Detroit Pistons, 2004 NBA Champions

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

NBA Finals Wrap-Up
Game 1: Detroit
Game 2: Los Angeles
Game 3: Detroit
Game 4: Detroit
Game 5: Detroit
(G5 Final Score, DP:100, LAL:87)

The team whose motto is "Goin' to Work" had put in a little overtime, and the once-mighty Lakers hadn't just been defeated, they had been stomped and crushed like Italian grapes. The Pistons didn't just beat L.A., they reduced it to a single letter: "L," as in loser.
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Some will call this the biggest upset in the history of the NBA. How amazing is it? Well, remember, the series was preordained as the Lakers versus "the other guys." The Pistons were supposed to be mindful of their station. "Forget what happened before," pundits kept saying. "This game, you'll be put in your place."
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They were. Their place is on the victory stand.
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So how will history remember these Finals? Mostly for their shock value. Here's how shockingly good the Pistons were. They beat the Lakers in five, and the Lakers had home-court advantage. Remember, these were the same Lakers who knocked off San Antonio, the defending champion, by winning four straight, then knocked off Minnesota, the West's top seed. Obviously, they must have been doing something right. But suddenly, in this series, as the losses mounted, it wasn't about the Pistons' success, it was about the Lakers' loosening their screws. This Finals series, it seemed, would only be over when the Lakers said it was. Even before Tuesday's head-chopping -- facing a 3-1 deficit that no team had ever come back from in the Finals -- the purple-and-gold superstars acted as if fate had promised them a championship.
"I'm telling you right now, we'll win Tuesday," Kobe Bryant said.
Too bad.
"We have every intention of winning this game," Phil Jackson said.
So sad.
"Got to win," Shaquille O'Neal said.
Buh-bye.
~Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press, 16 June 2004

They were square pegs uncomfortably squeezed into circular confinements. And within the ground rules of perception, a failure to conform easily morphs into an inability to succeed.
Chauncey Billups couldn't lead.
Richard Hamilton couldn't learn.
Rasheed Wallace couldn't leave well enough alone.
And Ben Wallace just couldn't... period.
Each eventually found the right fit in a franchise that eschewed conventionality. And as the long years of frustration dwindled into precious minutes of anticipation Tuesday, each assumed a look of stunned amazement as the weight of their actions finally registered.
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Detroit Pistons -- 2004 NBA World Champions.
Raise your lunch pails in salute.
~Drew Sharp, Detroit Free Press, 16 June 2004

The Pistons -- America's Team, the People's Champions -- did it the right way. They never stopped working and won it on their home turf. There's only one reason to go back to L.A. now: Disneyland!
~Two Cents, Detroit Free Press, 16 June 2004

Eleven months after assembling what was supposed to be the greatest team in NBA history, within a week of their professed destiny, the Lakers fell dramatically apart.
Piece by Hollywood piece. Bit by selfish bit. Their ingrained sense of entitlement dismanteled by a more powerful sense of teamwork.
As if sent down by the sports gods to deliver a message, the Pistons crawled out from the shadows of hard work, away from the anonymity of defense, and into a spotlight that showed the Lakers everything they used to be.
A team that shares the ball. A team that shares the floor burns. A team that shares the glory.
An NBA champion.
~Bill Plaschke, L.A. Times

The Laker regime ended like Czechoslovakia's -- without a shot. They lost with little grace and with minimal class, 100-87 to the Pistons.
~Mark Whicker, Orange County Register

"What about people who say you can't win without a high-priced superstar?" someone asked Dumars in the jammed Detroit locker room.
"I guess they're gonna have to find something else to say now," he beamed.
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Here is their story: one hyperactive shooting guard, one proud but ignored point guard, one quietly determined small forward, one passionate, hot-tempered power forward, and one hard-jawed, oak tree of a center backed by one unflappable immigrant big man, two boyishly energetic reserve guards, one nasty, muscled backup forward, one senior citizen backup center, several other role players, and a coach who has called a lot of NBA places his "last stop," but only here could actually say that from a mountain-top.
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We in the Motor City are more accustomed to people trying to beat us, not join us. So this is new....But for one night, anyhow, the team from Detroit was the team from everywhere, the public school kids beating the preppy private school kids, the beer league softball team beating the stiffly uniformed semi-pro squad, the local bowler outrolling the visiting pro, the duffer playing a winning round against the club champion.
"I don't really want to be America's Team," Hunter said.... "Forget about being America's Team. I want to be Detroit's team."
~Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press, 17 June 2004

"Teams beat individuals, and we picked the wrong time to be individuals." ~Rick Fox, L.A. Lakers

"Me and Detroit, coming to this city, me and Detroit, we just started rooting for each other." ~Ben Wallace, Detroit Pistons

So...
Motown is officially 'Frotown. Hockeytown, at least for the summer, has become Hooptown. The Lakers were L.A.'d off. And the Pistons, our blue-collar champs, made "goin' to work" look easy. Guts and grit over glitz and glamour. Motown over Tinseltown. ANYTIME.
The NBA Finals are over, but here in Detroit... the party has only just begun.
YEAH, PISTONS!