Bill Davidson and son Ethan Davidson
On Thursday, the Detroit Pistons extended their losing streak to 25, one shy of the NBA record. On Saturday, they tied the record, losing their 26th game in a row.
The previous Pistons' record was 21. That was broken last weekend.
One person who isn't sad to see the previous record broken is Ethan Davidson, the 54-year-old son of late Pistons owner Bill Davidson, who bought the team in 1974 and owned it when it lost 21 in a row in 1980.
It was a painful time.
Ethan Davidson, a musician and philanthropist, writes in Nu Detroit:
Over the weekend, one of my dad's records was broken. I'm not sad that this particular record was broken, but I am a bit conflicted about it...Toward the end of my dad's fifth year as Owner of the PISTONS, our team went on a twenty-one game losing skid, which carried over into the next season.
He goes on to write:
I was ten years old.
The tough crowd of auto-workers at the Pontiac Silverdome used to throw their popcorn and beers at us.
They'd yell, "Davidson you're a bum!"
"Sell the team!"
"You don't know what you're doing!"My dad was a guy who didn't react to very much.
So we sat there, night after night, loss after loss.
Getting shit thrown at us.
Every night. It made quite an impression on me.
Bill Davidson died in 2009 at age 86. His widow Karen took over the team ownership and sold it in 2011 to Tom Gores.
At recent games, fans have chanted for Gores to sell the team. The Pistons have the worst record in the NBA at 2-26.
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