Ben Wallace (left) Holding Up the Larry O'Brien Trophy as Chauncey Billups Displays the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Trophy
The Detroit Pistons, 2003 NBA Champions, Eastern Conference Champions in six of the last ten years, are terrible. What happened?
The Pistons are currently 22 games below .500 and any and all playoffs hopes have been dashed. At first the decline was gradual and then the Pistons fell of a cliff. Chauncey Billups, arguably the centerpiece of the team, was traded for (what a joke) Allen Iverson. That’s when it all went downhill.
The team that was revered around the league was made up of staters Ben and Rasheed Wallace, Tayshaun Prince, Richard Hamilton along with Billups. Ben Wallace made his go with a few teams, essentially had little to no impact and is now playing for Detroit once again after being signed as a free agent. Wallace, however, is not the player he once was. Hamilton and Prince have been with the Pistons ever since those glory years and continue to be solid players. Rasheed Wallace, the energy and passion of the team was recently signed by the Celtics, who wouldn’t want to do that? Lastly, Chauncey Billups has enjoyed successful years in Denver, combining with Carmelo Anthony. The two are yet to win a title, but are currently sitting second in the Western Conference, a tad bit better than the Pistons are doing in the east.
Let’s not forget about Flip Saunders either. The mastermind behind the squad is currently coaching the Wizards and trying to resurrect a dismal franchise. Saunders was fired after losing the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals and signed with the Wizards after Washington fired Eddie Jordan. Since his departure, the Pistons have been, to put it bluntly, terrible.
The pinnacle of their success was the 2003-04 season when they won it all, throughout the decade Detroit finished first in the east six times and have a record above .500 seven times. The only blemish is that they failed to win another title or so, but the Pistons of the 2000′s were definitely one of the NBA’s dominant dynastys.
