Owner Is Hoarding Trophies

There was one-stop trophy shopping for fans at Sunday’s game at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

The Stanley Cup, NBA Finals trophy and WNBA championship trophy were displayed inside an entrance at the Palace.

Piston owner Bill Davidson, who also owns the Tampa Bay Lightning and the WNBA’s Detroit Shock, could claim all three trophies in the span of a year. The Lightning won the Stanley Cup last week, the Shock won the WNBA championship last season and the Pistons are ahead of the Lakers, 3-1, in the best-of-seven NBA Finals.

Last year, Davidson changed the Palace address to “3 Championship Drive” after the Shock won the WNBA trophy. The address used to be “2 Championship Drive.”

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Another reason for Detroiters to hate us: We shun their cars.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Californians have turned up their noses at Detroit for the last 40 years, “writing regulations that give auto executives headaches and buying enough imports to boil UAW members’ blood.”

Though Detroit’s automakers cornered 63% of the light-vehicle market nationwide last year, they captured only 50% of that market in California, where Toyota reportedly is the most popular brand. Because one of every 10 vehicles sold in the U.S. is sold in California, Detroit is concerned.

“So while this faceoff between the Go-to-work Pistons and Showtime Lakers is a good-natured sporting contest,” wrote Sarah A. Webster of the Free Press, “the battle over new cars and trucks is a much more serious fight for local livelihoods.”

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The crowds at the Palace of Auburn Hills for Games 3 and 4 were loud and lively but didn’t compare in size to the throngs that flocked to the nearby Pontiac Silverdome the first time the Lakers and Pistons met in the Finals in 1988.

Game 5 that year, a 104-94 Piston victory that gave the home team a 3-2 lead in the series, drew 41,732, an all-time record for a playoff game.

The Pistons moved into the Palace the next season.

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Bill Walton, the 1978 NBA most valuable player and a member of the Hall of Fame, won championships with the Portland Trail Blazers and Boston Celtics. Growing up around professional athletes and celebrities such as Grateful Dead singer Jerry Garcia, who used to visit Walton’s San Diego-area house, gave his son Luke the self-assurance needed to play at the game’s highest level.

Luke Walton was so confident that he promised his father’s coach with Portland, Hall-of-Famer Jack Ramsay, that he would one day wear an NBA uniform. He was 14 at the time.

“He was like, ‘There’s no doubt about it,’ ” Ramsay said. “That’s a high level of confidence for a kid that age.”

The only Walton who’s nervous these days is the 51-year-old father.

Even though he’s a veteran of 14 seasons and 468 games, Walton wrings his hands while watching his son play for the Lakers in the NBA Finals.

“I used to think that playing for the NBA championship was the most difficult task until I had to watch my son,” he said.

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Times staff writers Mike Bresnahan and Jerry Crowe and Times wire services contributed to this report.