I've only cried once because of sports. I was 10 and the Pistons traded Adrian Dantley to Dallas midway through the 1988-89 season so Isiah Thomas could be teammates with his good friend Mark Aguirre.
Now, we can argue about whether the Aguirre aquisition was a necessary move in the Pistons' quest for an NBA Championship, but at the time, I didn't care. To my fifth grade mind, Adrian Dantley was simply the Pistons' most exciting player. His addition to team in 1986 elevated them from a lower-seed playoff team to a legitimate championship contender. There was nothing better than watching Dantley complete a field goal, draw a foul, and following his trademark spin of the ball, draining a free throw for a three-point play.
After the game five heartbreak against Boston in the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals, and the down-to-the-wire seven game 1988 Finals battle with LA, the 88-89 season was to be the Pistons' year. They had been one missed Joe Dumars shot away from a championship the year before, and the team finally escaped the Silverdome for the newly-built Palace of Auburn Hills.
Dantley was supposed to be James Worthy to Isiah's Magic Johnson and Bill Laimbeer's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. That is, until Isiah along with coach Chuck Daly and GM Jack McCloskey decided Aguirre, instead of Dantley, would be the third big piece of the championship puzzle.
Hindsight says the move worked. The Pistons won back-to-back championships, but it always felt a little hallow without AD running over opponents' defense.
Adrian Dantley was awesome.
He still is.
Dantley earned a reputation as a cheapskate during his playing days. Today he lives in a million dollar home he purchased over 20 years ago, is basically debt-free, and though he apparently doesn't need the money, Deadspin reports that AD works as a crossing guard for a $14,685.50 annual salary. He basically does it because the job provides health insurance.
Deadspin: He's not going to just sit around," the associate continues, "and he just doesn't want to pay health insurance." Turns out that NBA veterans aren't provided health insurance by the league, not even all-timers like Dantley. Crossing guards in Montgomery County, however, are.
Adrian Dantley is not only one of the NBA's all-time greatest scorers and a Hall of Famer, but he's also financially shrewd with a first-rate work ethic. And he gets up every morning to make sure kids aren't run over by cars.
Is there anything AD can't do?
