The Pistons' long journey to NBA royalty included a lost coin flip

Before any action took place during the National Basketball Association’s 2026-27 season which began Tuesday, Oct. 20, the NBA served notice that the Detroit Pistons are regarded as one of the league’s marquee teams in announcing the team's opening game against the Boston Celtics was chosen to tip off the season.

>As reported in USA Today, the nationally televised game at Little Caesars Arena was given a  3 p.m. start time as part of an experiment conceived by the NBA and NBC with “the goal of turning opening night into an all-day event.”

>The expected 20,000-plus fans at LCA, along with the millions of people that will be following the game on TVs and other devices across the country, shows how far the Pistons and the NBA have come since their early days in Detroit after former owner Fred Zollner moved the franchise from Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1957.

>For example, 60 years ago, when the Pistons played their Oct. 18, 1966 home opener against the Cincinnati Royals, Detroit Free Press sports writer Jack Saylor reported that 5,802 fans at Cobo Arena witnessed a “hair-raiser,” as the Pistons nipped Cincy, 114-112.

>The attendance at a then-still relatively new Cobo Arena was more than respectable for the times. But more importantly, the high scorer for the Pistons in that game says that one of his teammates that night played a huge role in helping to make Detroit the professional basketball city that it is today.

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>“Dave Bing put professional basketball on the map nationally in Detroit,” said Ray Scott, who led the Pistons that evening with 20 points, in a game where Bing, playing his first regular season game as a member of the Pistons, contributed 12 points and three rebounds. “I say that because as the season went on, and Dave became more accustomed to the pro game on his way to being named NBA Rookie of the Year, people around town began asking the question: ‘Have you seen him play?’

>“This was the same town that before the Pistons lost a coin flip, were hoping that the Pistons would be able to select Cazzie Russell (the first overall selection by the New York Knicks in the 1966 NBA Draft) from the University of Michigan. But now people in Detroit were wanting to see Dave Bing play at Cobo.”

>In addition to bringing basketball fans together, Scott says Bing also connected Detroiters in a social and cultural sense that can still be seen at Pistons games and other sporting events in the city.

>“The Pistons were originally here due to a business decision not a sports decision, because (businessman and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee as a contributor) Fred Zollner did business with the automotive industry,” said Scott, who pointed out that the Royals franchise, which was moved to Cincinnati the same year the Pistons came to Detroit, was only able to last in that Midwest city for 15 seasons. “However, when Dave came to Detroit, many Black Detroiters that hadn’t felt welcomed downtown, came down to Cobo to see Dave play.

>“Just before that time (after the demolition of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley), Blacks mainly socialized on Linwood and Dexter, and parts of Livernois and Six Mile. Even areas like Puritan and Fenkell were still relatively new to our people. But because of Dave, Cobo started to become a gathering place for all of the races. The high rollers and people in fur coats and big hats came out to see Dave (the NBA’s second-leading scorer during the 1967-68 season). But you also had many Detroiters come downtown on the bus, which I saw with my own eyes from my office when I later coached the team.”

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>Scott said that on a personal level, the only downfall of Bing’s emergence as a rookie 60 years ago is that it led to Scott (a forward, standing 6-feet, 9-inches tall) being traded to Baltimore later during the same 1966-67 season, because Bing had absorbed a bigger scoring role on the team.

>But even then, Scott says the story had a happy ending due to his dear friend, Bing, a native of Washington, D.C., who starred at Syracuse University before making a major impact on Detroit as a Hall of Fame player, businessman and former mayor of the city.

>“On my last night in Detroit as a player, Dave Bing and (former Piston) Eddie Miles took me out to The 20 Grand to see Aretha Franklin, who dedicated a song to me,” recalled Scott, who spoke on the afternoon of Oct. 19 from his home in Ypsilanti, where he was looking forward to watching the Pistons opener on TV,  as well as getting together with his physical therapists in the coming days as he continues his own physical quest to become as mobile as possible at the age of 88.

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>Scott continued: “Then when I was named head coach of the Pistons, Dave was the first player I went to and I said: ‘This is what I’m thinking.’ I owe all of the players for being able to receive the “Coach of the Year” award (in 1974), but especially Dave, who embraced this entire city early on.

>“After his Rookie of the Year season, Dave didn’t go back to D.C. or Syracuse, he stayed in Detroit and worked at the bank (National Bank of Detroit). He planted roots in this city and he connected with the city’s work ethic, which you see our team doing today. During a game, or the season, or anytime, Dave Bing is someone who is always worthy of our applause and respect — absolutely!”

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>Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at stalley@freepress.com. Read more of Scott's stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/. Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber.

>This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: The Pistons' long journey to NBA royalty included a lost coin flip