We’ve entered a weird timeline where the Pistons commentators are fondly recalling the days of “vintage” Reggie Jackson, when he would put up statlines like 20/6 all the time. Apparently, those days when vintage Reggie Jackson was putting up vintage Reggie Jackson performances are worth pining over? Yeah, all those 8th/9th/10th seed finishes and first-round sweeps sure are something to look fondly back on. Why bother cherishing the championship days and the Bad Boys when you can cherish the soul-crushing mediocrity that the Pistons have embodied for the past decade?
Nobody should ever intentionally try to remember some of those old Pistons teams that Jackson has been a part of. Brandon Jennings and Josh Smith and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Marcus Morris and Greg Monroe and Stanley Johnson and Tobias Harris…nobody should want to remember any of that. Except for Tobes. Tobes is always worth remembering. Jackson has actually been a decent point guard option for them all these years, but I can’t decide if he limits the ceiling of all the teams he’s been on or if the rosters around him simply sucked too much for him to be able to consistently drag to the playoffs.
If and when the Reggie Jackson era comes to an end in Detroit, I sincerely hope that Pistons fans aren’t Stockholm-syndromed enough to actually think they had some good times with him. I shouldn’t presume to speak for them, but I think I can because I endured similar amounts of soul-crushing mediocrity as a Bucks fan. Just put all that torment behind you and move forward with the happy thought that Sekou Doumbouya is going to be the next Giannis.