• The big news, of course, is that the Pistons waived disgruntled former star Richard Hamilton. I’ll always appreciate Rip’s time in Detroit, much as I hope he will, but I think we’re both glad that the has moved on (possibly to Chicago?)
• The Pistons bought out Hamilton as opposed to using the amnesty provision. That means that the Pistons saved some money by not having to pay the full value of Hamilton’s contract, but also that they can use amnesty in the future. The team, however, has already said it has no plans to use the clause this season. Will certainly be good motivation for Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon to give maximum effort this year.
• Big news item 1A is that the team re-signed Tayshaun Prince to a 4-year, $28 million contract. Much of Pistons nation was in an uproar when the news broke, but the truth is a solid signing and if the team wanted one holdover veteran I am glad they chose Prince.
• The signing that didn’t get as much attention was the new contract to young power forward Jonas Jerbeko. Everyone’s favorite Swedish basketball player reportedly signed for four years and $18 million. It was originally reported as a $16 million deal but if you start at $4 million with standard raises, you get around $18 million, so there you go.

Photo credited to bdasports (Flickr.com)

Neither did I. So imagine my surprise when I read an article saying that the Detroit Pistons’ forward Dajuan Summers was in and out of an Italian lineup in a matter of four games. No one is really paying too much attention to the overseas antics of our beloved stars but maybe we should start to.

It could begin playing into how quickly the NBA players cave in to a deal.

Summers’ experience with the top Italian league only proves what was already sitting in the back of everyone’s minds – life is not the same over there and NBA players will go into immediate culture shock.

That is only of course if your name is not Kobe Bryant and you did not spend a nice half of your life overseas to begin with.

Summers’ ordeal included crammed airplanes, dwindling play time, a car accident that sent him flying into the backseat and a quick trip back home to the states. Needless to say, his time was rather short-lived and we sit back and speculate how much more effective playing in an actual league would be rather than playing in a silly exhibition game.

Boy, were we wrong.