10 best duos in Detroit Pistons’ franchise history

10 best duos in Detroit Pistons’ history

#3: Bob Lanier & Dave Bing

Many players from the Bob Lanier/Dave Bing era were already forgotten about decades ago. They played well before the internet and camera phones. Yet today, their names are still meaningful to Detroiters as they were two of the greatest players to ever call themselves Pistons. It’s too bad they never won a championship together as it would have cemented them as legends, but even without having done so they are revered.

It was Bing who touched down in the NBA first, and he scored 20 points as a 23 year old rookie in the 1966-67 season. Lanier would join him in 1970. They spent five seasons together, and only reached the playoffs two of those, but nevertheless, they were bad men with the basketball a few years before the Bad Boys. In his second season, Lanier scored 25.7 points and averaged 14.2 rebounds, while Bing scored 22.6 ppg and dished out 7 assists. They were well matched. Both were great leaders, as they proved throughout their lives, and their games were compatible given Bing ran the point and Lanier manned the post. Their excellence as a duo is usually overshadowed by the team’s shortcomings.

Part of their legacy is what they continued to do after retirement. They were Hall-of-Famers whose numbers were retired by the Pistons, but there is much more to their stories than that. Lanier became a global ambassador for the NBA, which is now the pinnacle of one of the largest sports in the world. Bing was a great businessman who would become Detroit’s mayor. Both were known for the work they did to advance civil rights. One of the few duos on this list without rings belong right at the top of it.