With most of the country slowly reopening, let's check in on sports.
An American spring is usually overwhelmed with basketball and hockey playoffs, the Masters, the French Open, MLB's regular season and NFL minicamps. Instead, since mid-March, we have basically seen 1) a virtual football draft, 2) a rainy round of charity golf and 3) German soccer.
This is not a happy diet for ravenous American sports fans. It's more like wilted lettuce on Melba toast. Which is why so many of us got excited when behemoths like pro basketball, pro hockey and college football recently announced official return dates.
Well, outside of Detroit, anyhow.
The Motor City will not see the Pistons or the Red Wings until the 2020-21 seasons � which may not begin until Christmas. If so, we'll have been without basketball or hockey for nearly 10 months.
The reason? Our teams were not good enough. The Pistons were left behind while 22 NBA teams got to continue. The Red Wings were abandoned while 24 NHL teams skate on.
We're like that kid who waddles home after not getting picked for kickball. No other city has TWO pro teams rejected for being lousy! You'd think we'd get some kind of consolation prize, like free pizzas.
But no. We can only watch. Or will we? How realistic are any of the leagues' plans?
Let's start with the NBA. Sure, it would have made way more sense to call the regular season over and take the top 16 teams into a postseason. But that would have left Zion Williamson on the sidelines, and he's a big TV draw. Plus, players wanted to avoid injuries by playing in some non-playoff games first, which makes you wonder how hard the already-set teams are going to try.
Yet, despite all this, the Pistons may be luckier than we think.
