Super Bowl spotlight reflects on Pistons

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 2/2/2006

 

 

This just in: These Detroit guys are good! The Pistons (37-5), winners of 11 straight games, are off to one of the hottest starts to an NBA season ever. Can the Pistons win 70 games?

 Only one team in history has accomplished that feat, the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. Coached by Phil Jackson and led by the great Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and current Pistons Assistant Coach Ron Harper, the Bulls won the world championship that year and finished with an NBA record (72-10) that remains the best ever.

 This Pistons team might do it! President of Basketball Operations/General Manager Joe Dumars has built this powerhouse by outsmarting all the others. Consider this: He traded for Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billips, Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, and sixth man Antonio McDyess; drafted Tayshaun Prince; and hired Flip Saunders as coach after Minnesota fired him.

 It’s by far the best starting five in the NBA today. Four of the five average scoring at least 15 points a game, and Ben Wallace leads the league in rebounding nearly 13 per game. Detroit has already won an NBA title three years ago and just missed repeating last year, losing game seven at San Antonio to the World Champion Spurs.

 Whether they win 70 games or not, the Pistons are the team to beat; they are truly the best of the East. Last week they dismantled the Timberwolves 107-83, forcing Minnesota to trade second-leading scorer Wally Szczerbiak (20.4) to Boston in a seven-player deal that brought Ricky Davis to Minnesota .

 The new-look Timberwolves get a rematch with the Pistons Wednesday at the Palace of Auburn Hills. The Pistons are slightly behind Chicago ’s record pace to 72 wins. The Bulls started 38-3, the Pistons 36-5.

 The Detroit area will host their second Super Bowl this week when the Pittsburgh Steelers (14-5) match up with the darlings of the great Northwest, the Seattle Seahawks (15-3), in Super Bowl XL. Detroit was the first cold-weather city to host a northern Super Bowl.

 It was Super Bowl XVI in Pontiac , Michigan , 35 miles north of Detroit at the Silverdome, and boy was it cold. It was one of the best Super Bowl games I’ve covered, and Super Bowl XL will be my 26th straight. What a game it was— quarterback Joe Montana led San Francisco to a 26-20 win over Cincinnati ; the 49ers led 20-0 at the half and held on.

 This is the sixth Super Bowl for Pittsburgh , and they have won four. If they win Sunday, they can tie the San Francisco 49ers for the most Super Bowl victories with five. The contrast between the Steelers and Seahawks makes this potentially one of the best Super Bowls ever.

 Both teams can move the ball on the ground; remember, the Seahawks were the NFL’s highest scoring team during the regular season with 452 points. They have the league’s MVP record-setting touchdown scorer (28) Shaun Alexander. Pittsburgh , on the other hand, has already beaten Indianapolis , Denver , and Cincinnati on the road, the NFL’s number one, two and three seeds.

   

Are six all we get?

 You have heard much about the NFL’s “Rooney Rule,” named after Pittsburgh Steelers President Dan Rooney, pictured below with Larry Fitzgerald Jr., All-Pro wide receiver of the Arizona Cardinals. The rule requires each NFL team to interview at least one minority candidate.

 Since the rule was implemented thanks to attorneys Cyrus Mehri and the late Johnnie Cochran nearly four years ago, Black head coaches have increased from two to six.

 Apparently the league has a silent new rule, “Six is Enough”; of 10 head-coaching vacancies on January 1, not one new Black head coach has been hired in a league where 78 percent of the league’s players are Black. That is a disgrace to America ’s number-one game and league.