Red, White and Piston Blue

If there was anything I loved about the United States, it would be professional sports.

Yeah, yeah, echo all those stereotypes now, but yeah so what, I love sports. I'm a guy. Haha. I grew up on them. I've played almost everything from basketball, volleyball, tennis, softball, baseball, hockey, in-line skating, you name it (played soccer for a while until I broke my clavicle, I think), I've dabbled in it once or twice.

I write this one because I always get flak for cheering, uhm, loyally for my favorite basketball team, the Detroit Pistons.

I don't know but I'll always bleed the team colors. I really didn't care much for the time they wore teal green but cheered for them nonetheless.

From the first time I picked up a basketball at age 8, they were my team. The Bad Boys. Isaiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman, Vinnie Johnson, James Edwards, John Salley, Mark Aguirre, Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, coached by Chuck Daly, among others. They won two championships in 1988-1989 defeating the Lakers and 1989-1990 by defeating Portland, before they were finally knocked off by some guy named Michael.

After, I cheered through the doldrum years with Allan Houston, Grant Hill, Lindsey Hunter and the not so household names of Terry Mills, Ron Mercer, Bison Dele, Eric Montross, Christian Laettner. Good enough to make the playoffs but never a winner.

I really don't know why I follow them so much. I've tried endless times before to shift to cheering for a new team, but I still end up cheering for them anyway. BIRGing mama gaya? Haha. But I do and I will still.

Which is why when Joe Dumars rebuilt the franchise into the powerhouse that it is today, I felt, vindicated. When they toppled over the Lakers star-studded team in 2004, I was the only one cheering in Lola Inda's Eatery. Everybody was shocked when A TEAM beat THE team. A Five-Game Sweep, they say (For those not NBA-inclined a sweep is winning 4 games straight). They dominated every game except the overtime period in Game 2. Tayshaun Prince, Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace became household names. Then they got FAT.

I mean content, too content. Which have led them to lose in the last 3 Eastern Conference Finals after making the last 6. They've lost that hunger. They may have been the better team in all those times but they were beat by hungrier, bolder teams.

Changes have been promised. Well, I'm excited and scared at the same time. Who knows what next season will hold for Pistons fans everywhere. You have to love this image of the Pistons on the rest of the NBA landscape. Retooling yet still a great team. People will soon know the names of Rodney Stuckey, Amir Johnson, Arron Afflalo, Jason Maxiell.



And on why I wear #4 on jerseys I usually sport?

Joe Dumars was a guy I emulated. He wore that number. The NBA Sportsmanship Trophy is named after him. When the Bulls finally found it in themselves to beat Detroit, all the Pistons walked off the court, except Dumars. He found his way to #23 and shook his hand and said his congratulations to them. And #23 has always said Dumars was the only defender he had a tough time playing against.

My girlfriend, who doesn't mind the Piston fanaticism, haha, asks why people cheer on sports teams? She said that you can't really cheer players because they come and go, get traded, sign somewhere else. You can't really cheer for management. You can't cheer for the city. So, in essence, all you're really cheering for are the uniforms.

Well, for me those uniforms, are red, white and blue.