ORLANDO – The way Henry Ellenson sees it, he’s been given the password to an exclusive club.
“I think it’s a rite of passage,” Ellenson said of the face mask he’ll wear for Summer League to protect a broken nose. “Being a Detroit Piston, you’ve got to wear the mask. That’s what the trainer’s been telling me.”
From Bill Laimbeer to Rip Hamilton to last season’s rash of broken beaks – Aron Baynes, Tobias Harris, Michael Gbinije, Darrun Hilliard – the clear composite plastic face mask has become a virtual alternative logo for the Pistons.
Ellenson incurred the injury playing a pickup game back home with his brothers and friends in Rice Lake, Wis.