Blue Collar

Some, but not many. The Lakers, the Bulls, the Spurs, a few others – the Pistons among them. What separates the Pistons is the same thing that has defined them as an organization – assigning credit for their place among the elite is a far less clear-cut task than for anyone else on the list.

The Celtics? It all traces to Red Auerbach. The Spurs? A great organization, top to bottom, but none of what made San Antonio a great NBA franchise happens without the lottery fortune that led to Tim Duncan. The Lakers? More about aura than any individual, encompassing the glamour of Hollywood and a history that includes a roster of all-time greats. The Bulls? It all traces to Michael Jordan.

The Pistons? True to their blue-collar DNA, theirs is a legacy built on the collective efforts of many. But here’s our starting five:

Bill Davidson – Success wasn’t instantaneous after Davidson bought the franchise from Fred Zollner in 1974, but it didn’t take him long to figure out that putting together an organization that could compete at the top of the NBA wasn’t any different, at its root, than assembling a glass-manufacturing operation that could dominate its segment of the global marketplace, as he’d done with Guardian Industries.

Essentially, that meant hiring good people, entrusting them with responsibility and creating and safeguarding an organizational environment that encourages creative approaches and rewards results. More importantly, it is tolerant of the latitude for failure that is the inevitable occasional result of calculated risk taking.

In an inherently volatile and cutthroat business, Davidson has created an oasis of stability and trust that has allowed those charged with decision making to thrive.

Jack McCloskey – The Pistons got serious about winning championships the day Davidson hired McCloskey as general manager in 1980. “Trader Jack” was a firebrand whose fearlessness made him the perfect match for Davidson’s management philosophy.

Fearless? How’s this: One of McCloskey’s first acts, after looking over the unremarkable roster he inherited, was to call the Los Angeles Lakers and propose a trade – Magic Johnson for … everybody.

Rebuilding the Pistons wouldn’t be that easy, but it began with the 1981 draft when, picking second, he took Isiah Thomas. Seems like a slam dunk now, but it wasn’t so clear back then. That draft supposedly had three great players – Mark Aguirre, who went first to Dallas, Thomas and Maryland power forward Buck Williams. Remember the mantra of basketball personnel people: big over little. Williams was a rebounding machine and a defensive force. Thomas was whippet quick but barely 6 feet.

Every other important piece of the Bad Boys back-to-back champions was a McCloskey acquisition, too: the drafting of Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman and John Salley; the trades for Bill Laimbeer, Vinnie Johnson, James Edwards and, later, Aguirre.

Isiah Thomas – Nobody more intensely disliked losing than Thomas, and his thermonuclear competitiveness drove the Pistons through their formative years.

The will that lifted Thomas over his circumstances – not many came out of his hardscrabble westside Chicago neighborhood whole – also transformed the Pistons from bumblers to high-wire entertainers to champions.

It took help – it always does – but nobody was more instrumental than Thomas, who’s in the discussion of greatest little guards ever, in making the Pistons one of the NBA’s most emulated franchises.

Chuck Daly – McCloskey’s second coaching hire didn’t cause many ripples. Daly’s only previous NBA gig had come with the woebegone Cleveland Cavaliers owned by one of the most notoriously inept owners in league history, Ted Stepien. Daly saw the handwriting on the wall soon enough that he never moved out of the Holiday Inn where he first took up Cleveland residence.

But he was the perfect fit for a team of diverse personalities and outsized egos, always staying above the fray while projecting an aura of utter calm and thorough control. Thomas, Laimbeer, Dantley, Rodman … it held every potential for chaos, but Daly managed it all with a remarkably steady hand.

Joe Dumars – The latter-day Jerry West, a Hall of Fame player whose management career will challenge or exceed his playing achievements.

Dumars was a portrait of understated efficiency as a player, a trait that has carried over to his management style. Like Davidson, a risk-taker by nature, Dumars has swung for the fences when he suspected a fat fastball was coming, but has also had great success shooting doubles into the gaps.

Shrewd free-agent signings (Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace), smart trades (Rasheed Wallace, Rip Hamilton) and diamonds mined late in the draft (Tayshaun Prince, Jason Maxiell, Amir Johnson) have produced one NBA title and have the Pistons positioned to compete for more out into the horizon.

Which is why ESPN would have committed a healthy chunk of time to the Pistons searching for a coach, too.