by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni
The Detroit Pistons‘ season is only 11 games old, and already, there have been two public spats between head coach John Kuester and veteran forward Tayshaun Prince.
Last night, before the Pistons’ furious comeback against the Warriors fell just short, Prince and Kuester had to be separated. Things got so heated between the two, that Kuester reportedly asked a Pistons security official to remove Tayshaun from the bench.
Prince, of course, remained in the game, and helped Detroit stage their big comeback. Afteward, the two sides attempted to explain what happened.
From the Detroit News:
Frustration began to boil over in the second quarter as the Pistons were getting run off the floor. After Prince was beat on a fast break for an alley-oop by Rodney Carney, then scored on during the next two possessions, the Warriors’ lead ballooned to 25 and Kuester called timeout. On the way to the bench, Kuester and Prince had words. Then Prince slammed his towel down, yelling at Kuester and walked away from the huddle.
Kuester responded in kind, and had to be restrained by assistant coach Darrell Walker. Kuester and Prince continued jawing throughout the stoppage in play. After the timeout, Kuester attempted to walk over to Prince and continue their discussion, but Walker stepped in again. “This game is emotional,” Kuester said. “This game is played with passion. That’s what we needed at this stage of the game, that passion. And I thought he responded in the second half.”
“I voiced my opinion, he voiced his,” said Prince, who scored 15. “We were getting our heads bashed in. Nothing was going our way, they were picking us apart. Maybe I didn’t handle it the right way.” Prince, however, stopped short of saying it was a one-time occurrence. The two have gotten into it before, this season and last. After an ugly loss to Boston, Kuester called out the team asking for more leadership, and Prince pointed the finger back at Kuester when talking to media.
The writers in Detroit stressed that Pistons management could not possibly be pleased with these public displays of anger between coach and player, and there were also questions about Kuester’s rotations.
The Detroit Pistons are 4-7, and the rest of their schedule this month doesn’t exactly make things seem very promising for them. John Kuester needs to come up with solutions on many fronts, and do so real soon.
