The Lose of a Leader

During a season a team has to go through multiple obstacles. It may be fatigue, inexperience, or injuries. The team who wins the championship is able to overcome all of these because of the leadership. But if a team loses its leader the season and the next one is over until the find a new one that the team respects.

When the Pistons went younger, they forgot about one thing and that is their leader n the team. When they traded Chauncey Billups, they lost the leader that held the team together. We had no start players, just players who played their role. With players who all could be stars on another team, a great leader and that is what they had.

That is a big burden for anyone to take over and that showed when the traded Chauncey Billups away for Allen Iverson. They traded a leader for a disruptive force in the locker room. The thought they were getting a point guard but they got someone who wanted to play shooting guard and because Rip Hamilton was starting this created tension. Rip Hamilton wanted to start at shooting guard but they had to give their star, diva, player Allen Iverson the starting job. This messed up their chemistry and they finished the season with a dismal 39-43 record. The won 20 fewer games then the previous season. They just barely snuck in the playoffs and were swept in the first round.

The tension that the trade created could not have been predicted but the way the team was dismantled after a sixth straight trip to the Conference finals was demoralizing to the organization. The players realized that no one had any job security. Trade your leader for a washed up ball hog, send the wrong message to the players. After the next season, the team realized how important Billups was because they had won 12 fewer games. Billups was the one who held the team together, and after he left so did the “Dream Team” Rip Hamilton currently plays along side Derrick Rose in Chicago, Chauncey Billups plays in lob city with Blake Griffin and CP3, Rasheed Wallace plays for the surging Celtics and Prince is trying to become the leader that the team needs.