SAS Makes More News

In the ESPN post-game studio show last night after the Pistons-Raptors game, Stephen A Smith went on a diatribe about how the Pistons' disappointing season last year was all due to Flip Saunders.  Smith went on to the effect that Detroit's starting five were begging Flip to play the bench more.  But Saunders refused because, in Smith's world, he is a stubborn SOB who likes to lose.

Now, I haven't been able to identify Smith's "insider sources," but they don't seem to live in this dimension...Honestly, I don't even have the energy to confute this. Here's an excerpt from a real journalist, A. Sherrod Blakely at MLive.com:

On Dec. 1 at Milwaukee, Hamilton was visibly upset at Saunders when after he turned the ball over twice in less than a minute, Saunders took him out of the game.

"It was very frustrating, because you want to be out there," Hamilton said. "You prepare yourself in the summertime to play as many minutes on the floor. But when you see what's going on and how much better we're able to get with other guys getting out on the floor, and how much better we're going to be at the end of the season ... Sometimes you gotta knuckle down and just say, 'cool,' and cheer on the young fellas from the bench."