Time to Call in a Favor

In February 2004 the Atlanta Hawks shipped Rasheed Wallace to Detroit and received Zeljko Rebraca, Bob Sura, and a first-round pick, as well as the expiring contract of Chris Mills, from Boston. The Celtics shipped guard Mike James to Detroit and received Hunter, guard Chucky Atkins, and a first-round pick from the Pistons. But rivals-turned-decision makers Danny Ainge of the Celtics and Joe Dumars of the Pistons had a wink-wink deal on Hunter. Hunter never reported to the Celtics. In fact, he never even left Michigan. A week after the deal, Hunter was waived by the Celtics and he re-signed with Detroit, which went on to win the NBA title.

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After the trade, both Pistons' fans and Celtics' fans joked that Ainge should have won GM of the year for the role he played in that transaction. After all, without Ainge's cooperation, maybe that deal doesn't go down, and, if the deal doesn't go down, Detroit doesn't get Sheed. And if Detroit doesn't get Sheed, well, you get my point.

Whatever your opinion, Danny has a chip to play. I'll call it the "you owe me, Joe Dumars" chip.

Let's see if he calls it in over the next 12 days.

The Pistons certainly aren't going anywhere this year.