Forgive me if this has been mentioned before since I haven't been posting here long, but I didn't hear any news organizations bring up this very interesting point. It's not quite a fact since it is sort of subjective, but I think mostly everyone will agree: The Pistons are the first team since the 1990 Pistons to win the championship without having the best player. '91-'93 - Jordan '94-'95 - Olajuwon '96-'98 - Jordan '99 - Duncan '00-'02 - Shaq '03 - Duncan The only year in question I think is '99 when Duncan may not have been the best player, but I don't think there'll be too many arguments on those other picks. Some might say Shaq was still the best in '03, but I disagree and Duncan had the regular season MVP that year, too.
I thought the interesting fact would be that their three best players all got paid 2-3 million less this year than what Adonal Foyle will receive next year...
It's sort of been mentioned that they're not built with "star" players. It's really a testament to Joe Dumars' great knowledge of the game as an architect and predictor of each guys' skill, and also of Larry Brown's coaching system, and finally the team chemistry that fit together. Certainly, a rare thing to occur, to have a championship without a standout star.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting HoopsAvenue:</div><div class="quote_post">Forgive me if this has been mentioned before since I haven't been posting here long, but I didn't hear any news organizations bring up this very interesting point. It's not quite a fact since it is sort of subjective, but I think mostly everyone will agree: The Pistons are the first team since the 1990 Pistons to win the championship without having the best player. '91-'93 - Jordan '94-'95 - Olajuwon '96-'98 - Jordan '99 - Duncan '00-'02 - Shaq '03 - Duncan The only year in question I think is '99 when Duncan may not have been the best player, but I don't think there'll be too many arguments on those other picks. Some might say Shaq was still the best in '03, but I disagree and Duncan had the regular season MVP that year, too.</div> Buddy, u got the fact all wrong....Its the pistons are the second team in nba history ( the 1st being the 1947-48 Baltimore Bullets) to win an nba championship with at least one of the 50 greatest players on the roster. San Antonio is tricky because David Robinson still counts as one of the 50 greatest on a championship team in 2003, when tim duncan did most of the work....but facts are facts!!!
kevinduncan, Interesting...don't see how my statements are wrong, though. It is really interesting not that the Pistons won without star power, but how every other NBA championship team always has the best players...says a lot about how NBA ball is played.
HoopsAvenue, the reason why that "fact" wasn't brought up is because saying who the best player is is an argument that has no definate. For example, in your own post you said that some choices may be argued, like '03 when the majority felt that KG was the best player. You can say that the Celtics' run of 11 championships in 13 years was accomplished without having the best player because the majority says Wilt was the best player. It's just useless to make such a statement. Everyone knows that the Pistons had no real star power anyway.
If you have good team chemistry, you don't need a superstar. The Pistons used their chemistry and defense to win the title. People tend to underrate their defense, but the guys can still score. Larry Brown has made all of his players active on offense, including Ben Wallace - which was unheard of before he took over.
The Pistons do not necessarily have an offensive superstar but they have two defensive ones in Ben and Rasheed Wallace. Shouldn't that count for something? Big Ben is arguably the best defensive player in the league.
