There are lots of things I love about the NBA; one includes the complete regional bias that hometown broadcasters have for their teams. League Pass opened my eyes to this—from Mike & Tommy lovingly doling out Tommy Points for fantastic Celtics plays, the Mikes in Portland showing love and concern for the injured guys.
Detroit has George Blaha who insanely, blindly loves the Pistons no matter their faults (I am mostly just speaking about this season’s faults; I love the Pistons, no doubt). Last night was the season closer and probably the last time we’ll see ‘04 champs Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince in Piston blue.
Feelings can best be described by this text exchange with Dan:
Dan: holy shit! two rip to tayshaun alley oops in a row! gonna miss those
Me: Did Blaha sing “I Will Remember You”?
Dan: hahahahaha no, but he did sing “torn” when they were showing jerebko and his torn achilles on the bench
Me: I would pay cash money to see ‘Blaha Live!’ A single spotlight on Blaha as he serenades the Pistons past & present
Dan: hahahaha! billionaire gores should make him do it
Me: Blaha singing ‘Mr. Big Stuff’ to Chauncey, ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ to Tay, and the theme from Titanic for Sheed. ‘Ain’t to Proud to Beg’ for Rip.
Dan: George Blaha featuring the DSO with special guest conductor Darko Milicic: a magical evening at the Palace!
Me: Wind Beneath My Wings for Joe Dumars
Dan: That Waka Flocka song about skin cancer for ChazV
Me: Kid Rock duet on ‘Cowboy’ for the bad boys
Dan: Hahahaha oh man
Me: A chorus of former Pistons and Blaha for the finale sing the theme from ‘Rent’: Seasons of Love. If you don’t know it google it and laff
Dan: HAHAHAHAHA
…
Dan: Blaha currently on the verge of tears, hugging Ben Wallace
Me: You know he just sang/whispered “Have I Told You Lately that I Love You” in his ear
To further illustrate this regional bias, during halftime last night, George Blaha and Greg Kelser recapped the season and picked “Tom Gores buying the team” and “Rip, Tayshaun and Ben’s potential last seasons” as the top story of the year, completely failing to mention the disappointing record, the infamous “mutiny” incident or Rip’s month-long benching.
Gotta love Blaha though… Always optimism in the face of all other evidence to the contrary. And, why not? He’s been through harder years than this with the Pistons, and seen championships on the other side.
