YouTube commentor displaying his A game…
“Dude ron Your lucky you got ballin skills cause if not you’d be workin at k mart” Coolcal611

Found this Farewell Ben Gordon YouTube video just seconds ago.

italianbari8
I don’t know why I insist on torturing myself by watching vids such as this. It so pumps me up for the season. And I have a funny feeling Gordon is going to be a huge hit in Detroit much like he was in Chicago.
It’s nearly 2am and I have a powerful urge to shoot jumpers in my driveway (and practice my floater too).
All because of freakin’ Ben Gordon.
 
This is something I can get use to.
 

I didn’t say it. I would never.
But FoxSports.com NBA analyst Charley Rosen did say Kwame Brown was one of the “most underrated“ in his latest article.
Rosen prefaced his most ’underrated’ players selections by saying this,
“These are the guys who don’t necessarily dominate either the ball, the print media or the highlight shows, yet still make an enormous impact on their team’s destinies. These are the guys who can’t turn losing or mediocre teams into champions, but who can turn also-rans into serious contenders. The guys who never take a game off. The guys whom coaches love to coach and with whom other players love [...]

Dreamt recently that Kwame Brown made the All-Star team and that Detroit was in 1st place heading into the break.  It was one of those dreams where you realize at a certain point during the dream that you’re actually dreaming.  And knowing that usually makes the dream so much easier to wake up from.
I hope that all made sense.
Here’s some stuff that does make sense.

Basically everything that has transpired involving the Pistons so far this off-season is all right here in a pretty followable chart of sorts (Absolute Michigan)
Local rap artist Rio DeJinero is not half bad (PistonsNationBlog)
Is Brian Hill the experience we can count on? (Motown String Music)
Goofy photo of another man attempting [...]

With the recent Rasho Nesterovic to Raptors deal, all signs now point toward Ben Wallace ending up back in Detroit. 
I’ve made my concerns known about this possibility on LoD before.  But my best attempt at articulating my thoughts about Ben to Detroit was probably on this thread over at Motown String Music :

“I think some of you

are forgetting the terms Wallace left on. They weren’t joyous. He was selfish money and fame got to his head big time, he fought with Flip, and always complained about how he should have gotten more touches (this coming from one of the worst offensive players in league history).
What it comes down to is [...]

 
With the recent news of Walter Herrmann’s departure to Spain it makes sense now to unveil the Walter Herrmann rhyme I’ve been hoarding all to myself for the last few weeks. My previous rhymes about NBA players can be found here.
But first, the
Corny But True Story
 
I’ve always loved my pets and have always loved sports, especially hoops. Me being a lonely only child, I consider the household pets I’ve lived with to be my siblings.  My first word was the name of the family dog at the time.  It seems like I’ve always had a critter at the foot of my bed to keep my feet warm.  [...]

It has been reported that former Piston and Raptor Carlos Delfino will likely stay in Russia to play ball instead of playing it in Toronto. 
And to premise this a bit, I’m not knocking Delfino’s apparent decision to stay put in Russia just because I think he should be playing in the NBA.  People do what’s best for their situation and, you know, to each his own.
So as I’ve read more and more at different places about Delfino’s Russia-NBA saga I’ve come away with the opinion that Delfino was never really satisfied with playing in the NBA, and was never truely hell-bent on proving that he even had the goods to stick with the big [...]

On Monday Chris McCosky said in his column (hat tip PNB) that the Pistons are “expected” to sign either Ben Wallace or Rasho Nesterovic as their final big man.
Not cool.
But what is cool is the possibility that this gimpy and stiffy nibbling session could just be a big splat of baloney. 
Remember how the new Head Coach was either going to be Doug Collins or Avery Johnson?
See what I mean?
But it’s not all gloom and doom in McCosky’s column.  He makes a valid assertion that the Pistons are actually relevant again. 
This was a critical summer for Dumars — a make or break summer. By the end of [...]

For you folks anxiously awaiting the release of the Walter Herrmann rhyme/poem (and the corny story that goes along with it), just hold your horses, it’s right around the corner.  I promise.
On to the past few days in hoops around the web.

There’s been some talk of a possible Portland-Detroit- unknown third party deal taking place.  Well, a fanpost published on Motown String Music displays a rather intriguing trade scenario, and apparently ESPN trade machine okayed it.  It’s a fun read even if it’s laced in fantasy.
Is Benny Gordon’s contract worth 58 million?  Mr. Feldman from PistonPowered has all the numbers.
Speaking of Mr. Gordon, Stuckinstasis found a pretty spiffy picture of [...]

Make no mistake about it,  Bill Walton can say some pretty WTF kind of stuff. 
Sometimes what comes out of Bill’s mouth can immediately be cast as hyperbole. But sometimes it’s not really clear whether Bill is high as a kite or just showing off his amazing vocabulary, imagination, historical knowledge or just making sure the viewers are actually paying attention.
Remember when Bill went off on some tangent about Boris Diaw and the romantics, saying something about how Boris changed the Suns franchise?
Well if you don’t, behold this:

Just today I fell upon an article Jay King wrote on Celtics Town rehashing a 2003 ESPN column Bill Walton penned about [...]