From a purely fan point of view, I am excited that the Detroit Pistons have signed Chauncey Billups. I wanted to see Chauncey retire as a Piston as much as he apparently, given his comments to the media, wanted to retire as a Piston. He considers himself a lifetime Piston.
Chauncey Billups will mentor young guards Brandon Knight and Kentavious Caldwell-Powell. Chauncey may start, but he will rotate with the other guards. He will give the Pistons a smart ball handler who is capable of running the offense and shooting clutch three-point shots. No one expects him to back down defenders in the lane or barrel into traffic to draw fouls like he did in 2004 and 2005. With Will Bynum and Rodney Stuckey also in the mix, the Pistons have a strong back court and believe that with further mentoring that Brandon Knight will be the successful point guard everyone expects him to be.
When I saw this news, I decided it was a good time to feature my Detroit Pistons 2004 Championship T-shirt.
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Right now, I am running about a week ahead on the blog, trying to sketch out the entries, write some text, add pictures, do research, as I have found that waiting until the day I plan to post is not a workable method. When things are going right, I have the day's entry written by at least the day before. But every time I get ahead, the advance work is eaten up, and I find myself writing an entry the morning of posting (like now). Even though I am scheduling and sketching ahead, I have found that it is easy enough to insert and re-number, and so I am going to try to use breaking news like the Billups signing to give my blog less narcissism and more relevance.
I like the signing of Chauncey Billups. He showed some spark last season with the LA Clippers when he returned from his injury, and he has a solid basketball mind. Like Ben Wallace, if bringing him back means that he can retire as a Piston, I also think this is an excellent choice.
In other news, the Pistons signed Rasheed Wallace for the coaching staff, which may also have an important impact on the team and its young players.
The Billups signing comes shortly after the Pistons signed strong forward Josh Smith, who had been playing with the Atlanta Hawks.
I like the idea of a starting five of Billups, Knight, Monroe, Drummond, and Smith. This is a powerful group.
These recent moves should vindicate Joe Dumars whose track record over the last few years, after trading Billups for Allen Iverson, has not been stellar. The Ben Gordon/Charlie Villanueva signing went bust. The acquisition of Corey Maggette had no impact at all on the team. And though Dumars has drafted well in recent years, the Detroit Pistons have not played well and have been absent from the playoffs since Billups left.
CHAUNCEY BILLUPS SIGNS WITH PISTONS NEWS ARTICLES & COMMENTARY
YAHOO
FREEP
DETROIT JOCK CITY
PISTON POWERED
DETROIT BAD BOYS
Sadly, KIM ENGLISH has been let go.
A little bit about the shirt: Though I was a huge fan of the Bad Boys of 1989 and 1990, I think watching the 2004 team was a much more emotional experience. In 2005, I had trouble sleeping during the Finals, and after Game Seven's loss, I was beside myself with anguish and grief. This is the moment that I realized I was a little too invested in sports and needed some perspective in my life. Though, really, I think I was projecting other anxiety and emotional turmoil onto the sports, or at least that's what I have figured out in self-analysis since then.
I have already blogged about the Pistons in T-shirt #65 and T-shirt #29, and I still have other Pistons shirts (and shorts) to feature in the future. Stay tuned Pistons fans.
The Pistons won in 2004 when I was visiting my friend Tom in Seattle, and so I was watching the games in the afternoon because of the time difference. But prior to that victory, I had watched nearly every regular and post-season game and attended several at the Palace. The Detroit Pistons are my heart, and the 2004 championship may have meant more to me than the Bad Boys era trophies, especially since the team was disrespected by the majority sports commentators, especially on ESPN. The buzz was that the Lakers were not playing up to par. One commentator tried to put a stop to that nonsense and proclaimed that the Pistons were just BEATING the Lakers with superior play in every aspect of the game.
Chauncey Billups was the MVP of the 2004 Finals. He will always be the MVP in my book.
Welcome back Mr. Big Shot!
- chris tower - 1307.13 - 8:28
