If you ask fans of the Detroit Pistons to list the team’s best players, most of them would rattle off the same names.
Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Grant Hill, Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace, Bob Lanier and Dave Bing would immediately come to mind and guys like Dennis Rodman, Richard Hamilton and Bill Laimbeer wouldn’t be far behind.
But the Pistons have had a lot of good players over the years, some of whom have been largely forgotten or underrated for various reasons. Some of them were role players who didn’t play a glamorous style, while others spent only a short time in Detroit.
There were a lot of options for the most underrated players in Pistons’ history, but these five immediately came to mind.
I am sure there are other candidates, but I tried to pick players who I actually watched personally (yeah, I’m old) and guys who aren’t usually mentioned among the Pistons’ all time greats.
Detroit Pistons: The mysterious case of Bison Dele
Bison Dele is not only one of the most underrated Pistons of all time, but probably the most interesting, mysterious and sad.
Dele, who was once known as Brian Williams, was a unique talent at center who was never really able to put it all together. He only played two seasons for the Detroit Pistons but had a career year in 1997-98, averaging 16.2 points and 8.9 rebounds.
He inexplicably quit a season later and walked away from a ton of money even though he was still in his prime. There was talk that Dele never really liked basketball all that much and wanted to pursue other interests after he had enough money to retire.
Unfortunately, Dele was murdered (allegedly by his own brother) along with his girlfriend on a boat in the South Pacific.
Dele was an interesting person and his life ended in tragedy, but at his peak he was one of the most talented bigs in the game. Here are some highlights to enjoy.