The story of the Detroit Pistons can be related to political theory... seriously?
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| The Pistons found their powerful leader with Dumars |
Before the Pistons were successful in the past decade,
it was clearly a Hobesian state of nature. There was a constant state of war
between the players on the team and there was no chemistry. It was an era of huge egos clashing on and off the court for the Pistons. From Hill to Stackhouse and
Christian Laettner, these Pistons played to fill up the stat sheet, not win.
Hobbes would describe the state of war within the Pistons due to poor
leadership. The Pistons had 5 different coaches from 1993-2000! It was impossible to build a successful team with poor leadership. Hobbes believes the
only way to escape the state of nature is to have a powerful leader so the Pistons did just that. In 2000 they
found the powerful leader in Joe Dumars.
After Dumars was given all the power it seemed like the team
took a shift in the Rousseau approach. They brought in guys like Tahaun Prince, Hamilton, Billups and Wallace who cared about one thing: winning. There wasn’t a
state of war on this team and it led to immediate success! These guys were now
working together towards the general will of winning a championship and it
worked. Look how well the team worked together in the highlight video of the 2004 season.
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| The Pistons are trying to build their team in a similar manner to the 04 team but there's a major problem: IT WON'T WORK! |
After the Pistons string of success, Joe Dumars lost the
Rousseau values in the team. They lost every important contributor to
their success like Wallace, Billups and Hamilton and brought in new guys like
Allan Iverson and Ben Gordon. It was a state of war all over again with guys who only cared about themselves. The Pistons struggles after 2004 can again be pointed toward weak leadership as they have gone
through another cycle of various coaches.
Currently, it appears the Pistons are trying to implement
the previous core values that led to their success. They are in a rebuilding
stage and trying to find guys that played in a similar manner to the 2004
championship team. They are drafting guys like Knight, Daye, and Monroe who
play in a similar fashion to Billups, Prince and Wallace. Unfortunately, it’s
not looking very promising for the Pistons because the state of nature in the
NBA has changed a lot since 2004.
In the past, Applying Rousseau’s approach was the most
effective way to win in the NBA but that has changed dramatically. The most
consistent and dominating teams of the previous decade were the San Antonio
Spurs and the Detroit Pistons. These teams were built around the Resseau
concepts of working as a team, but this doesn’t work
anymore. The Nature of the NBA is a mess. It has turned into a superstar
league where you can’t win without multiple stars. Example: Miami Heat.
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| Last year, the Miami Heat made it clear that you need THREE superstars to win in the NBA |
This season, the Pistons are off to the worst start infranchise history and have turned into the laughing stock of the league. The
Onion even wrote this article making fun of how terrible they are (highly recommend reading it). It is clear
that the Pistons need to get away from the approach of the 2004
team and acquire superstars.
This is an interesting view of describing the Pistons struggles. I agree to a certain point that Hobbes State of Nature is damaging to a basketball team. You never want teammates fighting among themselves for stats purposes. The Pistons won the NBA Championship because during that time, winning teams (Spurs, Lakers with #8 kobe) were more balanced in depth with role players. Being on that type of team meant more teams had the chance to detrone you. This is similar to John Locke's point the weaker teams can overcome the strong because they were all equal. This lead to superstar players realizing they had to sacrifice some of their pride and stats to gain an advantage. When Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joined Paul Pierce this was how Locke stated people are willing to dispose of their personal freedoms for collective security. Instead of constantly fighting each other they got together and formed a kingdom and ruled the NBA. The Pistons should have followed this model and drafted players who would not be a good fit into their system, but potential superstars.
ReplyDeleteLamar, thank you for your excellent insight on my post. It is true that the Hobbes State of Nature is detrimental to the game of basketball. It has come to the point where watching the NBA is a waste of my time. I love the Miami Heat, but when they are blowing teams out on a regular basis, it's not even fun to cheer for them anymore! Luckily this state of nature hasn't made it's way over to the college game yet and we can still cheer our Wolverines on against good tough competition throughout the year. Your statements about Locke caught me off guard. I hadn't thought about the situation in that manner, however, I'm glad that we can both agree that the Pistons have made some terrible decision with especially with the current state of nature in the NBA. They need to find superstars, and they need to do it fast.
ReplyDeleteSaeed, this seems to often times be the case with professional franchises. The general trend for most underachieving professional sports teams is they get top draft picks each year they are bad, and bring in the top possible players until those players are mature and adapted to the league. Eventually, they turn the fortunes of the team around. When things are going good, there is no or little state of war between players and coaches, and it is smooth sailing with a great deal of success usually. However, eventually, those top draft picks who helped lead the team to their success become older and past their primes. As the team starts to lose more, going away from their previous winning ways, a new state of war will likely emerge. Tempers will flare, coaches will be fired, etc. This state of war will continue until the team rebounds through through acquiring top draft picks again due to poor seasons or through front office executives making beneficial trades.
ReplyDeleteSaeed-
ReplyDeleteBeing a huge fan of the recently struggling Philadelphia Eagles, I feel your pain. With that being said, I found an interesting parallel to your description of the struggling Pistons with a society under a type of tyranny described by John Stuart Mill as political freedom in which people are unable to act in a way that the law of the nation condemns. While at first this may seem like a far stretch between basketball and politics, I have come to view the Pistons Coach Lawrence Frank as the leader of the society that is the Pistons. The reason that I liken the two is because after the Pistons drafted Brandon Knight out of the University of Kentucky two years ago, I feel the laws of how to play as dictated by Lawrence Frank has rendered the very fast and talented Brandon Knight to play in a way that Frank’s style of offense does not condemn. Mill’s goal was to protect members of society from each other and I see how Frank can see that Knight’s fast paced style of play can be harmful to the type of game played by his teammates, I think it’s important to recognize that within the Pistons team, Brandon Knight is the most talented player of the group and letting him play in his own style outside the laws of Frank’s tyranny will allow the Pistons the greatest results on the court and therefore lead to lead to the escape from the bottom of the league for your team Saeed.
Thanks for the read!
-Brennan
I find this view on the struggles of the Pistons to be incredibly interesting, maybe Lawrence Frank should take a few classes in political theory, eh? I mean, I bet Prof. LM could get the team on the right track!
ReplyDeleteThat being said, on a more serious note, it is obvious to say that the Hobbesian State of Nature is detrimental to the harmony and overall poise of an athletic team. I think its also slightly humorous to view the National Basketball League's view in gestalt on winning: find a superstar, find another superstar, then win. It seems to be the thing that everyone is doing, and unfortunately, Detroit has yet to find that this duo of superstars. I think it is also could be placed under Locke's views, of everyone having to join together, regardless of pride or tensions in order to achieve the common goal, in this case, a ring.
Excellent post, Saeed.