Luke Waltons Forehead presented by the Sports Dude.

I have never been one who believes in the old cliché of “statement games” but does anyone else think yesterday the Pistons were trying to make some sort of statement? Does anyone else think that they are just a little pissed? I mean we all know these guys love the underdog role; they feed off of it, thrive from it and just flat out love it. But this year was different with the #1 seed, where was the underdog role going to come from? Well thanks to David Stern and his need to get Lebron on next Saturday during prime time (please see Game #2 Tuesday and Game #3 eight years later on Saturday for more details) I think the Pistons clearly were sending a statement to all the haters out there – this is our title to lose.

I was not able to see most of the game yesterday, in fact I almost missed it all together, but the little I did see I would have sworn the Cavs were winning and winning big. The couple commercial breaks I caught always led with a Lebron highlight; in fact the first three highlights before the half time break were Lebron doing something. Then I was hoping to catch some of the breakdown on ESPN before bed and I didn’t even bother to watch, their tag line was not about the Pistons dominance but rather something along the lines of “how did King James do against the Pistons, highlights after the break.” Does anyone give a shit about the Pistons? I mean isn’t the new NBA that Stern is trying to force down our throats all about the Pistons unselfish team style? It is just so damn frustrating to see an actual team whoop the ass of another and still the props all go to the air-apparent poster boy that really is still years away from accomplishing anything. I guess what is so frustrating for me is that I saw all this before, 16 years ago to be exact, when a young Jordan was coming up in the league and the NBA was doing anything to turn the Pistons into nothing and “pimp” MJ. Look, Lebron is good, don’t get me wrong, but at least give the Pistons some love while they are here man, damn! Maybe that is what is the most frustrating, we as Pistons fans all have the “been there, done that” thing with Lebron, we see the writing on the wall and are just sick of it. MJ had to go through the Pistons, now they are already talking about King James needing to do the same, but how about the Pistons first and let the rest take care of itself.

So there you have it that is my rant for the day and quite frankly if Miami wins we will have another round of it to go with the Wade loving league next. The Pistons just keep chugging out the victories like the well oiled machine they are and just keep on getting the JV schedule from Stern and the league. Hey, that is fine, you know they love that stuff and I think the exhibition they put on yesterday was a statement to everyone out there – Lebron may be the future but damn it we are the now and we ain’t going anywhere! Maybe next year Stern, if he really wants to just give the East to Lebron and Wade will come out wearing an afro wig and a “Go Pistons” t-shirt to trick our boys from Detroit, maybe he will stop giving them the JV schedule and then maybe the Pistons will lose because they think Stern actually likes them. But for right now we will take the JV, we will take the backseat because that is just fuel to the fire for the Pistons and all it is doing is just feeding the Championship machine that is building. The Pistons will never it admit it but we all know better, yeah, that was a statement game alright.