OT - R.I.P Jack McCloskey
Gentleman Jack McCloskey passed away yesterday, June 1. For those who were around Detroit during McCloskey's tenure (1979 to 1992) witnessed McCloskey take a moribund franchise and turn it into a monster. McCloskey staked his career on Chuck Daly, who had a poor run at Cleveland and no other NBA head coaching experience.
He also made brilliant trades, oversaw savvy draft picks, and all with a vision of building a team that won with defensive prowess, offensive efficiency, and - more than anything - building a team that nobody really wanted to play. McCloskey was a brilliant talent-evaluator, unafraid of making big moves, and very straightforward about what he was doing.
With his passing, none of the real creators of the Bad Boys is alive. So thanks to Messrs. McCloskey, Davidson and Daly for helping to create a ridiculously fun era in which to be a sports fan in Detroit.
200+ views & no comments means you summed things up just perfectly.
Did you read the OP before you deciced to shoot your mouth off?
The words "Pistons" or "general manager" aren't mentioned once. Like I said, the OP is fine, but to say his career was "summed up perfectly" just doesn't make sense.
Epic read fail
no. you're just a turd.
Thanks for posting this. It was a great era to be a Piston fan! He was not afraid to pull the trigger on big deals or on players "past thier prime". Moving Dantly when he did was wildly unpopular, and yet it was the right move.
When a team has a run like the Pistons did then, at the age I was it will always be fond memories, and every Piston team in the future will be compared in my mind to those teams, much like all Tiger teams are compared to the 68' team for my father.
I will never forget staying out at Holland Beach following high school graduation and watching the Pistons in the finals on a little 13 inch black and white on network TV. Man am I getting old!
As I remember the events around that trade, Dantley (a stubborn, strong-willed person) lost out to Isiah (a stubborn, strong-willed person himself), who preferred to have a Chicago buddy (Mark Aguirre, not an unreasonable trade for Dantley) on the team rather than AD. What I can't remember is how many other guys on the team felt the same way.
AD was called "the Teacher" by the younger guys (Dumars, Salley). The trade was tough on them when it happened, but ultimately worked out.
Well written.
You said it all.
He was the eye of the hurricane.
That was a bit of a shock but . . .
They still repeated as champions the following year.
Losing Mahorn sucked from a fan perspective. But that team still had plenty of post defense in Laimbeer, Rodman, Sally, and Bedford. IIRC, you could only protect up to eight guys and you also had to worry about Zeke, Joe D, Microwave, and Aguirre. So somebody was going to get poached. Mahorn was probably the least-worst option.
William Bedford had just been suspended for drugs - he wasn't on the active roster.
The Pistons had a nine-man rotation and could protect eight players. The breakdown:
Locks to be protected:
Isiah Thomas
Joe Dumars
Dennis Rodman
Bill Laimbeer
Mark Aguirre
John Salley
Locks to be left unprotected (not in the rotation):
Fennis Dembo
Micheal Williams
John Long
The borderline guys :
James Edwards - nearing the end of his career
Vinnie Johnson - nearing the end of his career
Rick Mahorn - in his prime but with back issues
The previous year, McCloskey had left Johnson unprotected and he hadn't been picked. For whatever reason he went with Mahorn in '89. I personally think it was a mistake. Edwards and Johnson, while good players, were probably too old to be picked by an expansion team. If they'd been left unprotected, Micheal Williams (a promising rookie PG) probably would have been picked instead.
The Pistons did repeat without Mahorn, but I still feel it was an unnecessary gamble to leave him unprotected. I think they could have kept the nine-man rotation intact for longer otherwise. But yeah, it's one small blemish on an otherwise fantastic record for McCloskey.
Mahorn was 30 when he was left unprotected. After he was taken, Mahorn had two more productive years, didn't play in 91-92 and then played 7 more seasons in a bit role (~10 minutes per game).
Vinnie was 34 and only played two more years, but was huge in the 90-91 championship year and hit the winning shot in the Finals.
