Fan to Fanatic

nbadraft.net is running a feature called fan to fanatic. People write and talk about the turning point when they went from a casual fan to a fanatic.
http://nbadraft.net/articles.asp

My turning point is a famous game..the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals. I think tough losses stick with you sometimes more than the wins. You replay in your head the what ifs. What if Laimbeer didn't stand flatfooted waiting for Isiah's pass?

Some of you may go back a lot farther than that?

I remember sneaking a radio to bed in the mid 60's... tried to catch all of the games on WJR.

The interests really started to grow around 1974 when the Pistons finally made it to the playoffs (after several Hawks type seasons)... they were beat by the Bulls that year... but it was great to see the arena full and the Dober putting some serious pain on opposing centers... Dave Bing was just like Joe D... smooth, quiet and confident... with a sweet running floater and a money perimiter shot.
Maybe not quite the defender Joe was.

I can definately relate to all of the out of towners... especially those without NBATV... it's like part of your lifestyle is taken away.
When living in Dallas I could sometimes pick up WJR all the way down there... it was like a slice of home....
Had to follow the Lakers in Pasedena (1969)... but at least they were in the finals that year.

I too went from a fan to fanatic during the Pistons/Celtics Eastern conference finals in 1987. However, that got turned up even more when I got payoff tickets from a client who had the private box next to Mr. D's. As I recall, that year I saw New York, Indiana and Chicago play from the private box seats. They also had several seats in about the third roll and I saw a couple of playoff games from those seats.

Since birth in the D.

Two incidents

Incident 1:
I was more casual at first, but I followed Isiah in 1981 as Indiana won the National Championship, and when we got Isiah, I started paying more attention.

Incident 2:
The Piston Celtics series were, for me, the most exciting basketball of that era. They had everything, great players, regional rivarly, and even some overtones of race. A real microcoism of life. It played out like real drama, and demanded the basketball nation take sides. You were either for the Pistons or the Celtics... I loved it.

Armygirl here

My fondest memories of the Pistons was when my parents would tell us we had two choices after church, go to a pistons game or a tigers game during the summer. Since myself and my three brothers including my twin brother was off to the games. We used to hang outside Cobo so we could see the pistons come out and try to get autographs. Also waiting to see the tigers, Gates Brown, Willie Horton, %%%% Mcauliff, what good times. Very nice Forum Microwave. Now since I am taking a break from hurricane relief, can post and catch up on this new forum.

My wife and I were friends of Joe Caldwell and we started going to the games and finally went for season tickets at Cobo. We really lucked out because we got the exact seats that Fred Zollner had but on the opposite side of the arena. Those were great times. The same 4000 people came to every game and this crowd was extremely knowledgeable. Refs knew that the crowd booed for good reason and you could expect a make up call.

These were not winning times but we went for the tremendous skill levels and the air of expectation that you were going to see something great that night. I am still pissed that they traded DeBuscher to the Knicks.

We continued with the season tickets at the Silverdome for a couple of years but the crowd had changed. They were mainly suburbanites who didn't know the game and were there to be seen. It just wasn't as much fun anymore so we gave up our tickets.

At my friend's urging, we took our girlfriends to a boat show at the Silverdome in 1978. To my delight, it turned out the boat show was over and the Pistons were playing the Portland Trailblazers. We got some inexpensive seats a couple of rows back, and I couldn't believe how gigantic those guys were. Anyhow, it was cool seeing Bob Lanier with my own eyes instead of on television. I also got to watch Terry Tyler & John Long. Kevin Porter was on the team too. The Pistons were still horrible that year under Vitale, but somehow they won that game. I went a few more times that year, but couldn't stomach the losses after that and hardly watched them.

The Piston's drafted Isiah and Tripucka in 1981, and I listened on the radio to what I think was their first game. They played Atlanta and Isiah was fouled as time ran out and he made a 3 point shot. He then put in the free throw and Detroit won by a point. It was fun watching them improve.

I was hooked bad until Isiah and Laimbeer left. I pretty much ignored them during most of the teal era although I liked Grant Hill. I followed their progress by reading the Detroit News (which basically tells you I lost track of them, lol). I started watching again once they got rid of Stackhouse.

1994 season

Seems like a strange time to become a fan/ fanatic, but I moved to detroit from Kentucky in 1994, and couldn't get UK college games up here. (if you have ever been to Kentucky, UK basketball is almost tied with Jesus for popularity)

Out of desperation, I started watching Pistons games just to see some basketball. The very end of Isaiah, some dude named Polynice (I think) Alan Houston, Lindsey Hunter, and a 20 something win season.

The next year, they drafted Grant Hill, and still lost a ton of games. I have been watching every since, through Bison Dele, Otis Thorpe, Miki Moore, Abdur Raheem... every year they get better. I believe the 2005 Stones were better than the 2004 Pistons. (but the 2005 Spurs were much better than the 2004 Lakers) I think this year the Pistons will be better still. I am excited about J Max, the new coach, and the Potential of YKW and PS2.


