Perhaps auditioning for Hard Wood, the New Republic’s Christopher Orr does a fine job of creating a strategic conceit for Pistons GM Joe Dumars that sounds suspiciously close to a certain Senator from New York, one who might well be better served getting her own off-season affairs in order.
Some in the media are declaring the series over because the Boston Celtics have won four of the six games played so far. But I don™t understand why, with a series this close and hotly contested, anyone would want to shut it down before we play a seventh game and have all the results in. As anybody who follows the NBA knows, a seven-game series would be good for the league, and the added competition would make the eventual victor, whomever it might be, a stronger opponent against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals.
Yes, Boston has won four games and Detroit only two. But it’s hard to imagine a more arbitrary and undemocratic way to determine this series™s outcome than “games won.” It is, after all, a bedrock value of the game of basketball that all points must be counted. But how can that be the case when every point beyond the winning point is ignored? There are literally dozens of layups, jumpers, free throws, and (yes, even) dunks that our opponents want to say don’t count for anything at all. We call on the NBA to do the right thing and fully count all of the baskets that were made throughout the course of this series.
We again ask the league to consider all these facts and come to a fair solution. I™ll be holding a press conference at the Palace tonight, to which I™m inviting all Pistons season-ticket holders. I may announce our intention to drop out of the Eastern Conference Finals. Or I may not. But know one thing: If the media and league elites put the Celtics up against LA, they will lose, and we™ll be the first to say I told you so.