My Sportsman Choice: Detroit Pistons

By Phil Taylor

Ben Wallace and the Pistons won the championship as a team ... in the purest sense of the word. Manny Millan/SI  Chris Stone: Red Sox Nation, you've earned this one  Paul Zimmerman: Boy Wonder brought Boston a title  B.J. Schecter: Red Sox captured Boston's heart  Richard Deitsch: The Babe had a big presence in '04  Rick Reilly: Big Papi did it all for the world champs  Jeffri Chadiha: A reward for reversing The Curse  Lisa Altobelli: Ramirez never took anything seriously  • Sportsman of the Year archive

Somewhere at this moment, a coach is preaching to his players. He is telling them that teamwork and unselfishness lead to success, that they will be at their best when they give up the quest for individual glory in favor of collective achievement. He is saying it isn't necessarily the most talented team who wins, but the most cohesive. At some point in his speech, if he is smart, the coach will use the three words that drive his point home -- the Detroit Pistons.

The Pistons are my choice for Sportsmen of the Year because they were the best thing to happen to sports in 2004. It wasn't just that they won the NBA championship in a shocking five-game humiliation of the Los Angeles Lakers, it was that they did it as a team, in the purest sense of the word. The Pistons were such a unit, such a collective entity, that it is impossible to single one of them out for the award, which is precisely the point.

Name the 10 most famous players in the NBA and chances are there won't be a Piston on your list, but there they were in June, a group of relatively little-known players humbling the Lakers celebrities, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. Detroit exposed the deep fissures within the Lakers, caused by the clashing of O'Neal's and Bryant's massive egos, showing us that even a pair of superstars is no match for a true team.

The beauty of Detroit's achievement is that it reverberated not just through the NBA, but also through all of sport, at every level. A youth soccer coach who wants to show his team that making a good pass is as important as scoring a goal can point to the Pistons. An NBA coach who wants his star player to concentrate more on defense than on his scoring average can point to the Pistons.

Sportsmen of the Year should do more than just excel, they should have an impact that goes beyond their sport, that changes the games we play for the better. The Pistons have done that, and for that they deserve recognition, although you will notice that not a single Detroit player or coach's name has been mentioned here. That is no doubt exactly the way they would want it. The only name that matters is the Detroit Pistons.

Sports Illustrated will announce the 2004 Sportsman of the Year winner on FOX on November 28. Check back every weekday until then to read more Sportsman picks from SI writers.

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