What's That Ish You Smoking? - Bitter NBA Owner Edition

Waldini:

I don't why I send out so many Detroit Free Press articles. Maybe cuz they give the funniest articles. Some hilarious nuggets from Bill Davidson.

Q: Which of your teams, in your view, underachieved the most? Which was most frustrating?

A: Well, the worst loss was out in L.A. (in 1988) when I was in the room with David Stern getting ready to accept the trophy, and they call a foul on Bill Laimbeer against Kareem. Bill pulled down a clean rebound, and Hugh Evans calls a foul. You know that he was set up, and you know ... I don't say he had a bet on the game, but that was ... that was unconscionable! And that cost us a championship, which we should have had. Which we had.

Q: What others?

A: The other bad one was the steal in Boston, when we had that game (and Larry Bird stole the ball). So the Bad Boys had two championships, which -- one was legitimately taken away and the other was illegitimately taken away -- and they still won two. So they basically should have had four.

Q: How about Larry Brown's second year, when you lost in the Finals to San Antonio? Many thought you were the better team.

A: We were the better team, but Larry Brown was not the right coach. Now that you can say.

Da Realist:

Nice article, but he needs to get over 1987.

first of all, Larry DID steal the ball. yes they were close, but they made a mistake they couldn't get over. every championship team needs to go through heartbreak to solidify.

Secondly, that steal happened in game 5. the pistons had another chance in game 7 and lost.

Lastly, I don't think they would have beaten the 87 Lakers team.

Waldini:

He's making a lot of assumptions. Agree with you on '87, I think that Pistons team would have lost in 5 :-). As for the other years, he's forgetting the '89 squad beat a injury riddled Lakers squad. Or the '86 laker team that lost on a lucky Sampson roll. But hey it's why we love sports, the great debate on what if...

I just liked it b/c he was clowning on Larry Brown. It's funny that in June 2004 he was lauded as the greatest teacher of basketball. But in August 2004 he was known as the whiner and so his downfall started. It's crazy that if it wasn't for winning the title, Davidson was gonna fire him.

What he does to recognize is that this current Pistons team got LUCKY in 2004. Billups got hot at the right time, Prince defended Kobe like no other, and the Lakers didn't adjust at all.