Hardwood Paroxysm on Pistons legend Bailey Howell

When Dan and I did the ‘Chevette to Corvette‘ series chronicling every season in Pistons history during the lockout (go back and check out those archives if you took the lockout off from Pistons coverage … the die-hards hopefully remember it though, it was a lot of fun to do), a name that came up frequently in the early, bleak years of Detroit basketball was Bailey Howell. Curtis Harris of Hardwood Paroxysm has a great look back at Howell’s under-appreciated career:

"For a man of meticulous detail (John Havlicek recalls him drinking his tea with pinky finger extended), preparation and desire to win, these years were frustrating. Despite being Detroit’s best player, Howell was shipped out in 1964 to Baltimore as an effort to clean house. The Bullets didn’t treat the forward with any particular benevolence either, which was not helped by the logjam at forward and center on the club and coach Paul Seymour’s indifference (even hostility) toward Howell."

I can’t do it justice with an excerpt. Just go read the whole thing.