2004: “Yeah!” by Usher featuring L’il Jon and Ludacris
Remember this song? It was so huge that the Chapelle Show even made a skit about it.
But “Yeah!” was exactly what Pistons’ fans were saying after the team thrashed the hated Lakers in the Finals (again), pulling off the gentlemen’s sweep over heavily favored LA that featured both Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal in their primes.
All we heard coming in was that the Pistons had no chance, that they were going to get steamrolled by Shaq and Kobe, but it didn’t take long to see that wasn’t going to happen.
The Pistons put the clamps on the Lakers like no one ever has since, putting on a defensive clinic that was the best run of defense in NBA Finals history. Of course, the league hated that their darlings lost to the hated Pistons, so started changing the rules to offset Detroit’s dominant defense.