Are Detroit Pistons’ fans really among the league’s worst?

The Detroit Pistons just finished the 2nd-worst season in team history, so you wouldn’t blame the fans for not showing up.

But that didn’t happen, Pistons’ fans continued to fill Little Caesar’s Arena this season even though the team was terrible and Cade Cunningham was out after only 12 games.

Detroit finished with the 12th-best attendance in the NBA, not bad for a team that managed just 17 wins and was playing a rag-tag group of castoffs by the end of the season.

Fans are rightfully excited about the future, as the Detroit Pistons have some foundational young talent in Cunningham, Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren to go along with fascinating young players like James Wiseman and solid role guys like Isaiah Stewart.

So when the Pistons finally do put together a winner, you can bet that LCA will be packed and loud, as it was during Detroit’s sustained runs of success in the late 80’s and 2000’s.

But right now, perception among some players is that the Detroit Pistons have some of the worst fans in the NBA.

Are Detroit Pistons’ fans really among the worst?

In a recent anonymous poll in The Athletic (SUBSCRIPTON), players were asked a variety of questions ranging from who’s the MVP to who is the most overrated player in the league.

One set of questions turned to the fans, and players were asked which arena has the best fans, and which one has the worst.

The Detroit Pistons and Little Caesar’s Arena managed to show up on both lists, as 1.9 percent of the 103 voters named LCA as having the best fans and 11.1 percent said it has the worst.

The Celtics and Kings were named as having the best fans, while the Hornets (15.2%) were just ahead of the Pistons on the list of worst fans.

Part of this is just perception, as the Detroit Pistons have been bad for a long time and a lot of these players have played in LCA when it was less than full. It could also be that some Pistons’ fans boo guys like Andre Drummond (why?) and Blake Griffin for no good reason.

Drummond’s time with the Pistons wasn’t a roaring success, but that was hardly his fault and Blake Griffin had the best season of his career in Detroit and dragged the team to the playoffs on one leg.

Whether is it things like that, or just because the Pistons are bad, at least some players don’t think highly of Detroit’s fans.