Watching NBA Legends

This week last was interesting with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal both passing points milestones for their career. I have not been able to watch as much sports as I would like lately so the sports I get a chance to watch have been bits and pieces of the Pistons or Red Wings games and on the weekend the NFL playoff games. I wish someday I could have a job that would pay me to travel and watch sporting events. I am what you call a sports Fanatic and wish I had more time to spend watching sports. I think a lot of us have this dream but really most of us never find a way to make that dream come true.


When I was growing up my favorite sport was always basketball. Looking back I have tried to figure out why since I was not your typical High Flying Mamma Jammer in high school and certainly am not today. I was a defensive tackle in football and now I truly love football. I think part of this is the lackluster years we have had to dread with the Detroit Lions. If the Lions were a better team when I was growing up hands down I think I would love football the best. When I was in school there were the 84 Tigers that really opened my eyes to sports when I was only 5. When you are talking about Legends of the game what better team to watch growing up then a team that had the best shortstop and 2nd base combination in the history of baseball with sweet Lou and Tram; a team that had Kirk Gibson and Jack Morris and many others. I still remember when I was in second grade I would go around to card shows and I specifically tried to collect Jack Morris Rookie cards. Who would have known today that we would have had so much of a downfall in the price of collectible cards? This was also a team that had a storied franchise with the very memorable Tiger Stadium with the old roof, with players like Al Kaline and Ty Cobb. Baseball was definitely different back in the day when you were sliding into second with your spikes up.


Then there were the 89 and 90 back to back bad boys. The importance of this time in my life when I was going through junior high school was very magical. Watching players like Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn stand up for players like Joe Dumars, Isiah Thomas, Vinny Johnson and John Salley just to name a few. It was fun to get ready for hammer time especially when we had Deion Sanders, Vanilla Ice and parachute pants. Basketball for me was a time of family fun with the ease of having a back yard hoop. I still remember turning the lights on our back porch to shine on our court so we could play longer during the summer. Basketball seemed to be a part of most family get together, I still remember how special it was when family members would get their own basketball hoop. When you went to the school or a nearby church there was always that basketball hoop in the corner that made the parking lot into a multipurpose area. During this time I also was a manager for many sports including basketball. I was so fascinated with players like Micheal Jordan and Larry Bird. I looked up to my older brother Matt and probably annoyed the heck out of him with wanting to tag along with everything I could. Most of the tagging along was to play or watch basketball. It was fun sneaking into the high school gym to play basketball. Later it was a little easier when my mom had the keys to let us in. It was nice to have an older brother to look up to and yell at you when you did too many turnaround jump shots and behind the backboard trick shots. Unfortunately because of the McDonalds commercials with Larry and Micheal I was fascinated by the trick shot. I perfected a over the rafters shot from the 3 point line in our high school gym. I still remember playing PIG with some players from the high school team and making two of these shots in a row when I was in 6th grade. Too bad this never came to be very much of an importance during a real game. It was still one of those childhood memories that I live with on forever like watching the 92 USA Dream Team.


So when I see Kobe and Shaq reach these milestones I have to think back to the times when I was a little lad. I had one side of my room completely dedicated to special photos of basketball players. The two I love the most were the two photos when Shaq broke two basketball hoops in his rookie year. You still have to wonder what would have happened if Shaq and Penny were still playing when Dwight Howard came along. I remember how jealous I was when a friend from high school Keegan, got a chance to go to a home Magic game. I was not able to watch Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone in his prime or Dr. J. but luckily I was able to watch Karl Malone, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird. You never known for sure when you are watching greatness but I would like to think we are when we watch players like Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and even LeBron James. These are going to be players that we can tell our grandkids about and say that we were fortunate enough to watch some of the game’s best players. So next time you sit down to watch a game on TV and you see one of these players on the floor. Take a moment to sit back and take in every moment because it truly is a special moment.

-Michigan Sports Guy

NFL Championship Weekend

These are my two picks for the weekend!!





Home field advantage will definitely help this weekend.

The Pistons are for Sale?

The following article is courtesy of www.freep.com

Wanting to sell the Pistons and selling the Pistons could be vastly different things.

Owner Karen Davidson acknowledged Wednesday evening her “decision into inquiring about selling the team.” She released a statement through Marx Layne & Company, not through the Pistons.

Davidson assumed control of the team when her husband, Bill, died March 13. He had owned the team since 1974.

In 1978, Davidson moved the team from Cobo Arena in downtown Detroit to Silverdome in Pontiac. In 1988, he built the privately funded Palace, one of the first NBA arenas to prominently feature luxury boxes.

