Detroit Pistons: 1950’s

“All season long, Major League Basketball will be presented. This is a clean, rugged sport, played by superbly developed athletes of intelligence. I hope that you’ll enjoy seeing these great stars playing under the modern rules (in the) ideal playing conditions at Olympia Stadium.”

- Fred Zollner, 1957

Those were the words of Pistons founder Fred Zollner to the people of Detroit when he moved his team, the Fort Wayne Pistons, to the Motor City in September 1957. Zollner began the Pistons in 1941 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Having achieved great success and a huge fan following, Zollner decided to move the team to Detroit to better compete with teams in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. The move made sense because as an automotive manufacturer, most of Zollner’s business took place in Detroit. His move, however, was not without risk.

Other teams had tried professional basketball in the city of Detroit, but none had survived. In 1941, the Detroit Eagles of the National Basketball League won the World Tournament, but soon disbanded because of World War II. Of the three other pro basketball teams in Detroit’s history, the Detroit Gems and the Detroit Falcons folded after only one season and the Detroit Vagabond Kings left town before season’s end.

The fall of 1957 brought professional basketball back to Detroit. Olympia Stadium, also known as the Old Red Barn on Grand River, was the new home of the Pistons. The Pistons’ inaugural season was fairly successful. Led by All-Stars George “The Bird” Yardley, Gene Shue, and Dick McGuire, the Pistons finished the season 33-39 and in a second place tie with Cincinnati. They beat Cincy in the first round of the Western Conference (that’s right, Western) playoffs. However, in the next round, the Pistons lost to Bob Pettit and the St. Louis Hawks four games to one. The Hawks would go on to the NBA Finals and defeat the Boston Celtics for their only NBA title. Yardley would lead the league in scoring, averaging 27.8 points per game and became the first player in league history to score 2,000 points.

Things were not so rosy during the 1958-59 season. After five seasons together, a rift developed between Yardley and Zollner. Zollner felt that Yardley was not giving full effort and was injured too much. The situation came to a head when Yardley broke his hand on January 25 at Boston and Zollner traded the high scoring forward and his $25,000 contract to the Syracuse Nats for Ed Conlin. The Pistons would finish the season 28-44 and lose in the first round of the playoffs. The highlight of the season was hosting the 1959 All-Star Game, held at Olympia, which attracted 10,541 fans.

Another season and another sub .500 record would punctuate the end of the decade. The 1959-60 schedule included a span of 12 games in 15 days and 16 games in 20 days, two grueling stretches to which the Pistons had difficulty adjusting. The team would finish the season 30-45, and would again exit in the first round of the playoffs. But there was hope for the future. The Pistons first round draft pick, Bailey Howell from Mississippi State, averaged 17.8 points and 10.5 rebounds per game in his rookie season. Howell’s emergence, mixed with All-Stars Gene Shue, Walter Dukes, and Chuck Noble, foreshadowed better days ahead for the Pistons.

Detroit Pistons: 1960’s

The 1960-61 season began with a great deal of optimism. The Pistons acquired Bob Ferry and Don Ohl and drafted Jackie Moreland. Unfortunately, the optimism soon disappeared, fueled by the Pistons’ inability to win on the road. The Pistons finished their last season at Olympia with a record of 34-45, including a horrible 13-35 on the road. For the third straight year, they would exit in round one of the playoffs.
Though the regular season record may have been similar, the results were far better in 1961-62. The team moved to Cobo Hall and finished with a record of 37-43. They beat Cincinnati 3-1 in the first round of the playoffs and had a chance to get into the Finals, but the U.S. Army granted special leave for Pfc. Elgin Baylor, who played for the L.A. Lakers during the playoffs. Despite rookie Ray Scott’s 34 points in Game One and 26 rebounds in Game Two, the Pistons would lose the series 4-2. They would not get close to the NBA Finals again until 1987.

The good feeling would not carry over to the 1962-63 season. The Pistons began the season by losing 16 of their first 19 games, mostly because they were unable to replace Gene Shue, who had been traded during the off-season and had contributed 19.0 points per game. The Pistons did draft well, however, taking a Detroit kid, Dave DeBusschere from the University of Detroit in the territorial draft. DeBusschere was an outstanding athlete, excelling in baseball, track, and basketball and was a hometown hero, having attended Austin Catholic, and U of D. As DeBusschere rounded into his rookie season, the Pistons finished 31-30, for an overall record of 34-46.

