From Deseret News archives:
Dear Joe, What were you thinking?
Iverson-for-Billups deal simply won't make Pistons better
Mr. Dumars,
First off, I would just like to say that I've always been big a fan of yours.
You never received the same kind of recognition during the glory years of the Bad Boys-era Pistons as your backcourt mate Isiah Thomas, yet you were just as important to the success of the team. You were a hard-nosed defensive player who didn't have to resort to cheap shots like some in Detroit during the late 1980s and early '90s, — Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn and Dennis Rodman quickly come to mind.
And you could play either guard position and could score, too, as your 16,401 career points prove. You were just an all-around outstanding basketball player who fit in well with talented teammates under Chuck Daly, and together you all became better than the sum of your parts.
Which may be why you've been such a huge success as an executive for the Pistons since 2000. With you as Detroit's president of basketball operations, the Pistons have clearly been the best franchise in NBA's Eastern Conference — and maybe in all of basketball — since the turn of century.
Six straight trips to the conference finals. Two conference titles. The 2004 NBA championship. Under your direction, the Pistons have been both successful and classy, like the San Antonio Spurs of the East.
Which is why I simply don't get the trade you made this week. You took a team that was once again favored to compete with the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers for supremacy in the East and took an enormous gamble.
It sort of reminds me of the short-stacked guy at the World Series of Poker who goes "all in" with king-nine off suit.
Allen Iverson?
In a Pistons uniform?
For Chauncey Billups, one of the best pure point guards in the game today?
Do you really want to add Iverson to your championship-caliber club that plays so well together as a team?
There is a valid reason some have taken to call your new guard "Me, Myself and Iverson." Paris Hilton thinks he's too into himself, even selfish.
Allen Iverson's preferred nickname is "The Answer." He may be the answer for the Pistons, but only if the question is: "Who's going to be the guy to almost single-handedly ruin a great run?"
After all, Iverson's a guy who wants to play 48 minutes a night and has clashed with coaches over the years about playing time despite averaging nearly 42 minutes per game during his career.
Joe, one of the reasons you felt Billups was expendable was because you were looking for ways to get young guard Rodney Stuckey more court time. But you already have one of the NBA's best shooting guards in Richard "Rip" Hamilton and an Olympian swingman in Tayshaun Prince.