Among the issues confronting any possible sale of the franchise:

•How much would she want? Forbes magazine, which annually ranks the value of NBA franchises, places the Pistons’ worth at $479 million, fourth-highest in the 30-team league. However, part of the reason the Pistons are so valuable is that they own their arena, the Palace of Auburn Hills, which supplies multiple revenue streams from parking, suites, concessions, etc. It is the modern model for a successful pro franchise.

Unknown is what Davidson wants to do, if anything, with Palace Sports & Entertainment, the umbrella group that owns and operates runs the Pistons, the Palace, DTE Energy Music Theatre and Meadow Brook Music Festival. The Pistons and Palace Sports & Entertainment are owned separately, and each has its own roster of partners or directors, although Bill Davidson was the majority owner.

Does his widow want to get out of the sports and entertainment business entirely? Does some deep-pocketed person or group want to buy everything? Would she sell the Pistons but keep the Palace?

Without the Palace, the Pistons aren’t worth nearly as much. But how much? And how much would be enough to sell? (Certainly more than the $8 million her late husband paid 36 years ago.)

If someone purchased the Pistons but not the Palace, where would they play? Would the new owner settle for being a tenant? It doesn’t make sense that the new owner could keep all the revenue streams. So could the new owner land a sweetheart deal for a new arena (and all the revenue streams) elsewhere in the area — or in another state?

Throwing in any possible arrangements with the Ilitch family — other than a total sale of everything — only further complicates matters.

•Can anyone raise the money? The economy, of course, still stinks. Credit is still tight. Free Press columnist Tom Walsh pointed out Tuesday that Palace Sports & Entertainment still holds the note from its sale of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2008, because the new owners’ financing collapsed.

Are there any Michiganders who could afford the Pistons — or Palace Sports & Entertainment? The state has three NBA owners: Davidson, Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans/Rock Financial (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Rich DeVos of Amway (Orlando Magic).

•Isn’t the market already flooded with NBA teams for sale? The Charlotte Bobcats are looking for a new owner, according to HoopsWorld. The Contra Costa Times reports that Golden State Warriors owner Chris Cohan is shopping the franchise around. The Memphis Grizzlies reportedly have been on the market for several years, but owner Michael Heisley can’t find a buyer.

The Washington Wizards, whose owner died in November, are in the process of being sold to Capitals owner Ted Leonsis. Appraisers will determine the value of the sale. The New Jersey Nets are in the final stages of being sold to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.

Two NBA franchises sold fairly recently: The Seattle SuperSonics went for $340 million in 2006 to the Professional Basketball Club LLC, headed by Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett. The team moved to Oklahoma City after a long legal battle with Seattle. Gilbert bought the Cavaliers for $375 million in 2005 from Gordon Gund.

•What about the NBA? The league, obviously, would not want to have a team leave one of the country’s biggest markets. Could it force Davidson to sell to someone who would keep the team in Detroit? Maybe not. But it could exert pressure, certainly. (For more than three decades, Bill Davidson was known as an owner who often preached to owners to put the league before the team.)

•What about Davidson’s estate? His worth was estimated at $4 billion last year. People familiar with the will and Internal Revenue Service procedures have told the Free Press that settling the estate will take at least several years. Does Karen Davidson have the power to force a sale right now? If not, could she have it in the near future? Her statement that she was “pleased … that the limited partners concur” in her overtures would seem to indicate that she can drive the bus but has to be concerned with the passengers.


Contact VINCE ELLIS: 313-222-6479 or vellis@freepress.com. Check out his Pistons blog at freep.com/section/blog16.

NFL Playoff Predictions

I would like to think these were bold predictions but I guess we will see. One thing I learn about when the New York Giants won the Super bowl is that any team on that field can win. I also learned that a team going into the game with momentum usually is the one that wins. You might have the best record but if you have won the last 6 games in a row you are probably better off. One example would be the Vikings that had started strong and then somehow were knocked off the railroad. We will see if teams like the Vikings can find their way today.











-Michigan Sports Guy

Happy New Year!

Looking back over 2009 it has been a great year for MichiganSportsGuy.com We went live just about a year ago and got our feet a little wet with creating a blog. There was definitely a learning curve that came with creating a new website. In August we created our own Domain and that was a big step to moving forward with the development of this blog.

In 2010 we would like to take the next step and to do that I am reaching out to you the readers. To really make our website the best it can be I believe we need more then one opinion. So if you were ever interested in writing for sports here is your chance. I am looking for either quest writers that would like to occasionally post an article or writers who want to post more often. I would prefer to find 6 new writers that would like to pick 1 day of the week to post an article.

So if you are interested in writing for us please e-mail me at kevinbelow@michigansportsguy.com You can also click on the link on the right of the blog and it will put in the e-mail address for you.

-Michigan Sports Guy