Detroit Pistons of past and present come together to support the fan base

Past and present players of the Detroit Pistons grouped together to take part in a Twitter bracket that helped determine a top voice of the fan base.

Whether or not you consider yourself a member of “Detroit Pistons Twitter”, you may have seen the shock waves that sent basketball fans into a frenzy earlier today.

In the second annual edition of the “Pistons Twitter Bracket” hosted by SB Nation’s Detroit Bad Boys, 64 members of the online fan base where thrown into a March Madness style tournament that helps decide who is believed to have the top Pistons related account on Twitter.

Last night, voting began in the Final Four round, and the heavy weight match up between Duncan Smith (who most notably covers the Pistons for Forbes) and myself, Nicolas Henkel.

Although it was only the Final Four, it felt as if it was the championship round. For all intents and purposes, it will likely end up that way.

After Duncan jumped out to an early lead, I was able to use one of my connections to my advantage. For the last few weeks I’ve had multiple opportunities to play Call of Duty’s battle royale mode “Warzone” with none other than Luke Kennard.

It was time to call in the big guns, so I did. In the previous round, Luke and I had agreed that if I were to win the tournament we would invite one member of Pistons Twitter to join us on a live stream where we play Warzone.

However, we needed a little more to get us over the hump.

Sealed and signed, I knew this was going to give me a pretty decent lead in the polls and for a while it did. Then, Duncan punched back. Getting the endorsement of a former fan favorite.

Tobias Harris; now that was going to be problem. Duncan spent the next several hours inching his way closer until finally, for around four hours, the poll was teetering at a 50/50 split.

All the campaigning and lobbying for votes was beginning to reach its apex as the clock winded down on the poll. Once morning arrived, to my surprise I saw a few more tweets from Tobias endorsing Duncan’s claim as the top account on Pistons Twitter.

What followed that was something that seemingly everyone knew was going to happen.

I couldn’t believe he actually got Boban involved, but I expected that it was a legitimate possibility. One of the fan favorite duos in the entire league was officially endorsing Duncan as the rightful winner of the tournament.

The nail was in the coffin. What was once a dead even split, or at the most a few dozen votes separating us, Duncan began to take the lead. With just under an hour left to go until the voting closed, there was nothing I could do.

But in this tournament, it’s all about who you know. At the eleventh hour, the vote was flipped upside down with one tweet.

The amount of pure disbelief that I felt in the moment after receiving that notification was something that I’ve never felt before. Not one, not two, not three, but four NBA players had officially made their voices heard in a tournament conducted by the fans.

That tweet sent the poll into another stratosphere, and I was able to pull away with the victory.

Duncan and I both feel tremendously thankful for the support of not just the players, for helping us come together as a community in such a dark time, but to the fans and followers who made this such a joyful event.