Basketball as a Team Sports: Forget the Superstars.

Blogger's Note: No Michael Jordan. No Shaq. No Kobe. No superstars. That is how Detroit Pistons is being described of late. Basketball is a team sport and Detroit is reminding us that fact.

Pistons thrive as one, big, happy family Detroit's success comes from ‘college atmosphere’
By Amy Shipley
The Washington Post
Updated: 12:24 p.m. ET May 29, 2005

One or two at a time, they ambled in, looking for the pool tables. They were casually dressed and very friendly, an observer recalled, no different than most weeknight patrons at Jillian's in downtown Indianapolis -- other than none being shorter than about 6 feet 5.

On two nights before Eastern Conference semifinals against the Indiana Pacers, a handful of Detroit Pistons showed up unannounced at the local recreation joint just down the street from Canseco Fieldhouse, Jillian's assistant general manager Anthony Deardorff said.
They headed straight to the second floor billiard hall -- which management decided to close off to other patrons -- where they played pool and watched the large-screen televisions until around 11 p.m. Deardorff believes he recognized Rasheed Wallace, Ben Wallace and Richard Hamilton, but he's no basketball expert, so he can't be sure.

While their appearance surprised the Jillian's staff, which is accustomed to catering to NBA crowds rather than players, for the Pistons, who will take on the Miami Heat in Detroit today in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, it was just another outing in another city. One week, they might play pool. Another, they might go bowling. A bunch of players saw "The Amityville Horror" together recently, Ben Wallace said. They also attend birthday parties for each others' kids.

"It's like a college atmosphere," Hamilton said during an interview in Miami last week. "You don't get that in the NBA, with all of the money, all of the egos, everything like that. But with us, we put everything aside."

Indeed, they have become famous for playing a team-oriented game that makes it virtually
impossible to pick a leading star, or even a star duo, from their starting five -- a characteristic that is exceedingly unusual for an NBA champion team, which the Pistons were last year. Scan the list of NBA Finals most valuable players since the award was created in 1969. It doesn't contain merely stars, it is littered with legends: Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Moses Malone, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan.

Yet the Pistons don't even summon on one or two players for the majority of their offensive plays. Everybody, they say, gets those calls.

Consider that in Wednesday's Game 2 loss to Miami, which evened the series: Each of the Pistons starters had scored less than seven minutes into the game -- 13 points split among five players. No starter is averaging even 20 points in the playoffs, and none is averaging less than 10. Hamilton's 19.7 points ranks only 19th among the playoff scoring leaders. Chauncey Billups (18.3), Rasheed Wallace (15.3), Tayshaun Prince (14.8) and Ben Wallace (10.8) aren't too far behind.

"It's the most unselfish team I've ever played on," said Antonio McDyess, who has played nine NBA seasons with four organizations. "We don't care who scores at any time."

But when they are tallying points at a local bowling alley or pool hall, egos are out in full force and money is on the table, players say, allowing for the type of high-emotion competition that empties some pockets, generates plenty of mouthing off and, perhaps most significantly, builds the friendships that keep jealousy off the court.

"It helps when you're not just coming out as a team, but you're coming out as friends," Ben Wallace said. "It allows guys to relax a little more, knowing the guys beside him . . . are on the same page."

Rasheed Wallace said the closeness helps particularly on defense.

"Tayshaun knows I have his back when he's guarding [Dwyane] Wade," he said. "Ben knew I had his back guarding Shaq, and vice versa. . . . We ain't got no egos on this team. That's why we're so successful."

This feel-the-love attitude seems in great contrast to the Bad Boy image Detroit projects with its castoffs and characters and bone-crushing defense. Every member of the starting lineup Detroit President Joe Dumars assembled has been considered expendable in other circumstances (three of the starting five, in fact, cycled through Washington).

Rasheed Wallace, who in his early years in the NBA earned a reputation as an ultimate bad guy, has been traded three times, including by Washington in a deal for Rod Strickland in 1996. The Wizards sent Ben Wallace, who has been traded twice, to Orlando in a deal for Ike Austin in 1999, and they sent Hamilton to the Pistons in 2002 as part of the Jerry Stackhouse trade. Billups never passed through the District, but he has been dealt three times.

Prince, selected in the first round of the 2002 draft by the Pistons, was passed over by 22 teams.

"We can go farther as a team than individually," Rasheed Wallace said. "It's in everyone's blood, in everyone's head on the team. Nobody has said, 'I'm the man on this team.' That's just the mentality of us."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8019940/