Auburn Hills — The Pistons gave up a lot to get Blake Griffin. Maybe not a ransom, exactly. But this was a kidnapping, in some respects.
And that was another admission of guilt Tuesday, as Stan Van Gundy, the Pistons’ president and head coach, explained his team’s thinking in pulling off a blockbuster deal for the Los Angeles Clippers’ star forward.
“The hardest thing to do in this league is to get a proven star,” Van Gundy said. “It’s just very hard to do.”
For the Pistons, it’s been bordering on impossible for nearly a decade now, from the end of Joe Dumars’ tenure as team president through Van Gundy’s first four years at the helm.