I love this team!

Heart of a Piston

I turned fan and fanatic on the same day.....the year I first learned to play basketball, or the year I first took basketball up as a sport. And it just so happened it was 1988-89 if I'm not mistaken when the Bad Boys won their first championship after seeing them lose to the Lakers the year before.

Since then, I've been a Pistons fan and I bleed red, white, and Piston blue. Through the Laettner and Hill and the Terry Mills, Bison Dele, I made it through, still cheering on the team that I love, still being led by the player I consider to be the highest standard of sportsmanship and brilliance, Joe Dumars.

Looking forward to the continued development of our Pistons!!!! GO DETROIT! Be behind you all the way.

fanatic

Hands down when zeke blocked Jordan in game 7 of the eastern conf. finals 1990 jordan was driving the lane and Isiah came up and blocked mjs shot from behind in the fourth quarter they ran a pic in the paper the next day and i had it on my wall untill i moved out (9 years later) i was bouncin all over my tv room screaming and unlike some of my buds i just kept watchin even in the dark days with mills hill and jyd after houston bailed ( thats why i hate his guts we were close untill he left) even if i move out of state i will still love the d and my pistons

good call!

That play was way, way back in my memory.

Way back in high school got into watching when they lost to the Lakers Zeke and those Bad Boys had my attention from there on out.Even though he turned into a freaky deaky Rodman when he was kinda normal with us before Chuck Daly left and messed his head up he was the blue collar guy you could relate to,hustling and outworking everyone else for a rebound.

Everything I don't do at my job haha!!

The Bad Boys Did It For Me

I have always admired Zeke's tenacity in overcoming obstacles. How he escaped the tenaments in Chicago against all odds, especially in those days. Unfortunately there have been many a great hoopster who never have and whose budding career was cut short either by being murdered, drugs or jail, never to make it to the NBA.

Then there was Laimbeer 180 degrees opposite of Zeke. Laimbeer who grew up as the son of a successful Detroit motor executive and went on to snob U down the road from Indiana U. where Zeke honed his talents under Mr. Congeniality. Laimbeer was a player of very little natural basketball talent, whose only positive basketball physical attribute was his height. So here was a young man from a wealthy upper middle class white family with very little basketball talent yet through an unbelievable mental toughness went on to become one of if not the toughest of the Bad Boys.

His career as a Piston was one of being hated by every player and fan in the NBA outside of Michigan. He relished the role and never backed down from it. And on top of that went on to put up some pretty impressive career numbers, including winning two rings, something special for a guy with very little physical basketball talent.

Both Zeke and Laimbeer played their entire careers at many levels above their natural abilities, though Zeke did have a lot more natural basketball talent than Laimbeer.

Now if only Darko could learn from Laimbeer his mental approach to the game and incorporate into his own then the Pistons may truely have something special. Though as much as I like Darko's potential I doubt that this will happen.

Zeke and Laimbeer two Pistons that no one could go wrong in admiring both as on the court players as well as their post playing careers as coaches and executives in the NBA and WBNA.

My turning point is the same as Mercury's--the '74 Pistons-Bulls playoffs. God, I hated the Bulls! Hearing Chicago fans whine about the Bad Boys two decades after their own thug backcourt of Sloan and Van Lier used to kill me. Very hard-fought games, but ultimately our role players like Mengelt and Ford would do something stupid and kill us.

It was tough to watch the team rise from the cellar, only to fall short in the league's toughest division. Lots of crying come playoff time, then Dobber started missing more games to injury and management blew the team up. It wasn't a lot of fun watching Phil Hubbard and Paul Mokeski and Ronnie Lee, but by that time my fandom was chronic.

It was 87 for me too.

I had already moved from Motown to Laker town in 1980, and was claiming the Lakers because everyone loves a winner. But when the Pistons made it to the EC finals in 87, the Lakers became the hated ones and the former hometown Pistons reclaimed my loyalty as the Tigers had done 3 years earlier when they claimed the series.

The reality set in when I first subscribed to the NBA League Pass in 1998 just to watch the Pistons games. (been a subscriber ever since)

I had to fight with my LA raised wife when my beloved Pistons played her Lakers in 88 and 89, but I finally converted her over to a Pistons fan by the time the Pistons rolled back into town in June 2004.

Last year I got League Pass for the first time. Sitting alone in my TV room as the NBA channels activated, I actually said out loud, "My life is so much better now." But it sure increased the amount of swearing in the house.

fan

3rd grade class went to cobo and Pistons and Royals. We sat in the upper deck but the atmosphere was great. Oscar Robertson played great and the other name I remember .... Hap Hariston. The games were on channel 50 wkbd. A lot of snow on UHF stations.