NBA gives Detroit Pistons another lump of coal for Christmas

Even the allure of Cade Cunningham apparently was not enough for the NBA to finally schedule a Christmas Day game for the Detroit Pistons.

The NBA’s schedule for December 25th has been revealed and, as has been the case for 15 years, the Pistons were not on it.

The last time the Pistons played on Christmas Day was 2005. They were the reigning NBA champions at the time, so they kind of had to put them on. Detroit reached the Eastern Conference finals in 2006, 2007 and 2008 as well, so it was not like the team was chopped liver in the following years, but they have never gotten back on the Christmas plate of games.

How long ago was the last Detroit Pistons game on Christmas?

George W. Bush had just started his second term as president, and Barack Obama had been a U.S. Senator from Illinois for less than a year when the Pistons were last playing at Christmas.

The No. 1 single on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart was Chris Brown’s ‘Run it!‘. The top television show was American Idol (Taylor Hicks won that season).

After watching the Pistons play on Christmas Day in 2005, Detroit sports fans then on Sunday could enjoy seeing Joey Harrington as the quarterback of the Detroit Lions (we use the term ‘enjoy’ in a clearly sarcastic manner).

So, yes, it has been a heck of a long time since the NBA has not treated the Detroit Pistons like the relative they want no one to see, told to go to your room and don’t come out until the visitors have left.

So why does the NBA always give the Detroit Pistons a lump of coal?

• The obvious answer is that the league office considers Detroit a ‘small market’ team. According to Nielson, the Detroit metropolitan area is the14th largest in the country.  That is not the size of New York or Los Angeles, but it is bigger than Salt Lake City (30th) and Milwaukee (33rd), who will have their teams playing.
• No marquee name for casual fans to know. The Warriors will be on Christmas because Steph Curry is there. as well as the Lakers with LeBron James, even though both of their teams were in the Play-in tournament last season.  The Dallas Mavericks are on due to Luka Doncic, even though they lost in the first round of the playoffs. Looks like the NBA does not want to introduce Cade Cunningham to the country on its biggest regular season day.
• No big fan following. We would strongly disagree with this assessment. You would too if you saw  all the countries interested that read PistonPowered. Even though they are expected to do nothing, the Celtics will play on Christmas because, well, they’re the Celtics.
• Detroit is not going to be good, so why would they be on? That could be a decent argument  except the teams involved are not the top 10 teams in the league. No Denver Nuggets, no Philadelphia 76ers (who had the best record in the East last season), no Los Angeles Clippers, who all did better than some of the teams playing.

Also, do not forget, when the Pistons were good, they still did not get scheduled for Christmas. Blake Griffin is a really big name, but that was not enough to get Detroit on December 25 when he was with them.

So why won’t the NBA put the Detroit Pistons on TV on Christmas Day? The best answer might come from 17th century English writer Tom Brown:

"“I do not love thee, Dr Fell. The reason why I cannot tell; But this I know, and know full well, I do not love thee, Dr Fell.”"