tdinc said:
Derek that was well said,
Its the Media that has always been against the Pistons, It it right in front of you when you watch any sports coverage. Always the quiet team doing great things and winning games. no fuss no drama.
Because there was no "SUPERSTAR"" Ball hog shooting 50+ points every other game they never earned that media respect.
I completely disagree about the respect factor.
Detroit bitched and whined and moaned about the lack of media respect all the last 3 seasons while the media DID talk about them and the perseverence and all that jazz.
Big Ben has super-star status and he's not the most important guy on the team. 'Sheed gets a lot of attention for his skills and so on/so forth.
Detroit themselves never gave other teams respect. I loved watching them but I am all about the better team in a series winning and moving on. They didn't deserve to be in the finals last year and they sure as heck didn't this year.
Different teams are built different ways. Detroit played well and they dominated the news this season. I mean come on, Billups was on. 5 in the MVP voting. You are making an obvious dig at Kobe and the lakers but they would not have gotten where they did without Kobe doing what he did. Keep in mind this team was less talented than last years Lakers and they went farther. Kobe is a key reason for that and Phil Jackson did his thing.
The reason they are considered a failure is the same reason Shaq was considered a failure his first several seasons in the league. Look at his credentials. He has some of the best credentials of ANY player in the NBA, ever, unless you count sheer number of titles.
His teams have ALWAYS been right there in the thick of it and yet, he was considered a failure till the lakers won. And when they lost to the Pistons? They were a failure even though the team was wracked with injuries.
Any team that has been viewed as being this dominant automatically becomes a failure in the eyes of the media if it doesn't score a championship. Look at the yankees the last few seasons for example. It's the name of the game.
Detroit, this season, simply lost to an obviously better team.