Here’s the Detroit News reporting on Pistons point guard Reggie Jackson, who has been handed a very large sum of money to life the squad to a brighter future:
Reggie Jackson might not be another Mr. Big Shot.
But he is now, officially, the best shot for the Pistons to end this era of irrelevance, one that was at least symbolically ushered in by an ill-advised trade — Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson — in November 2008.
This franchise has been searching in vain for a leader — on the floor and in his prime — ever since, spiraling from mutiny to malaise. And the underlying message Monday, as president/coach Stan Van Gundy announced Jackson’s five-year, $80 million extension during a news conference at The Palace, was as much about that as anything else.
Jackson didn’t bother holding up a No. 1 jersey — the same one Billups wore in the championship heyday of a decade ago — because “he’s already worn it,” Van Gundy noted.
