http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/blaha_090326.htmlParade of Stars
It sure would have been better if it had come with the Pistons at full strength, instead of having Rip Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace on top of Allen Iverson sidelined with injuries, but this is quite a stretch of superstars we’re seeing. On Sunday at The Palace, it was Dwyane Wade. Tonight, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers come to town. And next week, the Pistons go back down to Cleveland to go up against maybe the frontrunner to take Kobe’s MVP trophy, LeBron James. These three players are highlight reels, night in and night out, and they are certainly good enough to be included in the conversation with Magic, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan as the greatest trio that ever played simultaneously. The interesting thing, as far as I’m concerned, is that I’m not ready to cast my MVP ballot yet if it were in front of me. I think the common thinking is that this is LeBron’s year and it certainly could be. But I think you have to give all kinds of thought to the reigning MVP. Kobe Bryant has had another brilliant year and has his Lakers looking like they could very well be the NBA champs again this year. And Dwyane Wade has certainly put the Miami Heat on his back and raised them up into a legitimate playoff team that could be dangerous in the postseason. When you mention Magic, Larry and Michael, if you had the privilege of watching Isiah Thomas as many times as I did, you have to put him on that short list, as well.
As we all know, if he were 6-8 – or even 6-5 or 6-6 – he’d absolutely be on that list. He’s the guy Julius Erving called the greatest player, inch for inch, he’d ever seen. So it’s not like I haven’t been around to see some great players. The ’80s, to me, was still the greatest decade maybe any league in any sport has ever had. We could expand that list and include Moses Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon and Dr. J and four or five others who would be right there, percentage points behind that group. It took a while, but now we have three players who wouldn’t draw any criticism if you tried to put them in that group. I think Kobe and LeBron will certainly go down as among the greatest players of all time, and the way he’s playing right now, Dwyane Wade has a chance to make that list, too. We saw the damage Wade can do when he dropped 39 points on the Pistons to win a game the Pistons controlled from the opening tipoff to the last few minutes. There were a few calls at the end of that game that could have gone the other way – and probably should have gone the other way. That prompted a lot of discussion in Detroit about the so-called superstar calls. I truly believe that superstars do get superstar calls and half of that is because they can do things that other players can’t do. So some of those calls that we think are superstar calls are probably the right call. The real stars in our league are a cut above and they can do some things that are hard to believe.
But subconsciously or consciously – and I think, for the most part, subconsciously – if you’re an official and you see one of the great players in the game today, and in some cases one of the greats of all time, involved in a bang-bang play, you probably can’t help but lean toward the great player when you’ve got a decision to make. It doesn’t take very many of those calls to change a game. That’s why all the talk continues. I don’t really believe that the officials in our league are trying to protect anybody or enhance anybody’s game, but they are only human. If you ask me which player I enjoy watching the most, I love guys who can make shots. So Kobe, up until now, has been the guy I’ve enjoyed watching most. But LeBron can make shots, too, and he does so many other things so well and is so strong that you can’t help but be in awe when you watch him. Dwyane Wade is a guy who has some occasional ugly misses, but he’s an amazing shotmaker and one-on-one playmaker himself. When he gets up above the rim, you know you’re seeing somebody special. In their own way, they’re all a pleasure to watch. Over the years, because of the Pistons’ dedication to defense and their mental toughness and pride, they have not been a team that’s been dominated by any of those three guys. There are some obvious exceptions to the rule, such as the Game 5 explosion by LeBron, which was otherworldly and might never be repeated, and Dwyane Wade’s 2006 series against the Pistons. But more often than not, those guys – like all players against the great Pistons teams Joe Dumars has put together – have to earn every shot and every point against the Detroit Pistons.
