There were ejections in Minneapolis, sure, and perhaps some suspensions to come. But what the Detroit Pistons have discovered, or rather what they’ve displayed for the better part of this season, is an identity.
One can add the Melee in Minneapolis to some of the other famous brouhahas in the franchise’s history, and of course the jokes will fly about the Pistons being known for such things. The internet was on fire when it saw Isaiah Stewart grab his jersey and point to the “Detroit” emblazoned across the front, while barking at the Minnesota Timberwolves fans.
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This was in the aftermath of the altercation that started with the Timberwolves’ Naz Reid and Donte DiVincenzo and Pistons rookie Ron Holland II. Holland, whose play has improved in recent weeks with more opportunities, has never been one to scare and didn’t back down from Reid or DiVincenzo. Plays before the actual kerfuffle, Stewart, yes, had been into it with DiVincenzo, and then Rudy Gobert found himself on the other end of Stewart letting him know what could happen if he was interested.
So by the time the smoke cleared and players were removed from the first row of the Target Center stands, five players and two coaches, including Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, were ejected.
“What you see is guys looking out for one another, guys trying to have each other’s back … and those are non-negotiable in our locker room,” Bickerstaff said after the game. “When you play the way we play, you earn a reputation, you’re going to be tested.”
All-NBA candidate Cade Cunningham and forward Tobias Harris were already out with injury, so the ejections put an even bigger strain on the Pistons, who ultimately lost the game, 123-104.
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But that didn’t matter in the moment, and it doesn’t matter when you’re establishing something very real, brick by brick. It didn’t even matter to Bickerstaff in his fiery moment.
“There were some things said by their assistant coach [Pablo Prigioni], and I’m in the same boat as my guys, we’re going to defend each other,” Bickerstaff said. “I’m not gonna let people say belligerent things about my guys. And it’s that simple.”
That doesn’t fly everywhere, but it does in Detroit — and it had better.
With that comes something for them to embrace, for the present and the future. For now, any team seeing the Pistons on their schedule knows they’re in for a long night — and that’s expected to continue in the playoffs when they begin in three weeks.
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For what they lack in experience, they seem to make up with other intangibles. And this franchise seems to be buoyed by instances that firmly plant Detroit on one side and everyone else on the other.
Call it Detroit vs. Everybody.
In a January game in 1988, Pistons bruiser Rick Mahorn — who was more skilled than folks remember but was known as a tough guy for good reason — took down a 23-year-old league darling wearing No. 23 in Chicago. When a skinny Michael Jordan got to his feet, then-Bull Charles Oakley went after Mahorn, and Bulls coach Doug Collins tried jumping on Mahorn’s back, along with assistant Johnny Bach and a hippie by the name of Phil Jackson.
Those Pistons were far more established by that point, having gone to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals the year before, losing to the Boston Celtics, but they were still fighting for their turf — literally and figuratively.
Isaiah Stewart was among seven ejections during Sunday night’s game. (Matt Krohn-Imagn Images)
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters)
It was the birth of the “Bad Boys,” who took what could’ve been seen as a negative, wrapped their arms around it, and made it their signature. Even though Isiah Thomas was one of the league’s most dazzling players, that toughness became synonymous for the next five years.
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Whether they were cult heroes, antiheroes or a revelation to the NBA that winning could be done in a different way than the glamorous Lakers or similarly gritty Celtics, it wasn’t the norm.
They were hated because they were feared, which was the greatest sign of respect.
These Pistons aren’t there, they’re still shaking off the residue of the negative years, the embarrassing 28-game losing streak from last season and futility of having not won a playoff game since 2008 — the end of a seven-year run of 50-win seasons that culminated in two Finals appearances and an NBA title in 2004.
Not shockingly, that Pistons team was rough and tumble. Ben Wallace was the defensive anchor, and they announced to the NBA that they weren’t to be quarreled with against another Midwest team they’d battle for supremacy for the next few years.
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In late March of 2002, the Pistons stormed into Indiana and put a beatdown on the Pacers. Pistons reserve Corliss Williamson drove and found Jermaine O’Neal delivering a forearm shiver late in the fourth quarter. Williamson didn’t take kindly to it and slammed the ball on O’Neal’s head before an all-out brawl took place. O’Neal threw punches at multiple Pistons before being ejected.
(As an aside, Williamson was one of the peacemakers on Sunday as an assistant on the Timberwolves staff.)
The two franchises would meet in the conference finals two years later and, of course, at the start of the 2004-05 season the ugly Malice at the Palace took place when Ron Artest went into the stands after a fan threw a cup of beer on him.
That element was regrettable, of course, and nobody’s suggesting these Pistons find themselves in that position. But it seems fitting some teams have a look and a feel, no matter the era. Stewart has developed a reputation for being ready to fight, but it obscures him being one of the league’s best defenders, and a player many teams have called about regarding his trade availability.
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He’s not as legendary as Wallace, but he does fit the Mahorn mold, and he’s a huge part of why this team is developing an identity, a way of life for 48 minutes.
You can’t win in this league without an identity. It’s as much for you as it is for the rest of the league to know what they’re in for, for incoming players to know the standard, and even for fans to connect and have strong opinions on either side of the spectrum.
Those Bad Boys Pistons made you feel something — hell, they still make you feel something to this day. Seeing Stewart brings a visceral reaction now, just like seeing Bill Laimbeer’s sneer, or Dennis Rodman’s clap-and-smile routine, or Isiah’s charm being on full display.
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“You don’t win by accident. There’s a formula for success. And you must study it and force that formula on your team,” Thomas told NBC’s Bob Costas in 1993. “We didn’t just hunker down and say it’s us against the world. It was planned, thought out, detailed, organized.
“It was no type of tradition. A fan could care less if he wore a Detroit Pistons hat. It didn’t mean anything to him. There was no brand name equity in that Pistons emblem. So you had to create something. And it wasn’t gonna be created through your marketing department. It had to be created through your players.”
Thomas was talking about the Pistons’ reputation, and subsequently, his own. It was a personal cost for Thomas to win, to create that identity from nothing — and it’s being followed again today.
The Pistons are more than just resurgent this season. They’re coming. This April and beyond.
Detroit vs. Everybody.
