(My Sportsbook) - I've always thought of sports as the ultimate form of escapist entertainment.
And a whole lot of people need to "escape" right about now.
It was announced Thursday that the nation's employers cut a larger-than- expected 467,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate climbed to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent. All told, 14.7 million Americans were unemployed in June.
Perhaps no city has been hit harder than Detroit, where the economic recession has left the Motor City with an astounding 22 percent unemployment rate, over two times the national average.
It wasn't always like that. Once upon a time, moving to Detroit was like winning the middle-class lottery. People with little or no real education were able to get jobs in the auto industry and in turn garner nice pay, great benefits and a solid pension. It was the very definition of the "American Dream," for so many.
Increased competition from foreign companies, the unyielding demands of the powerful unions and flat out mismanagement at the very top collapsed the entire auto industry from within, leaving a crumbling city both politically and fiscally.
Inasmuch, the people of Motown could use an "escape."
In recent years, the Pistons have been great at providing a few hours of escapist entertainment. Six straight trips to the Eastern Conference finals made late spring basketball a birthright for a generation of hoops fans...
Until last year.
Convinced his veteran-laden team was stale and couldn't get over the ultimate hump, Pistons president Joe Dumars pushed the plunger and blew up his team. The results were disastrous.
Joe D. jettisoned the underrated Flip Saunders for the untested and unproven Michael Curry, and compounded that mistake with the ill-conceived Chauncey Billups-Allen Iverson trade.
Curry's decision to bench veteran stalwart Rip Hamilton in favor of Iverson was not well-received by his team. Gone was Detroit's legendary balance, defensive prowess and chemistry, not to mention the run of six straight trips to the East finals.
In his first year directing the perennial championship contenders, Curry led the Pistons to just a 39-43 record, good for the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference. Detroit was then quickly swept in the first round of the playoffs by the top-seeded Cavaliers, who won each game by double digits.
Needless to say, this is a big summer for Dumars.
First, the Hall of Famer did an about-face Tuesday and fired Curry, just two months after he had held a press conference to confirm that his embattled coach would return to the Motor City in 2009-10.
Then the team - which did acquire plenty of cap space in the Iverson deal - dove into free agency headfirst on Wednesday, reportedly agreeing to deals with a pair of former UConn stars, sharp-shooting guard Ben Gordon, late of the Chicago Bulls, and emerging forward Charlie Villanueva, formerly of the Milwaukee Bucks.
Gordon, an offensive-minded two-guard just like Iverson, had been on the Pistons' radar for quite some time and is a much better fit than the former MVP.
"Ben agreed to come here knowing he would come off the bench," a source told NBA.com. "That makes it completely different than Iverson coming here...Gordon is choosing to come here and play the super sub role."
Villanueva, meanwhile, became available after Milwaukee inexplicably declined to make him a qualifying offer on Monday.
Now, Detroit will feature a three-guard rotation of Rodney Stuckey, Hamilton and Gordon, with Tayshaun Prince at small forward and Villanueva at power forward.
The problem is the pivot, where battle-tested veterans Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess are both expected to move on, leaving the perpetually underachieving Kwame Brown as the only current option.
Like the city they play in, the Pistons are still a long way away from their glory days. But Dumars' dealings may have provided something far more important than any championship trophy -- a welcome distraction for an embattled fan base.
