I Was Punched in the Face. What's Your Excuse?

There is a god. The Detroit Pistons have beaten the Lakers to win the NBA Championship. In addition to my general dislike for the Lakers (and Kobe Bryant), it’s good to see the Pistons win for a number of other reasons.

First, Larry Brown has been one of the great coaches of the past 25 years, from a successful playing career at North Carolina under Dean Smith to winning a championship at Kansas to a great run with the Philadelphia 76ers and maybe most impressive of all, he was the last coach to lead the Clippers to the playoffs. Although he clearly didn’t NEED an NBA title to prove his worth, there aren’t too many coaches in any sport that deserve a title more than Larry Brown.

Second, Joe Dumars, the Pistons general manager, has been under the gun all season for selecting 18-year-old European Darko Mlicic over Carmelo Anthony who led Syracuse to a national championship in his only season as an Orangemen. Dumars, knowing he already had his starting small forward of the future in TayShaun Prince, and blessed with an already well balanced roster, decided to take a gamble on the future by selecting a big man, which are much harder to find. Even after the Pistons had made the NBA Finals, the naysayers were out in full force saying that the Pistons would only stand a chance against the mighty Lakers if they had Carmelo Anthony. It’s not a slight on Anthony, but Dumars had a team concept and plan, he stuck to his laurels and it worked out. There’s a reason sports writers are sports writers and not general managers.

Third, and most important in my mind, Dumars and Brown have reversed the ugly NBA trend that superstars win championships. Dumars put his initial stamp on the Pistons by trading the team’s franchise player for Richard Hamilton, a solid yet unspectacular player that’s known as much for his off the ball movement and mid-range shot than any other facet of his game. He also pieced together players such as Ben Wallace, a player that wasn’t even drafted, Chauncey Billups, who had bounced around several teams without much success, and bench players such as Mike James, Mehmet Okur and Elden Campbell.

Although at face value, having a superstar dominated league isn’t such a bad thing, the impact it’s had on the team aspects of the game are undeniable. Nearly every team in the league drafts on the potential that they must find that one superstar that they can build their team around. Instead of building a system through the continuity of a coaching staff, front offices dump head coaches as soon as their supposed superstar players show any discontent. It’s no coincidence that Gregg Popovich and Flip Saunders are two of the longest tenured coaches in the game. They have true superstar players in Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, respectively, that have put aside their own egos and have adapted themselves to the systems that their coaches have put in place. Guys like Tracy McGrady and Jason Kidd have yet to discover this aspect of the game.

As an aside, here’s another example of what makes Larry Brown such a class act. After winning his first NBA title, the first words that came out of his mouth in a post-game interview were thanks to Rick Carlisle and his sorrows that Chucky Atkins, Cliff Robinson, John Barry and Michael Curry, former Pistons, couldn’t be a part of the celebration. Great guy.

Headline Quote Movie of Origin: Rushmore
Character: Max Fischer (played by Jason Schwartzman)
Setting: After the opening to Max’s “hit play”, he’s gone to dinner with Herman Blume, Rosemary Cross, a teacher of which he has a crush, and Peter, a friend of Rosemary’s (played by Luke Wilson). After consuming an alcoholic beverage, Max gets abusive towards Peter as being an uninvited guest. It’s at this point that he asks Peter in regards to the noted Wilson nose, “I was punched in the face. What’s your excuse?”
The quote is relevant to this story how?: Rushmore is the story of an underdog who struggles through a portion of life, only to find his groove and come out okay. This seems to sum up the Pistons season. They came out of the gates playing well (analogous to the beginning of Rushmore when Max is on top of his game). Then they went through a brutal stretch in which they lost something like 10 games in a row (analogous to Max getting kicked out of Rushmore, losing his friendship with Ms. Cross, having to go to the public Grover Cleveland High School and ultimately dropping out of school altogether). Finally, after attaining Rasheed Wallace, the Pistons began to jell and ended up winning it all, just like Max finding his soulmate in Margaret Yang.

Contact El Duderino at jaipf@hotmail.com.