Reflections on the Humble Beginnings of the Detroit Pistons

https://www.vintagedetroit.com/reflections-on-the-humble-beginnings-of-the-detroit-pistons/ by BILL DOW on APRIL 18, 2009 Today the Detroit Pistons will travel to Cleveland to face LeBron James and the Cavaliers in round one of the NBA playoffs in front of a packed Quicken Loans Arena. The Cleveland arena is a far cry from when the Pistons made the playoffs in 1960, just three years after the struggling franchise moved from Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The following excerpts from my Detroit Free Press article written a few years ago may cause your jaw to drop. On March 12, 1960, the same day Ernie Harwell would broadcast his first Detroit Tigers game, (Lakeland exhibition) the Pistons, lead by Bailey Howell, Gene Shue, and Walter Dukes, played the first game of a three game first round series against Elgin Baylor and the Minneapolis Lakers in front of a national NBC TV audience at………………..Grosse Pointe High School !!! The local television blackout was hardly necessary. The announced attendance...