A coaching change, injuries and player turmoil would lead the Pistons to their worst season (1963-64) since coming to Detroit. Displeasure with the coaching staff and injuries to key players led the team to a record of 23-57, a distant 25 games out of first place.

As bad as the 1963-64 season ended, the ’64-65 season would be worse. Broadcaster Don Wattrick, who had little basketball experience, was named general manager and 24-year old Dave Debusschere was named player-coach, the youngest in NBA history. The team would finish 31-49, again failing to make the playoffs

The downward spiral continued into the 1965-66 season. Terry Dischinger did two years in the military and Reggie Harding was suspended for criminal activity. The team finished the final 23 games of the season with a 4-19 mark and an overall record of 22-58. The final insult seemed to come when the Pistons lost a coin flip to the Knicks for Michigan All-American Cazzie Russell.

However, the loss of the coin flip would prove to be a godsend for the Pistons. It enabled the Pistons to draft Dave Bing out of Syracuse. Bing would average 20.0 points per game, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.1 assists to win Rookie of the Year honors. Despite failing to qualify for the playoffs for the fourth straight year, the team’s win total increased by eight and, Donnis Butcher became full-time coach, allowing Dave DeBusschere to concentrate on playing.

The franchise seemed to be turning the corner in 1967-68. They finished the season with their best record since moving to Detroit at 40-42. Dave Bing won the scoring title with 2,142 points (27.1 points per game) and Terry Dischinger returned from his military duty to chip in 13.1 points per game. The Pistons finally returned to the playoffs, only to lose to the eventual NBA Champion Boston Celtics in the first round.

The Pistons mirrored the turmoil of the times in the 1968-69 season. New head coach Paul Seymour traded All-Star DeBusschere to the Knicks for Walt Bellamy and Howie Komives. Though the move was done in an effort to jump-start the team, it backfired. The team went 11-18 after the trade and finished the season 32-50 and missed the playoffs. Debusschere would go on to thrive with the Knicks, winning NBA Championships in 1970 and 1973. He would be elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1983 and would be included in the list of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996.

Before the ’69-70 season, the Pistons hired Butch van Breda Kolff, a proven coach who had guided the Lakers to two consecutive NBA Finals. Unfortunately, the Pistons did not have the Lakers’ frontcourt (which included Wilt Chamberlain) or its backcourt (which included Jerry West) and they finished the season 31-51 and out of the playoffs.

Futility landed them in another coin flip for the number one pick in the 1970 Draft. The Pistons would call it right and win the first pick. With the pick, the team selected Bob Lanier, a 6’11”, left-handed center who averaged 27.6 points per game and 15.7 rebounds per game at St. Bonaventure. The “Dobber” and the new decade brought great promise to the Pistons.

Detroit Pistons: 1970’s

The 1970-71 season would begin with a bang. Dave Bing and rookie Bob Lanier would lead the Pistons to a 12-1 record, the best start in team history. The two would combine to average over 42 points and 12 rebounds per game and lead the Pistons to their best season since moving to Detroit, 45-37. Unfortunately, they still finished last in the newly realigned Midwest Division.
The win total of the 1970-71 season set an optimistic tone when the team gathered for the ’71-72 season. That tone quickly changed. Bing was lost to a detached retina during the preseason, forcing him to miss 37 games. Bob Lanier and fellow All-Star Jimmy Walker tried to carry the team, combining for 47 points per game. But by the time Bing returned on January 2, the team was 14-24. The Pistons would finish the season 26-56, the fourth worst record in the league.

Another coaching change in October 1972 would produce new optimism for the 1972-73 season. The Pistons replaced Earl Lloyd with former Pistons player Ray Scott. The development of the team’s nucleus and a tension-free atmosphere created by Scott’s presence proved positive on the court. The Pistons finished the season as one of the hottest teams in the league, finishing the season 20-11, for a final regular season record of 40-42.

The success with which the Pistons finished the 1972-73 season would continue in 1973-74. For the first time in the franchise’s 17 years in Detroit, the city was Pistons crazy. The season would be full of highlights: a franchise best 52 wins, new highs for home and road wins, over 300,000 home attendance, an All-Star MVP award for Bob Lanier (24 points and 10 rebounds off the bench), second team All-NBA recognition for Dave Bing, and the NBA Coach of the Year Award for Ray Scott. The club would finish the season with a record of 52-30 but lose a tight, first round, seven game series to the Chicago Bulls.

