There have been lots of great championship teams throughout NBA history, but one of the most highly regarded teams of them all is the 2004 Detroit Pistons . The Pistons had a perfect blend of defensive ruggedness and offensive skill to go on a run that ended with an elusive ring.
Rasheed Wallace was the last member to join the team, given that he arrived at the trade deadline, but he has been one of their biggest boosters over the years, and he recently doubled down on his claim that he believes the 2004 Pistons could beat any team in NBA history.
Sheed doesn’t care what era it is, the Pistons win it all
Wallace was the final missing piece for the squad that was picked up at the trade deadline, and he immediately formed one of the most fearsome big-man duos in the league with Ben Wallace. Sure enough, Detroit relied heavily on playing lockdown defense to win their games.
While it’s a bit of an unorthodox style of play, Wallace loved the Pistons' rough-and-tough defensive prowess that led to their Finals victory. Beyond that, he thinks their versatility when it comes to their skill set would allow them to dominate against both old and new-school teams.
“The way I look at it, I think I would still have to give it to us, the old school, for the simple fact of, by either rules now, if we go with the old school rules, for sure, you already know what it is,” Wallace said on Point Forward . “We gonna beat some motherf***ers up, it’s gonna be some elbows, it’s gonna be a whole lot of other s***."
“Then from the new school side of it where they don’t allow too much touching, if a big or somebody is trying to flash across that middle, and you get either the slightest forearm shiver or a little hip check, they calling it. I think more guys from that old-school era are more skilled at certain positions than they are today. A lot of guys just focus on all offense, everybody just focusing on offense. Ain’t nobody focusing on defense. I don’t even hear no motherf***ing talking out there,” the retired forward added.
The key to the Pistons' success
Different eras have different playstyles, but Wallace doesn’t think that matters. He thinks up and down the lineup, the 2004 Pistons had enough skilled players that could have helped them get by whoever they found themselves lined up against.
Of course, that Pistons team had some big personalities, but they were united by one common goal, and that was to win games and ultimately clinch the championship. Wallace believes the team’s intelligence helped them put their egos aside, and that allowed them to go out and do what they had to do to win.
“We have more of a skill set…And that’s what I loved about that whole Detroit team, it was all smart dudes. Everybody had that one goal, that one set. We didn’t have nobody coming off the bench like, ‘Man, f*** them first five, I’m trying to go out here and get my 40.’ Nah, it was, ‘Alright, let me go out here, let me do what I need to do to play the right way so we can get this win,’” Wallace said.
There are a lot of things you have to balance in order to win in the NBA, but you can make an argument that the 2004 Pistons were the most balanced squad of all time. Maybe they could have used more offensive firepower, but they were good enough defensively that it often didn’t matter.
This team probably isn’t the most popular pick for the best team of all time, as Wallace claims, but who’s to say he’s wrong? It’s certainly a divisive topic, but Sheed makes a compelling argument that also helps show how Detroit managed to win its most recent title.
Related: Rasheed Wallace says he never wanted to play in the Olympics: "It's all about the Golden Ball for me"
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