Thank God the Pistons season is finally over!

These guys were imposters. The 2006-2007 Pistons played at the Palace, had the same fans and wore the same uniforms but they were as far from being “The Pistons” that we all love as I am from being a thong bikini model.

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Here are some thoughts:

 

1. All season (more vocally in the second half) they all were infighting with one another. They had no camaraderie and they had no sense of team.�� It was always someone else’s fault. Whether it was Webber screaming to the coaches to “let me play my game” (what game is that Chris, I thought you had to have a game to play it) or Rasheed (or Raswhine) barking out complaints while sitting on the bench it has become a fiasco.
2. You can’t lay all of the blame on Flip. The Pistons players helped run Carlisle out the door and moaned and groaned up until they actually got the ring with Brown. The next season when Brown should have been able to expect them to have “bought in” they still moaned and although his departure was a classless act and display in how he handled it, they essentially got rid of him also. Now they openly defy Flip and he sits unable to do anything because he knows that Joe doesn’t back a coach. That is Joe’s fault. He was (and still is) the epitome of what class is but he trusted these players to man up and they haven’t. He let them run off coaches and again that is his fault.
3. I love Joe D, but he has allowed this team to get away from what he built and a big part of that rests on his shoulders. He has allowed the inmates to run the asylum and they know that he will back them over a coach. He has allowed this team to become the anti-Joe Dumars team and everything he stands for as a player and a man, they are not. They don’t play defense, they don’t play selfless and most of all they instantly look for whom to blame rather than how to pick it up. He has allowed this. He can fix it and I think he will but it has to happen now. He broke the boundaries by not staying on Raswhine, and with every inch he was given he took a mile. They allowed themselves to buy into the hype that he was reformed. I said at the time he wasn’t and although many people were part of this failure, the biggest culprit is Raswhine and them allowing him to single handedly blow up the culture. When they could no longer discipline him the other players knew that this was a no win for the leadership and started going in their own directions.
4. Joe, how was that Nazr Mohammed signing to replace Ben working out? I know he only played one minute last night but you have to agree it was a huge help!
5. Webber and Raswhine have to be gone before next season. I doubt that the Pistons can trade Raswhine and I can’t in any way see them cutting him so the soap opera and tragedy that is our Pistons looks to continue. Can they try to rein him in…again? Doubtful! For all of you haters that simply email and say that I can’t stand Webber because I am a Spartan fan, you are nuts. There has been talk for two weeks that they should get Zach Randolph but he plays no defense and right now they don’t need more people standing around waiting to shoot, they need guys that can play D. Sure Randolph is a Spartan but he plays about as good of defense as my will power and a donut. He was terrible on D at MSU and has been worse as a pro. I don’t like Webber, that is a fact, but that is because of my opinion of his character and not where he went to school. The Pistons need to get Pistons type guys. Ben was so valuable because of his presence. He was not afraid to get into Sheed’s face (the only Piston anywhere in the organization) and tell him how it was going to be. That is why Ben was glad to be gone and the Pistons lost the heart of this team.
6. Rip and Tayshaun are guys that you can build with and there is a nucleus here for the future. I will tell you that as long as Raswhine and Webber are here the Pistons will not win a championship. Get rid of them Joe and build it back. Grab a lunch pail and start over. The D loves you but this isn’t a D team. This is a group of NBA players, and the fact is that most people hate that. We don’t want a guy like AI that scores 40 a night but you never go anywhere. This is the D were we love the defensive games that maybe no one scores but we win. We get the game here. These fans know that it isn’t about making Sportscenter, it is about championships. Well, we did make Sportscenter last night. It was Raswhine throwing a temper tantrum that would have made my one year old proud (well maybe not, I would have punished him for that) as he was being thrown out of a close game that they needed him in.

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Out with Raswhine and Webber and get back to being the Pistons. I have no problem losing to a better team; I have a problem when you can’t even be proud of your team. Win or lose last night you couldn’t have been. I miss my old Pistons.

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I for one am just glad it is over. I felt guilty on the news covering their season, as they were imposters, and not the Pistons we love and support.