July 1974 would change the landscape of Detroit sports and the history of the Detroit Pistons for years to come. It was during that summer that Detroit native William Davidson, along with eight other investors, would purchase the Pistons from Fred Zollner for $8.1 million. Mr. Davidson promised the same roll-up-the-sleeves management style that made his Guardian Industries a world leader in glass manufacturing.

Detroit fans hoped that the success of the ’73-74 season coupled with Mr. Davidson’s management style and history of business success would lead the team to the next level. Unfortunately, there was turmoil right from the beginning, when Dave Bing and Don Adams held out of training camp. The discord would lead to another 40-42 record and Dave Bing’s future had been sealed with the holdout. He was traded during the summer of 1975, along with a first round pick, to the Washington Bullets for NBA assist leader Kevin Porter.

Bing’s trade did not sit well with Pistons fans, who never got to see any return on Kevin Porter, who suffered a season-ending knee injury on December 9, 1975. Former NBA Coach of the Year Ray Scott was fired 42 games into the season and replaced by assistant Herb Brown. Brown would lead the team to 10 victories in its last 11 games, completing a 34-46 season and defeating the Milwaukee Buck 2-1 in the first round of the playoffs. The Pistons would lose to Golden State 4-2 in the Western Conference semifinals.

The merging of the NBA and ABA in 1976 allowed teams to draft established stars. The Pistons chose former ABA Rookie of the Year Marvin “Bad News” Barnes (over Moses Malone). The nickname was a result of the many accounts of absences, holdouts and legal scrapes during Barnes’ time with the ABA’s Spirit of St. Louis. Team leaders Bob Lanier, Howard Porter, and a fully recovered Kevin Porter would lead the team to a 44-38 record. Bob Lanier’s late season broken hand would send the Pistons limping into the playoffs and an eventual 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Golden State Warriors.

The Pistons seemed to be a team on the rise, but the 1977-78 season would mark a down turn. Howard and Kevin Porter and Marvin Barnes were traded. Coach Brown was fired and replaced by GM Bob Kaufman. Bob Lanier’s knee injury with 12 games left in the season ensured the end of the Pistons’ run of four consecutive playoff appearances. More changes, including a league restructuring which moved the Pistons to the Eastern Conference and a new home at the Pontiac Silverdome would mark the beginning of the 1978-79 season.

The Pistons began the 1978-79 season with a new home, a new coach, and a new attitude. The Pistons moved out of the city to the Pontiac Silverdome, with new Pistons head coach and former University of Detroit head coach Dick Vitale. Vitale’s plan was to “ReVITALEize” the franchise with players giving 120%. Unfortunately, Vitale became the first casualty of the new regime. He was hospitalized one week into the season with stomach problems. His overabundance of passion and lack of experience at the professional level forced many to ask if Vitale would even finish the season. He would, leading the team to a 30-52 record, exactly opposite of their record only five years prior.

Detroit Pistons: 1980’s

It is often said that building championships takes time. For the Pistons, it had been 30 years, when William Davidson handed the reigns of the franchise to Jack McCloskey in December 1979. The team would hit rock bottom during the 1979-80 season, with a franchise worst 16-66 record. The season culminated with the Pistons trading the franchise’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder, Bob Lanier to Milwaukee for Kent Benson and a first round draft pick.
Though the road would be long, McCloskey began laying a foundation for success. After being turned down by Sixers assistant coach Chuck Daly, the team hired Scotty Robertson as head coach. The season was marred by injuries to Bob McAdoo, John Long and Kent Benson. The team finished the season with a record of 21-61, but the most important outcome of the season was the Pistons number two pick in the 1981 NBA Draft.

In a span of nine months, “Trader Jack” would change the future of the franchise. He drafted All-American Isiah Thomas from Indiana and Kelly Tripucka out of Notre Dame. He also traded for two players underutilized on their rosters, Bill Laimbeer and Vinnie Johnson. The team would finish with a record of 39-43, two more wins than the previous two years combined. Attendance set a new record of 406,317 fans and Thomas and Tripucka would highlight their rookie seasons with trips to the All-Star Game.

The Pistons now had the offensive firepower to become a contender, but the 1982-83 season showed that even in the NBA, you have to play defense. The Pistons gave up an average of 113.1 points per game, sealing the fate of coach Scotty Robertson. The team finished with a record of 37-45, but optimism filled the locker room.

