Did You Know
The '''Detroit Pistons''' is a team in the National Basketball Association based in the Detroit metropolitan area. The team's home arena is The Palace of Auburn Hills. The Pistons are the only major professional team in Michigan that does not play their home games in the city of Detroit.
Franchise history
From Fort Wayne to Detroit
The franchise was founded as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, a National Basketball League (NBL) team, playing in the gym of North Side High School. Owner Fred Zollner's Zollner Corporation was a foundry, manufacturing pistons primary for car, truck and locomotive engines. In 1948, the team became the Fort Wayne Pistons, competing in the Basketball Association of America (BAA). In 1949, Fred Zollner brokered the formation of the National Basketball Association from the BAA and the NBL at his kitchen table. From that point on, the Fort Wayne Pistons competed in the NBA. Led by star forward George Yardley, the Fort Wayne Pistons were a very popular franchise and appeared in the NBA Finals in 1955 and 1956, losing both times.
Pistons players are believed to have conspired with gamblers to shave points and throw various games during the 1953?54 and 1954?55 seasons. In particular, they are believed to have thrown the 1955 NBA Finals to the Syracuse Nationals.[The Wizard of Odds: How Jack Molinas Almost Destroyed the Game of Basketball. By Charley Rosen. p. 154. 2001 Seven Stories Press. ISBN 1583222685] In the decisive Game 7, the Pistons led Syracuse 41?24 early in the second quarter, then allowed the Nationals to rally to win the game.["Syracuse Five Defeats Pistons in N.B.A. Play-Off Final, 92?91," The New York Times, April 11, 1955, p. 31.] Syracuse won on a free throw by George King with twelve seconds left in the game. The closing moments included a palming turnover by the Pistons' George Yardley with 18 seconds left, a foul by Frankie Brian with 12 seconds left that enabled King's winning free throw, and a turnover by the Pistons' Andy Phillip with three seconds left which cost Fort Wayne a chance to attempt the game-winning shot.["City Hails Nats' World Title Triumph," Syracuse Herald-Journal, April 11, 1955, pp. 1, 45.]
Though the Pistons enjoyed a solid local following, their city's small size made it difficult for them to be profitable. In 1957, Zollner moved the team to Detroit, a much larger city which had not seen professional basketball in a decade. In 1947, they had lost the Detroit Gems of the NBL, who moved to become the Minneapolis Lakers (now the Los Angeles Lakers), and the Detroit Falcons of the BAA, which folded. The new Detroit Pistons played in Olympia Stadium (home of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings at the time) for their first four seasons, then moved to Cobo Arena. The franchise was a consistent disappointment, struggling both on the court and at the box office.
|
