'kay, my bad.

Demanding that the Pistons win all the time is unfair. Demanding that they be a team, even in defeat, is not.

EXACTLY!!!

I don't expect them to win every game. I don't expect a Division Title, EC Championship or Finals win every year. Heck, I don't even expect a winning record every year in order for me to be a fan.

What I do expect, is 100% effort. I expect them to go up strong. Finish strong. Defend strong. I expect them to play every minute of every game with passion and pride. Win or Lose. Preseason or garbage time.

I expect them to shut up and play basketball! I don't want to hear guarenteed victories (even when they're backed up). I don't want to hear complaining to the refs on every single play. I don't want to hear the coach talking about playing the bench and then see a bunch of DNP - Coach's Decision in the box score.

As fans, I think we deserve that. Win or lose.

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That is the philosophy Joe sold when he took over the franchise. Somewhere I have a quote from him about giving a top notch effort every night. That he had to clean out the guys who were bad teammates and half assers.

It will be interesting to see how Joe deals with the troubles of success.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

also we haven't seen any signs of hunger. the only players that haven't won a ship are on the bench. but they don't get a chance to show their hunger.

some of these guys were noted as 'never being annointed', and 'never a superstar'.
maybe personal recognition and a fat paycheck is more important to them now because of this 'me versus the world' attitude.

maybe all star selections and mvp discussions are now more important than ships. maybe they always were more important. maybe winning a ship was as close to recognition as they could get at the time.

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I agree with you about the apparent lack of hunger, which to me is rediculous. Its not like this team has won 4 or 5 championships in a row. Where I could kind of see complacency setting in.

I really don't get it. Could the underdog role be that important to these guys? Is the role of the favourite just too boring? Not a big enough challenge so they have to create one by facing elimination?

That doesn't sound like a very lunch bucket, goin' to work, classy mentality to me. Not to mention, it isn't very fair to the fans.

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