Many Hands

As published in The County Times (countytimes.somd.com)

By Ronald N. Guy Jr.

The 2004 NBA Finals happened a long time ago.  Twenty years to be exact.  A generation by some measure.  The world was different then - better in some ways, worse in others.  Such is history.  The NBA was a very different league too.  Big men still retained a respected role, defenders actually had a chance (and tried), and less three-point shots were taken - a lot less. 

The Detroit Pistons represented the Eastern Conference in those 2004 Finals, but hardly anyone outside of Michigan, or absent a personal connection, cared.  Detroit was a massive underdog to a Los Angeles Lakers team that featured Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone, Gary Payton and head coach Phil Jackson – all future members of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

The Pistons had some guys too – Chauncy Billups, Ben Wallace, Tayshaun Prince and Richard Hamilton.  Billups and Wallace snuck in to the Hall of Fame themselves, but neither was a player near that of Kobe, Shaq or Malone.  Coaching was probably a wash; Jackson has a bunch of rings but the Pistons were coached by Larry Brown, a Hall of Famer as well and one of the best X’s and O’s coaches ever.

All that said, the Pistons had no shot to win the series.  The Lakers were more fun, more famous and had better overall talent.  Further, the Pistons seemed like just the next Eastern Conference team to get mopped up by the west’s champion.  Entering the 2004 Finals, the Western Conference had won five-straight championships and were in the middle of the stretch where it would win 10 of 13 Finals. 

The Pistons missed the memo.  They didn’t read the storyline.  They stuffed the Lakers’ fairytale manuscript in the shredder…with a smile.  In one of the biggest upsets in Finals history, the Pistons destroyed the Lakers, winning the series four games to one.  The loss was an inflection point for the Lakers, who shipped Shaq to the Heat in the offseason and began a multi-year reorganization with Bryant as leading man.

Halfway in to this “View”, you’re rightfully wondering why I’m writing about a 20-year-old memory.  Fair.  My brain works in ways I’m still deciphering.  The short is after watching Game 1 of the 2024 Finals, I thought about those 2004 Pistons.  This year’s Finals pit the Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving led Dallas Mavericks against the Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum led Boston Celtics.  Doncic and Irving, in total, are better than Brown and Tatum.  The former duo is more decorated and more clutch; Doncic alone is one of the league’s top five players (easily).  But it’s a comparison of the teams, not the stars, that had me time traveling.

The 2004 Lakers lacked championship chemistry; they were a superteam before it was cool and were way too over spiced – too many leading men, not enough supporting actors…a flawed team.  Conversely, the Pistons ran like a perfectly tuned V-8 engine of key (if not elite) and complimentary components. 

In Game 1 of this year’s Finals, the supporting casts appear to distinguish the Celtics from the Mavericks.  The Mavs have been on an incredible run behind their two megastars, but the rest of the roster leaves much to be desired.  The Mavs need (underlined and bolded) Irving and Doncic to dominate – another flawed team.  The Celtics need Brown and Tatum to play well, but the team is loaded with really good NBA players – Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Derek White and the venerable Al Horford.  They have margin - a Plan A, B and C.  It’s a complete team. 

That’s the trait these Celtics share with those Pistons.  They are young and classically aged.  They are big and small.  They have elite talent, depth and versatility.  Whatever the question, they appear to have an answer.  Doncic and Irving enter every game needing to dominate.  Brown and Tatum, while capable of taking games over, don’t carry the same burden.  In Dallas, a couple heavy lifters bear concentrated responsibility.  In Boston, many hands make light work.  That’s usually a winning formula in sports or for any organization, no matter the professional pursuit.