The Greatest Detroit Pistons Team Ever

By Jack Jones

The Detroit Pistons were founded in 1941 and were initially called the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons. They played in the NBL for seven seasons until they joined the NBA in 1948. There were controversies the Pistons players bet and threw away games, speculations also circulated that the 1955 team threw away the NBA Finals. In 1957, the franchise moved to Detroit and kept their nickname and officially became the Detroit Pistons.

Their first few years in Detroit were mired by a lot of individual success but team struggles. From the 1960s to the 1970s, the team showcased a large amount of individual talent like Dave Debusschere, Dave Bing and Bob Lanier. They’d have years where they put together a successful regular season but would lose in the playoffs to the Lew Alcindor led Milwaukee USD and the Chicago Bulls.

By the early 80s nevertheless the team’s fortunes started to change for the better once they selected Isiah Thomas in the 192 draft. They also acquired Bill Laimbeer and Vinnie Johnson in separate deals that same season. These three individuals would remain with the team for most of the 80s and would be huge pieces in the creation of the “Bad Boy Pistons” of the that era. They would gradually build their team as they picked Joe Dumars in 1985 and signed Rick Mahorn in the same season. By the 1986-87 campaign, the team acquired more key pieces in Adrian Dantley, John Salley, and Dennis Rodman. In 1989, Adrian Dantley was traded for Mark Aguirre in what was originally perceived as a bad deal but then later honored by the fans. With the core now intact, they would form the Bad Boy team who played very physical defense and would go onto win two NBA Finalss in the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons.

Although the team would encounter a transitional period after the Bad Boy era faded out in 1991, the Pistons would go on to find another franchise player in Grant Hill in 1994. In spite of having Grant Hill in this time the team failed to find real success becasue of poor personnel decisions and questionable roster moves.

The Pistons eventually returned to elite status when Joe Dumars was hired as the president of basketball operations in 2000. He patiently put together a balanced team composed of Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince, Ben Wallace, Richard Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace. They would win their third NBA Finals in 2004, shocking the NBA betting world by thrashing the heavily favored Los AngelesLakers in 5 games.

Although the franchise has had a number of great teams in its history, the greatest Piston team has to go to the 1988-89 team. They won 63 games and bulldozed straight to the Finals, where they’d go on to knock off Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Magic Johnson led Lakers team in a 4 game sweep.

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Topics: Basketball | Comments Off

Tags: Basketball, detroit pistons, nba, nba history

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