The Pistons played their first pre-season game of year against the Cleveland Cavs tonight. That was exciting, but the best part is, I watched the entire game over an iChat video conference. See I live in Chicago and the game was only being broadcast on a local Detroit station. As you know, I'm a crazy Piston's fan and there's no way I was going to miss Darko's debut. So, my Dad attached the iSight to a tripod and framed up the TV in my old bedroom in Detroit. Believe it or not, the connection was great. The sound was perfect and although the video was a bit blocky it was definitely watch-able. I connected my laptop to my 36 inch Sony TV and watched the entire game. Most surprising, the connection only dropped once conveniently at half-time so it was no big deal. I had session rolling for 90 minutes straight. That's incredible stability for beta-ware. I can't wait for Panther, I'm sure it'll be even better.
Anyway, the Pistons had a rough start, they looked a bit out of sync and little out of shape. Although, there were a few bright spots. Rip Hamilton was impressive, looking as quick as ever. Darko started well, hitting his first NBA shot and showed some promise, but he did struggle for most of the game. Looks like Chucky Atikns is going to continue his traditional pre-season success, hopefully he can carry that through into the regular season. Also, I have to admit, it was a little odd seeing Larry Brown on the side line. I liked that the new coach will have the Pistons running a bit more, that's something we definitely lacked last year, but its so odd that our new coach is same guy we beat in the playoffs last year. Philly was a talented team but we still beat them, I'd have thought that had at least a little something to do with coaching. Oh well, I'm sure Larry Brown will be better for Darko. It's obvious he has a lot to learn and it seemed that Rick Carlisle didn't have much patience for rookies. We'll see how it all goes, there are 7 more preseason games to get used to it, and I look forward to every last one of them.
