Rebellion in Detroit?

[Hornsby]

Seems like the players have finally had enough of the silly crap that Kuester has been dealing out all year. Is it enough to finally get management to can him?

Tracy McGrady, Tayshaun Prince, Richard Hamilton and Chris Wilcox missed the team's shootaround Friday morning before that night's game against the Sixers in Philadelphia, and team sources told multiple media outlets that the players were staging a protest.

Sources told the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News that the shootaround boycott was directed at second-year coach John Kuester, who has clashed with players in the past.

Team spokesman Cletus Lewis said that McGrady had a headache, Prince an upset stomach and Hamilton and Wilcox missed the bus from the team hotel.

Rodney Stuckey and Austin Daye also missed the bus, but they arrived toward the end of a media session, Lewis said.

Ben Wallace also missed the shootaround but was dealing with a family matter, Lewis said, as he has over the past month.

"We'll go with the group that was here," said Kuester about facing the 76ers, according to the Free Press. "We got a number of guys that have a bug, but these guys went through shootaround the way it was supposed to. We have some things, some excuses, not excuses, but absences because of headache and stuff like that.

"We'll go with this group right here because they went through shootaround."

Later in the day, Kuester backed off those comments, saying he expected "everybody to be available."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6159298

[Vecmizer]

The Pistons played with only six players last night. Anyone who missed or was late for the shoot around did not play. I applaud the Pistons for doing this (And I hate the pistons). Stunts like this from the players and the teams giving in are a big problem with the NBA and why I no longer enjoy it. It really is no longer about the team and winning. It's about "I'm gonna get mine." The LA Kobe's, The Cleveland Labron's (Now Miami Labron's) all that matters is being bigger than the game. Getting the biggest check, picking your coach, having your entourage have all access. They players are great no check that unbelievable talents but the selfishness and me attitude are a turnoff and far outweigh the talent for me.

[B-Fly]

The Pistons played with only six players last night. Anyone who missed or was late for the shoot around did not play. I applaud the Pistons for doing this (And I hate the pistons). Stunts like this from the players and the teams giving in are a big problem with the NBA and why I no longer enjoy it. It really is no longer about the team and winning. It's about "I'm gonna get mine." The LA Kobe's, The Cleveland Labron's (Now Miami Labron's) all that matters is being bigger than the game. Getting the biggest check, picking your coach, having your entourage have all access. They players are great no check that unbelievable talents but the selfishness and me attitude are a turnoff and far outweigh the talent for me.

No offense to you personally, of course, but I think that line of thinking is a load of crap for two reasons. First, it's not remotely new to the NBA. Second, it's not like the teams show loyalty to their players. I don't always agree with Bill Simmons, but he made a good point talking about the Celts/Thunder trade, that had Kendrick Perkins in tears:

Less than 48 hours later, I found myself staring at an "FYI: Perk for Jeff Green" e-mail for two solid minutes. What???????? I remember drafting Perk out of high school. I remember his being fat and awkward. I remember liking his mean streak that surfaced at the strangest times. I remember those flashes of potential as Perk banged the boards with Al Jefferson. I remember thinking we could count on him after the Garnett trade and not really knowing why. I remember watching that same ugly jump hook over and over again, hoping beyond hope that it might get better. I remember winning a title with him, and I remember losing a title without him. I remember seeing him warm up before opening night, a good two hours before the game, almost as though he didn't want the team to forget that he was coming back. Like every other Celtics fan, I watched him go from nothing to something. I certainly never imagined watching Perk play for another team.

My father was more crushed than me. He's been a season-ticket holder since 1973 and still attends 25 Celtics games per season. As he explained Thursday night, "I was invested in Perkins. I sit 15 feet from their bench -- I watched him grow up. I don't think sports is always about winning and losing. We might be better, but right now, I don't care. I liked the team we had. It doesn't feel right that he's not on this team."

See, you can't truly love a team until you've suffered with it. The 2008 title team always felt like a fantasy team that had been thrown together in some sort of euphoric basketball dream that wasn't quite real. Losing Garnett in 2009 (and eventually, the Orlando series) definitely hurt; blowing the 2010 title was 100 times worse. The agony of those last two games pushed our relationship with the team to an entirely different level. I still remember seeing Perkins rolling around in pain during Game 6 -- it happened about 20 feet away from me -- then the veterans watching him get helped off, his right leg dangling in the air, the life sinking from their bodies like Apollo watching Rocky wave him back to the corner. With a healthy 2011 Garnett in that Game 7, maybe we could have survived. Banged-up 2010 Garnett couldn't get it done. The trophy was sitting there, and we couldn't take it. A crestfallen Perkins spent the summer blaming himself, busted his butt to come back … and the Celtics dumped him a month after he returned. Claiming they couldn't afford him only made it worse: The kid signed a discount extension four years ago and outperformed it. They owed him.

Selfishly, I wanted one more chance with them: Garnett, Pierce, Allen, Rondo, Perkins, Baby and Doc, the only seven guys who mattered here. But that's the thing about sports -- "them" always seems to change when you least expect it. We traded Charlie Scott when I was in the second grade. We traded Danny Ainge when I was in college. Now Perkins. Those were the three most brutal Celtics deals of my lifetime. Each one hurt the same. Doesn't matter how old you are, where you are in your life, where you're living … there's no feeling quite like your favorite team trading someone you genuinely liked.

You might remember LeBron and Carmelo getting excoriated for stabbing their respective teams in the back. You want to know why they didn't care? Because, deep down, they know that teams don't care about players, either. They probably witnessed 20 variations of the Perkins trade during their first few years in the league. Hey, it's a business. Hey, that's just sports. Hey, trades come with the territory. Isn't loyalty a two-way street? When a team does what's best for itself, we call it smart. When a player does the same, we call him selfish. We never think about what a double standard it is.

I thought Perk deserved better than getting blindsided in Denver, then having to limp around with a sprained knee and pack his stuff with tears rolling down his face. Maybe I'm a sap. But that was our guy. Family. On the phone, my dad decided -- completely seriously -- that he would rather have lost the 2011 title with Perkins than have tried to win it without him. Why?

"Because he was truly part of our team," Dad said. "I don't want to root for laundry. I watched that guy for eight years. That should mean something. Continuity should mean something."

[amcg]

It says much about the decay of that once great city that upon seeing this thread title I genuinely thought that Horns was reporting rioting in the Detroit streets...

[HellToupee]

It says much about the decay of that once great city that upon seeing this thread title I genuinely thought that Horns was reporting rioting in the Detroit streets...

Haven't you seen this?