5 reasons why the ‘boring’ Detroit Pistons are worthy of your attention (and Shaq’s too)

[ad_1]

Hall of Famer, TNT commentator and G14 classification enthusiast Shaquille O’Neal recently made some waves with a pair of unflattering statements about the fightin’ Detroit Pistons.

First, Shaq dismissed Detroit as a boring team unworthy of attention because they were “four games under .500” (NOTE: they are eight games over .500) and “not winning no f*****g championship.”

Then, during TNT’s “Inside the NBA” on Tuesday, Shaq appeared to offer an olive branch to the Pistons and their faithful, praising All-Star guard Cade Cunningham and the team’s general willingness to “play hard” under head coach Chauncey Billups.

To view this content, you’ll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the “Content and social-media partners” setting to do so.

Here’s Shaq congratulating Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups on turning the Detroit Pistons around. 👍 pic.twitter.com/roe6qnGaKE

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 12, 2025

Just one problem with that: While Chauncey Billups was synonymous with the Pistons throughout the 2000s, leading the franchise to six straight Eastern Conference finals appearances, a pair of NBA Finals and the 2004 NBA championship, and while he is currently an NBA head coach, he is not the coach of the Detroit Pistons. Billups, in fact, coaches the Portland Trail Blazers. J.B. Bickerstaff coaches the Detroit Pistons — and has done so with such aplomb that he’s probably going to wind up at or near the top of a lot of Coach of the Year ballots come season’s end. (Though presumably not Shaq’s, if he has one. Is he going to get one? Do those come with G14 classification?)

When his commentator colleague Candace Parker called out the mistake, Shaq responded by … reasserting that the team he was just praising was beneath his notice.

“You know, first of all, I don’t watch Detroit,” he said. “How about that?”

Yeah. How about that?

To view this content, you’ll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the “Content and social-media partners” setting to do so.

In any event: Perhaps you, like Shaq,…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/5-reasons-why-the-boring-detroit-pistons-are-worthy-of-your-attention-and-shaqs-too-195532083.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2025-03-13 19:55:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.