketball in general but especially for pro basketball in Detroit, will be impossible to measure. I do know this: We wouldn’t have a Palace of Auburn Hills or the first two championships without him. He had great teammates. When you look at a Hall of Fame backcourt with Joe Dumars, you know he had great teammates. And then comes Bill Laimbeer and Vinnie Johnson and Rick Mahorn and John Salley and James Edwards and Dennis Rodman – I’m sure all of them included on the all-time Pistons team – but without Isiah, and without the man who drafted him, Jack McCloskey, and the man Jack picked to coach him, Chuck Daly, we really wouldn’t be celebrating any of this.

Having won championships and having competed for championships helped the Pistons learn some lessons that Joe Dumars was able to put into practice. Joe D took all of his own personal common sense and professionalism and unbelievable understanding of this game and how it should be played and all the experiences he had with the Bad Boys and built the Goin’ to Work group that we’re all very proud of, as well. I really feel like this team is not a one-championship team. This group can and will win another title.

Celebrating a night like this tells me how far this franchise has come. One thing I’ve loved about broadcasting in the NBA is being able to be courtside and watch legendary players perform. From Dr. J, Julius Erving, to the Ice Man, George Gervin, and on through the all-time greats like Kareem and Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. But the wonderful thing about this all-time Pistons team is that there are players from this franchise that are talked about elsewhere in the NBA, probably by broadcasters who feel privileged to have worked their games. We have our own tradition now. We have our own special players and we have some in uniform right now in Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince and some young players we’ll be talking about in those terms someday soon – guys who could play on any team, anywhere, any time.

It’s all about the players and their connection with the fans and I’m so excited that the Pistons have decided to do this. What a way to culminate the anniversary and celebrate the first 50 years in Detroit.