Detroit Pistons Milestones

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Order these Detroit Pistons franchise moments by the year they happened. Drag or tap it onto the line

Detroit Pistons

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How the Detroit Pistons history timeline works

Think of this as the Pistons story told in cards, each one a franchise moment with a brief description, ordered by the year it took place. One card is already laid down with its year. You place every new card into a gap before, between or after it and the others. Choose correctly and its year is revealed; choose wrong and it goes to its true place anyway, and you lose one of three lives.

The deck starts well before the team played in Detroit and works through more than one championship era, each built on tough, physical defense. Cards from those title runs can blur, so look for coaches, arenas or rivals in the description. Arena openings make useful anchors once you've placed a few cards around them. The draft cards are scattered widely and tend to cause the most damage.

Want a longer game? On the deck tree you can tick this deck alongside any other one measured in release years and dates, and they shuffle into a single timeline together.

What's in the deck

Here are 26 of the 26 cards you might be dealt. Their values stay hidden until you place them.

Fred Zollner founded the team in Fort Wayne, Indiana The Zollner Pistons began as a company-sponsored National Basketball League club
The Fort Wayne Pistons joined the NBA The franchise entered the league that would become the NBA through the BAA merger era
Reached their first NBA Finals in Fort Wayne They lost a seven-game series to the Syracuse Nationals
Returned to the NBA Finals They fell to the Philadelphia Warriors in their second straight Finals trip
The franchise relocated to Detroit The team left Indiana for a bigger market in Michigan
Drafted Dave Bing The Syracuse guard was taken second overall and became a scoring star
Drafted Bob Lanier first overall The St. Bonaventure center went No. 1 to Detroit
Drafted Isiah Thomas The Indiana point guard was selected second overall
Acquired Bill Laimbeer The rugged center arrived in a trade from Cleveland
Chuck Daly hired as head coach The coach who would build the 'Bad Boys' took over the bench
Drafted Joe Dumars The McNeese State guard was taken 18th overall
Acquired Adrian Dantley The scorer arrived from Utah as Rodman and Salley were drafted
Larry Bird's steal ended their season in the Conference Finals The Celtics forward stole an inbounds pass in the closing seconds of Game 5
Reached the NBA Finals as The Palace of Auburn Hills opened They lost a seven-game Finals to the Lakers the same year the new arena debuted
Won the first 'Bad Boys' championship They swept the Lakers for the franchise's first NBA title
Repeated as NBA champions They beat Portland in the Finals for a second straight crown
Drafted Grant Hill third overall The Duke star arrived to lead a new era
Acquired Ben Wallace The undrafted center came from Orlando in the Grant Hill sign-and-trade
Signed Chauncey Billups and traded for Rip Hamilton Two backcourt pillars of a title team arrived the same offseason
Larry Brown hired; drafted Darko Milicic second overall A new coach arrived the same year they took the infamous No. 2 pick
Won the NBA championship over the Lakers The team upset a star-studded Lakers squad in five games
Reached the Finals again, falling to San Antonio They lost a seven-game Finals rematch bid to the Spurs
Won a franchise-record 64 games The 'Goin' to Work' core posted its best regular season
Sixth straight Conference Finals; traded Billups for Iverson A midseason blockbuster shook up a perennial contender
Little Caesars Arena opened back downtown The team returned to the city of Detroit from the suburbs
Drafted Cade Cunningham first overall The Oklahoma State guard went No. 1 to headline a rebuild