Dumars has been good fit

https://www.sunjournal.com/2004/06/11/dumars-good-fit/

Posted June 11, 2004

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) – After the Detroit Pistons drafted Joe Dumars in 1985, he was picked up at the airport by the team’s trainer.

Dumars, a skinny, unknown shooting guard out of McNeese State, was dropped off at a hotel in suburban Detroit and has been a fixture in the city ever since.

First, as a six-time All-Star during a 14-year career – the longest any player has been with the Pistons.

Now, Dumars is in his fourth season as the president of basketball operations in the only NBA home he’s had.

Fifteen years after the MVP of the NBA Finals led Detroit over Los Angeles, Dumars has built a team good enough to face the star-studded Lakers in the NBA Finals.

Four years to the day that Dumars started running the Pistons, they stunned the Lakers with a 87-75 victory in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

“It’s the ultimate thrill for me to be able to say I played for one team and worked for one team, especially these days when nobody seems to do that,” Dumars said in an interview with The Associated Press. “The only comparisons I can think of is Jerry West, who was with the Lakers for a long time as a player and executive before he went to Memphis.”

Like West, Dumars was a quiet star as a player and has a low-key style as an executive.

“I’m not trying to be the story, and I didn’t as a player,” he said. “I’ve always been cool with letting the results speak for themselves.”

The Pistons sunk to lottery-pick status not long after Dumars helped Detroit win the second of back-to-back titles in 1990.

With the third pick in the 1994 draft, Detroit chose Grant Hill, who never helped the team win a playoff series. When Hill wanted to leave after the 1999-00 season, Dumars made the move that set the foundation for the Pistons’ recent success.

Instead of losing Hill to free agency, Dumars traded him to Orlando for Chucky Atkins and a little-known player named Ben Wallace.

After going 32-50 in 2000-01 – the first season Dumars was in charge – the Pistons won 50 games.

Then Dumars traded his only star – Jerry Stackhouse – to Washington for Richard Hamilton.

The Pistons won 50 games again the next season and advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 1991.

Never satisfied, Dumars fired Rick Carlisle after two successful seasons last summer and hired Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown.

The Pistons landed the No. 2 pick in the draft – from a pre-Dumars trade – and took Darko Milicic instead of Carmelo Anthony.

Just before the trading deadline this season, Dumars gave up reserves and two No. 1 picks for the volatile and talented Rasheed Wallace.

Dumars has been criticized for some of his major moves: Hamilton for Stackhouse, Brown instead of Carlisle, Milicic over Anthony and acquiring Rasheed Wallace.

“You can’t be in this position and just try to make popular decisions,” Dumars said. “What’s popular now with fans and the media could be something they’re killing us about in a month, or in a couple of years.”

Dumars has put together a conference championship team even though only one player was in the All-Star game this year. And that player, Ben Wallace, is the most unlikely star because he averaged a career-high 9.5 points this season.

“Joe D has been able to put a product on the floor that represents who he is,” said Lindsey Hunter, who played with Dumars and has been traded and acquired twice by him. “It’s been great to see him build this franchise back up, step by step.”

The Pistons also do not appear to be a team with a closing window of opportunity because their five starters are 29 or younger.

“Ideally, you want to be in a position to win now, and in the future,” Dumars said.

Dumars said it is more gratifying to be in the front office, than on the court.

“It’s special when your task is to put all the pieces together and make them work,” he said. “As a player, you’re only concerned about you and you’re just playing for the moment.

“Now, I have an incredible perspective because this franchise grew when I was here as a player, and now it is again.”

Mike Abdenour the trainer who picked up Dumars at the airport in 85, is in his 25th year with the Pistons. He almost gets emotional when he talks about Dumars.

“He has resurrected our organization and got respect back for it,” Abdenour said. “Agents and players trust Joe Dumars because his word is the gold standard because his mom and dad raised him right.”

AP-ES-06-10-04 1913EDT