Edwards was also 34 and played 6 more years, but similarly only averaged about 10 minutes a game the last four season.
I think the biggest blow was that Mahorn was part of the core bad boy mentality. Losing him hurt.
Honestly, with all the other players around the league, my guess is that McCloskey thought that none of these three old guys would get taken in the expansion draft to help develop a new team. In the end, the Timberwolves took him with their first pick and Mahorn refused to report to them resulting in a trade to Philly. Looking at the expansion draft, Mahorn was the 2nd olded player taken and only one of four players taken who had more than 4 years of experience.
Or, maybe McCloskey thought that if Mahorn were traded, he could get him back in a trade with Minnesota.
Regardless, I think the window for the Pistons was closing as no one was going to hold of Jordan much longer. The third championship that the Pistons should have won was in 88-89 when they should have beaten the Lakers. Asking the Pistons to extend to 91-92 probably wouldn't have been realistic even with Mahorn.
Actually the Pistons won the title in 88-89 and 89-90. 1990-91 was when they were swept by the Bulls.
Got tripped up by the way the stats were listed.
Unfortunately in this era of the NBA with super teams and players only going to growing "hip" US cities, we wont see another Pistons championship for a very very long time.
Cleveland is a hip city now? Not too long ago they were making Youtube videos making fun of the River for catching fire.
All those Youtubes were made decades after the fact—the Cuyahoga caught fire in 1969, long before the vast majority of Youtubers were yet even a dirty thought in their daddy's underpants.
SE Michigan is still growing; all four sports teams will be within blocks of each other with a full night scene and a developing Wayne State University. It won't happen overnight, but there are enough "hip" areas in Michigan that can further grow this region (not like Golden State is located in "the" place to be). But yes, given the current state of the league, it's going to be 5-10 years before the landscape changes enough for the Pistons to have a legit chance (unless a crazy lottery win occurs before then).
When the fuck did that happen? I live here and if what i'm seeing is hip I dont think anybody really wants to be hip to be honest.
I mean in all seriousness the ONLY reason we're good right now is because of the following:
1. LeBron was born in Akron
2. Lebron's friends and business associates are from Akron
3. Lebron's wife is from Akron
4. Lebron's wife and his friends all gave him a fair amount of shit for the way he left here and he felt bad enough to come back home
5. We got dumb-fucking lucky in the NBA draft not once but TWICE picking first and manged to get Kyrie
Hip had zip to do with it.
And RIP Trader Jack. The Bad Boys were the team of my youth and I loved them. Still have my "Bless you Bad Boys" and "Hammer Time" T-Shirt. And the first big trade he made that was unpopular at the time but turned out brilliant was dealing Kelly Tripuka for AD.
Sorry. I guess my point had one caveat.
Cleveland is garbage but the best player since Jordan was born near there so calls that city home.
That's also not happening to Detroit any time soon.
McCloskey was definitely part of the golden era of NBA hoops. RIP
Trader Jack was also shrewd in the draft.
Zeke was a no-brainer. But Dumars and Rodman were both from small-time programs. Not exactly unknowns, but definitely not sure-fire picks at the time.
He did it without superstars, so the NBA/David Stern/everyone like to pretend the BtB never happened.
Isiah was one of the best small guards of all time. Absolutely a superstar in his prime.
It's an absolute shame what they did to him in the '92 Olympics.
Last Pistons shirt I owned was from that era. It had the caricatures of the Microwave, Spider, Worm, Zeke, etc.
Great memories.
was the man. Dog Zeke named for isiah. Yes he was tough as nails.
Made his mark! Lifetime Pistons fan. Gave us a lot to cheer about.
Chuck Daly was such a great coach in an organization committed to winning.
Alzheimer's just sucks....
RIP, Trader Jack. Watching the Pistons' rise to the top was quite the journey.
Whatcha gonna do when they come for you? RIP Jack.
Wow, I hadn't heard. Sorry to hear this! McCloskey and Ken Holland (in his prime) were two of the best Detroit pro sports GM's ever.