I read this comment by LanierFan on DetroitBadBoys.com Game 6: This is for everything | Detroit Bad Boys Geez I miss that guy. DC if you're out there, drop me a line.
I feel this way too: I've really enjoyed being the fan of an excellent team, being able to assume the playoffs, expect the ECF, and be disappointed in not making the finals every year and winning rings in some of those (like the spurs more or less). But now I'm kind of tired of the repetition and lack of change. One change would be to become a championship next year. I doubt it. Another would be to become a sure fire lottery team. I doubt that too. So I think it will be fun to follow and root for a team with likable players, with strengths and weaknesses, that try hard, and that have a good chance at the playoffs and that maybe could be a tough out for more established contenders. It's not that I want us to be underdogs or to have it rough. I think I just want to see guys playing the game who seem to be enjoying themselves -- yes, that's it, that's the decisive thing for me: all our young guys seem to really have fun playing basketball!
I want to see guys willing to dive on the floor for the leather. I know one guy we have willing to do it in garbage time. Wish we could have seen what he was capable of in Prime Time. There was no reason for us to be out hustled. We have the players to avoid that happening. They just couldn't get off the bench. When you lose the rebounding war; you were out hustled.
Geez, a guy can't go into semi-retirement without hearing his name bandied all over the place. The lyrics are from a great Neil Sedaka song, "The Hungry Years." This morning I looked up a YouTube clip of him singing it on Dutch TV, and I thought I'd just bust from sadness. But basketball teams aren't like relationships - we can start again, and I know Joe is on the job. Miss you too, Roscoe. (All you guys be nice to him, because Pistons fans never had a better friend anywhere.) Best to all. LF ps...I TOLD you Nazr was tradeable.
Excellent post. As much as I appreciate the ECF's it would be very dissapointing if we came back with the same team next year. As Dumars said. If you are not getting better then you are getting worse.