So I’ve been hanging around here for a few years, mostly reading your posts and sometimes chipping in on matters I feel like I have something to say about. I’m impressed by the knowledge and passion about Pistons the people in these forums have and I pretty much read every post in here.
The season hasn’t been good and the (unrealistic) expectations that I and many of us had for it makes things worse. I’ve been thinking of writing up why I’m here in these forums and why I follow Pistons when it's good and when it's bad – it’s My Pistons Story.
First I want to tell you a bit about Finland and my hometown Lahti. Finland is a country of about 7 million people located in northern Europe, between Russia and Sweden.
It's a long way from Michigan to Finland!
My hometown Lahti is a town of 115 000 in southern Finland. I think it's the 5th or 6th biggest city in Finland - we're not a big country!
Some pictures of Lahti and nerby areas:
I ❤ this game
I first got into basketball when my dad decided I needed a hobby when I was 7 years old. I wasn’t too thrilled to try out basketball at first but quickly got into game. The first summer we learn the very basics of the sport I grew to love at local park. I played at the local club as a junior for the next 10 years, the highlight being bronze medal in B-juniors and a few tournament wins.
Local park at Lahti "Kisapuisto". With some guy rocking Grant Hill Teal jersey!
I have always been rather unathletic and not gifted basketball player by any means, so I carved out a role as a defence first, hustle guy. I enjoyed great respect from my teammates for diving for loose balls even if it sent me flying to stands. My NBA comparison would maybe be Tony Allen, even though I’ve added bit of a low post game in my adult years.
Being basketball fan in a hockey country
Finland is ice hockey country: it’s a sport we’ve done relatively well in, winning world championships twice and being Olympic medallist at least 5 times. Our success in basketball is way worse: we have qualified to world championships only once and to Olympics twice. Last time we faced USA (in the world championships 2014) this happened:
Even though we got our asses kicked in most of the games I felt proud for our national team just for making the tournament. I think we even won one game. BTW, our roster included our only NBA player in history, a washed up Hanno Möttölä. He played for the Hawks back in 2000-2002. Our next NBA player (and the best Finnish prospect ever) Lauri Markkanen just declared to draft so soon we'll have our second NBA player. Markkanen is mocked somewhere around 10, so it’s technically possible for Pistons to crab him. I doubt they do though even if they had a chance, since Markkanen plays similarly to Henry Ellington, only Markkanen is better.
I first started following NBA in the mid 90’s. In Finland, it was mostly impossible to catch any regular season games, so I mostly read magazines and followed the scores from “text TV”, a database all finnish TV’s had back then. it looks like this:
Finnish TV also aired “NBA Action” at Sundays, which I would watch religiously and tape. I still have tens of hours of NBA Action on VHS tapes. I of course also recorded any games Finnish TV randomly aired. I've watched some of the games so many times I remember each and every possession of the game - and some of these games are by no means "Hardwood classics", but some random regular season games.
I went to see local club play every time I could. The level of play here can’t obviously be compared to NBA, but as you guys know, sports are best seen live. I have a lot of great memories, especially when Namika Lahti (that’s YMCA Lahti) won it’s first and second Finnish league championships in 2000 and 2008.
Namika Lahti celebrating 2008 Finnish League Championship.
Dennis Rodman made an 2 game apperance in Finnish league in 2005. Not his finest hour.
Why Pistons?
I first started following Pistons in 2000 when we acquired Big Ben Wallace. He was a gritty player that had caught my eye for some reason when he played for Magic: I’ve always had a weak spot for players who focus on defence more than offense. (I also loved Rodman even when he as a Bull) I obviously didn’t expect him to turn into a player he did but I thought I’d be fun to follow his team a bit closer. I still hardly got to see any games, but at least I had nba.com highlights & box scores now. I read a lot of articles about Pistons and knew a lot about the team even if I didn’t really see them play.
Then 2004 finals happened and for some reason Finnish TV aired all the games live. I happened to work night shifts during that june at local newspaper and the lives games started just as I finished my shifts: I remember rushing home where I had food and drinks waiting for me. Being 20 in my first own apartment and having a chance to watch Pistons play in the Finals on live TV was life altering for me. The memories never fade.
I didn’t expect us to win: the star power of Lakers seemed to be too much. When we lost game 2 on Kobe three I felt we’d be f*ucked. Oh, how wrong I was. The team had so much heart and the whole defensive, hard-working identity of the team felt like home to me. I remember thinking: this is how basketball is supposed to be played.
Of course, the team stayed great for years, but I feel we should have won at least two titles during that era. Especially the San Antonio finals loss still stings.
In the 2007-2008 I first got League Pass and could watch most if not all Pistons games. As you all know, the timing wasn’t great, since the team fell apart and the last 9 years have been a struggle. I have watched most of the games between 08 and this year: I usually wake up 1,5 hrs before I must go to work and watch the match at morning, since the games air at 2am-5am in Finnish time. Nothing wakes me up like George Blaha’s “Welcome to another exciting night of NBA basketball!”.
Like many of you, I follow the team really closely and sometimes my mood is affected by Pistons’ success. I read these forums, follow some Pistons blogs almost daily (Pistonpowered and Detroit Bad Boys) and follow the stats of our players a lot. In other words, I care way too much for NBA and Pistons.
Like you’ve noticed, I refer to Pistons as “us”, which might look funny to some of you – since I’m from Finland and I have never been to a Pistons game, I have never even set my foot to Michigan. But I can’t help it. The Pistons have grown into me, it’s part of who I am. And one day I’ll travel there to see US play live and it’ll be glorious.
To each and everyone here: thank you for your contribution to the forums and Pistons community. For better seasons to come, LET’S GO PISTONS!
Me and Kaisa say hi to all the Pistons fans!
If some of you have comments or questions, shoot. Thank you for reading.
