Detroit Pistons to play in Paris next season

The Detroit Pistons will not be playing only in North America next season. They will play the Chicago Bulls in a regular season game next year in Paris, France.

So that means Killian Hayes will have a real home game next season.

Hayes, who grew up in France, will be back in his home country when the Pistons play the Chicago Bulls in Paris on Thursday, January 19. It will be the first regular season NBA game played there since 2020.

For Pistons fans looking to spend part of January in Paris (warning, it’s cold there too) and see the game, ticket information can be found here.

Can Detroit bring back Sekou Doumbouya, another French native, for that game?

The NBA announced the game will be played in Accor Arena in the ‘City of Lights’ but did not say which team will officially be the home team. Whoever it ends up being, they will have one less home game at its real stadium than normal, 40 instead of 41.

For a team that has been at the bottom of the standings like Detroit has been for three years, getting to be part of a special European game is a nice treat.

"“The Detroit Pistons organization is excited to take on the Chicago Bulls and play our first-ever game in France’, said Pistons General Manager Troy Weaver in a press release: “Playing a regular-season game in Paris will be a great experience for our players and coaches and we look forward to showcasing Detroit Basketball to an international audience.”"

One might think this game is a product of the ‘Cade Effect’.

With Cade Cunningham now one of the more promising young players in the NBA, the league will be looking to promote him, so go have him play in France.

Having a Frenchman on the team also probably played in Detroit’s favor, although Hayes lived most of his time there in Cholet, a town in western France, not in Paris.

Since their days as ‘The Bad Boys’ in the late 1980s, the Pistons have developed a worldwide following (Note: On average, 15-percent of all PistonPowered views on a story come from readers outside North America).

While the Bulls-Pistons rivalry was at its most intense decades ago, basketball fans in Europe remember, which is another reason the two teams were selected to play.

Detroit also has a lot of international representation on its roster. Last season, they had three Canadians (Cory Joseph, Kelly Olynyk, Trey Lyles) at one point, Hayes from France and Hamidou Diallo, although born in the United States, has roots in West Africa.

Be prepared to get out of work early to watch the game. Paris is six hours ahead of Detroit, so an 8 p.m. game time there, would mean its 2 p.m. in Detroit.

In case you were wondering, this is the third time the Pistons have played outside the country (not counting Toronto), having been in London (2013) and Mexico City in 2019.

For a team that has struggled to get on national TV in their own country the past few years (outside of some token NBA-TV appearances), the Detroit Pistons getting featured in a European game is a hopeful sign that people are starting to notice the team again.