The Detroit Pistons’ victory over the Orlando Magic on Sunday, May 3, wasn’t just a milestone in NBA history – the 15th team to recover from a 3-1 series deficit – but one for the franchise, as well. The Game 7 win was the Pistons’ first playoff series victory since 2008.
Since eliminating the Magic in the Eastern Conference’s second round on May 13, 2008, the Pistons had lost five straight playoff series – the ’08 East finals to the Boston Celtics and then first-round matchups in 2009, 2016, 2019 and 2025 (to the Cavaliers twice, the Milwaukee Bucks and the New York Knicks, respectively) – before finally advancing to the second round again.
That covers a span of 6,564 days – 17 years, 11 months and 20 days; or, almost 216 months; or, if you’re a “Rent” fan, 9,452,160 minutes (give or take a timeout or two).
Whew – that’s a lot of numbers. But how long has it been, really?
Let’s run through some differences between then, and now.
In the Pistons’ roster
The oldest Piston on this year’s roster, Tobias Harris, was just wrapping up his fifth year in the NBA. No, actually, we like to kid the vet – “Unc,” as his teammates call him – but Harris was still a few years from joining the leaguein May 2008 – he was just wrapping up his sophomore year of high school in New York state. The youngest Piston on this year’s roster, meanwhile – Ron Holland – wouldn’t turn three for another couple months.
In Detroit sports
The city’s sports picture looked slightly different back then: Yes, the Lions were coming off a disappointing season (7-9 in 2007), but had their biggest disappointment still to come – an 0-16 season in 2008. The Red Wings, meanwhile, were riding a notable playoff streak: They were in season No. 17 of a run of 25 straight playoff appearances and would wrap up the 2007-08 season with their fourth Stanley Cup in 11 years. (A much better decade than their current playoff drought). And the Tigers? They fell to the Kansas City Royals on May 13, 2008 to fall to 16-23; they were still three years away from ending a playoff series drought of their own (with an ALDS victory in 2011).
Back then, Detroit had a WNBA team; the Shock were a few months away from their third championship in six seasons. These days, Detroit has a WNBA team, too … or at least it will in 2029, via league expansion. (Don’t ask about the name, though.)
In the NBA
On the court, Seattle had an NBA team (and Kevin Durant in green and gold, for that matter), Charlotte’s team was called the Bobcats, New Orleans had the Hornets and the state of New Jersey still had the Nets. (Those teams’ locations and names now, in order: Oklahoma City Thunder, New Orleans Pelicans, Charlotte Hornets and Brooklyn Nets.)
In the entertainment world
The host (and musical guest) of “Saturday Night Live” the night before this year’s Pistons clincher, Olivia Rodrigo, had just turned 5 when the Pistons last clinched a playoff series. Meanwhile, the host before that clincher was actor Shia LaBeouf. Since then, LeBeouf has appeared in 22 movies.
A mere three “Fast & Furious” movies had been released; there are at least 10 now. The Pistons knocked off the 2007-08 Magic 11 days after the release of the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, “Iron Man.” These days, we’re up to 37 films in the MCU. (No. 38, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” comes out in late July.)
In LeBron’s career
But let’s come back to basketball. The Pistons’ closest competition in the Central that 2008 season, the Cavaliers (who finished 14 games back), were led by a 23-year-old named LeBron James – maybe you’ve heard of him? – who finished his fifth season in the league with 10,689 career points. James, of course, is still going; he finished the regular season this year, his eighth with the Los Angeles Lakers, with 43,440 points. That’s a run of 32,741 points between Pistons clinchers. That’s more points than all but three other players – Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – in NBA history.
Over that span, James also scored 7,161 points in the playoffs – that’s as many playoff points as Richard Hamilton, Isiah Thomas and Chauncey Billups have in the playoffs for the Pistons, combined.
But most importantly, James won a whopping 37 playoff series (including one this season – and featuring six Game 7 wins) in the span between the Pistons’ advancements.
Ryan Ford is deputy sports editor for the Free Press and has been with Freep Sports since January 2006 – a mere 2½ years before the Pistons’ last series clincher. Contact him at rford@freepress.com or follow him on X (which used to be Twitter, y’know?) @theford and on BlueSky at @theford.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons’ 18 years without playoff series win is one long time