The 1983-84 Pistons would turn another corner on their championship drive. McCloskey hired a relatively inexperienced head coach from Cleveland named Chuck Daly. The Pistons followed the lead of All-Star MVP and first team All-NBA Isiah Thomas to a 49-33 record, one game behind Central Division champion Milwaukee. The New York Knicks, behind 42.6 points per game from Bernard King, would defeat the Pistons in a hard fought five game first round series. All this despite a brilliant performance by Thomas, who scored 16 points in the final 65 seconds of regulation to send Game Five to overtime.

The Pistons continued to progress during the 1984-85 season, finishing with a 46-36 record. Heavy snowfall caused millions of dollars in damages to the Silverdome, forcing the Pistons to move to Joe Louis Arena for the conclusion of the season, where they won 11 of their 15 games, including two playoff games. The Pistons swept the New Jersey Nets 3-0, winning their first playoff series since 1976. Though the Pistons would lose to the Boston Celtics 4-2 in the conference semifinals, the series gave the fans a taste of the future.

As the individual accolades continued to mount for Thomas and Laimbeer, the 1985-86 Pistons could only repeat the 46 wins of the previous year. The additions of rookie Joe Dumars, the 18th pick out of McNeese State, and inside muscle Rick Mahorn solidified the team’s nucleus. Exiting the playoffs in the first round was a huge surprise and exposed Detroit’s defensive weaknesses. Changes needed to be made to make the Pistons a more tough, defensive-minded team.

The Pistons would begin the 1986-87 season with four new players: John Salley, a 6’11” center from Georgia tech, Dennis Rodman, a 6’8” forward from tiny Southeast Oklahoma State, two-time NBA scoring champion Adrian Dantley, and rebounder Sidney Green. Though the roster would take time to develop, the team would finish the regular season 52-30, equaling the best record in franchise history. They would win seven of their first eight playoff games, defeat Washington and Atlanta, to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics. If not for one incredible play by Celtics forward Larry Bird in Game Five, the Pistons would have earned their first berth in the NBA Finals. Though the Pistons would win Game Six, Game Seven proved too much for the Pistons. The Pistons learned that to get to the Finals, they would have to overcome the leprechauns of the Boston Celtics.

If the 1986-87 postseason taught the Pistons the importance of every second, the 1987-88 postseason would give them the opportunity to put into practice what they had learned. The Pistons won their first Central Division crown with a 54-28 record. They would dispose of Washington and Chicago before, again, advancing to the Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics. The Pistons learned well and advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time with a 4-2 series win, including a 104-96 victory in Game One to break the team’s 21-game losing skid in the Boston Garden. With a three games to two lead in the 1988 NBA Finals, the lesson of every second counting would have to be re-learned by the Pistons. After a “phantom foul” on Bill Laimbeer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hit two free throws for a 103-102 lead with eight seconds left and the Lakers would hold on to win Game Six. Isiah Thomas scored a Finals record 25 points in the third quarter and finished with another Finals record six steals, all on a severely sprained ankle. Though they battled until the end, the Pistons came up three points short in Game Seven 108-105, playing the final 10:22 without Thomas.

The Pistons began the 1988-89 season with a new home and a new determination. November 5, 1988 would mark the first time since moving to the Motor City 30 years earlier that the Pistons had a home of their own. The Palace of Auburn Hills would become the crown jewel of NBA arenas. Located 30 miles north of Detroit, The Palace became an $80 million show place; a new standard for sports and entertainment venues. The Pistons finished the regular season with an NBA-best record of 63-19. GM Jack McCloskey, whose roster moves were the stuff of legend, made one more to solidify the championship run. Late in the season, he traded Adrian Dantley to Dallas for Mark Aguirre. The Pistons breezed through the playoffs with a 16-2 postseason record, eventually dethroning the two-time defending champion LA Lakers. Thomas, Vinnie Johnson, and Finals MVP Joe Dumars, took advantage of a Lakers team missing Magic Johnson and Byron Scott, both lost early in the Finals to injuries. The ghosts of futility, apathetic attendance, and recent playoff heartbreak were all washed away in a sea of flowing champagne. The Pistons were finally World Champions.

For those who said that the Pistons lucked into the 1989 championship against an injured Lakers team, the 1990 NBA Finals silenced everyone. The team overcame the loss of starting power forward Rick Mahorn to the expansion draft and won their third consecutive Central Division championship with a 59-23 record. This run would not be as smooth as the previous one, but the results would be the same. A Vinnie Johnson jumper from the deep right wing in the closing seconds of Game Five at Portland gave the Pistons the crown, making them the second repeat NBA Champion since 1969 and the first team to sweep the three road games in the Finals.