Thoughts for the Day, April 28, 2025: The Pistons got hosed by the officials, but that is not why they lost

Pistons

The Pistons got hosed by the referees with a non-call at the end of the game when Tim Hardaway Jr. was fouled on a three-point attempt when the Pistons were down one in the final seconds of the game. Hardaway, an 85% free throw shooter, would have made at least two of the three free throws to secure the win for the Pistons. Unfortunately, he never got a chance because of the non-call.

The Pistons’ players and fans were rightfully upset, but that is not the reason the Pistons lost. They lost because of the 19 turnovers they had that led to 20 Knicks fast break points. They lost because of the three foul shots they missed. They lost because of the second chance points they gave up to the Knicks early in the game.

The Pistons are the youngest team in the playoffs, with the least amount of playoff experience. The NBA playoffs are different than the regular season. The intensity is much higher. Physicality is much higher. In every game, every point matters. A missed opportunity in the first half will come back to haunt you at the end of the game. A turnover in the first half will come back to haunt you at the end of the game. A missed free throw in the first half will come back to haunt you at the end of the game. To win and advance in the playoffs requires 48 minutes of high intensity, high concentration, and high attention to the little details that make up the game of basketball. Talent alone will not allow a team to advance. Issiah Thomas had to learn this. Michael Jordan had to learn it. Chauncey Billups had to learn it. The young Pistons must learn it. I am sure they will.

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NFL Draft

On Thursday, the first round wasn’t even completed and The Athletic was already publishing grades for the teams that had completed their first pick of the draft. I was amazed that the writers were so quick to provide feedback on each team, including giving some teams a “C” grade. I find it comical that writers whose asses are not on the line, know more about the needs of the front office brass of NFL teams who have their asses on the line.

I did not watch one minute of the draft, but I kept getting alerts, mostly that Shedeur Saunders, University of Colorado QB kept getting passed over as the first round progressed. When the first round was over, and Shedeur was not drafted, most of the next morning headlines in the major national sports media were about Shedeur not being drafted. The media was loaded with opinions most of which were wrong.

When Shedeur was not drafted on Friday in the 2^nd and 3^rd rounds, the media was on a feeding frenzy of various theories. Conspiracy theories blaming dad, Deion, who served as his coach at Colorado and as his agent, were running rampant. Conspiracy theories indicating that teams shied away from Shedeur because of their concern about having to deal with his father. Shedeur was finally picked on Saturday in the fifth round by the Cleveland Browns, after the Browns had picked the Oregon quarterback, Dillon Gabriel, in the third round, which really caused a media frenzy.

Most mock drafts had Shedeur going late in the first round or early second round. The media couldn’t believe they had gotten their mock drafts so wrong on such a high-profile player.

In the meantime, the Detroit Lions did what they do best, they traded up in a couple of rounds to pick players that had the talent, but most of all had the character they were looking for in a player. In the last five years, the Lions have been the best team in the NFL in building by the draft, but even the Lions were not immune from media critics who found fault with their draft picks.

The best part is that next year will be even more comical. This year we had over 1,400 mock drafts. Next year I am confident there will be more than 1,500. The first one of the 2026 draft has probably already occurred.

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All this leads to my Onion of the Day.

Jax Ulbrich, the 21-year-old son of Falcons defensive coordinator and former Jets interim coach Jeff Ulbrich. Shortly before the Saints were scheduled to make the 40th pick, Jax and his friend (see the above GIF, Ulbrich is in the white sweater) phoned Shedeur Sanders and pretended to be the Saints GM. “This is Mickey Loomis here, (general manager) of the Saints. It’s been a long wait, man. We’re gonna take you with our next pick right here, man,” the caller said.

“Yes sir, let’s be legendary,” Shedeur said. “But you’re gonna have to wait a little bit longer, man. Sorry about that,” the caller said before hanging up.

The Falcons released a statement explaining that Jax "came across the draft contact phone number for Sanders off an open iPad while visiting his parent’s home and wrote the number down to later conduct a prank call." Jax issued a public apology and called Sanders to apologize personally.

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David Brooks

David Brooks is a Canadian-born American journalist, cultural and political commentator. He is widely regarded as a moderate conservative and is best known as an op-ed columnist for The New York Times and a political analyst for PBS NewsHour. He is also a contributing writer at The Atlantic and the author of the book "How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen". Brooks is a profound observer of the American way of life and a knowledgeable analyst of current political scenarios and foreign affairs.

The following are the opening four paragraphs from his article which appeared in the Atlantic over the weekend.

Charles De Gaulle started his war memoirs with this sentence. “All my life I have had a certain idea about France.” Well, all my life I have had a certain idea about America. I have thought of America as a deeply flawed nation that is nonetheless a force for tremendous good in the world. From Abraham Lincoln to Franklin D. Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan and beyond, Americans fought for freedom and human dignity and against tyranny; we promoted democracy, funded the Marshall Plan, and saved millions of people across Africa from HIV and AIDS. When we caused harm—Vietnam, Iraq—it was because of our overconfidence and naivete, not evil intentions.

Until January 20, 2025, I didn’t realize how much of my very identity was built on this faith in my country’s goodness—on the idea that we Americans are partners in a grand and heroic enterprise, that our daily lives are ennobled by service to that cause. Since January 20, as I have watched America behave vilely—toward our friends in Canada and Mexico, toward our friends in Europe, toward the heroes in Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office—I’ve had trouble describing the anguish I’ve experienced. Grief? Shock? Like I’m living through some sort of hallucination? Maybe the best description for what I’m feeling is moral shame: To watch the loss of your nation’s honor is embarrassing and painful.

Since coming back to the White House, Trump has caused suffering among Ukrainians, suffering among immigrants who have lived here for decades, suffering among some of the best people I know. Many of my friends in Washington are evangelical Christians who found their vocation in public service—fighting sex trafficking, serving the world’s poor, protecting America from foreign threats, doing biomedical research to cure disease. They are trying to live lives consistent with the gospel of mercy and love. Trump has devastated their work. He isn’t just declaring war on “wokeness”; he’s declaring war on Christian service—on any kind of service, really.

If there is an underlying philosophy driving Trump, it is this: Morality is for suckers. To borrow from Thucydides, the strong do what they want, and the weak suffer what they must. This is the logic of bullies everywhere. And if there is a consistent strategy, it is this: Day after day, the administration works to create a world where ruthless people can thrive. That means destroying any institution or arrangement that might check the strongman’s power. The rule of law, domestic or international, restrains power, so it must be eviscerated. Inspectors general, judge advocate general officers, oversight mechanisms, and watchdog agencies are a potential restraint on power, so they must be fired or neutered. The truth itself is a restraint on power, so it must be abandoned. Lying becomes the language of the state.

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Pay to play presidency

Nearly all recent presidents have enhanced their net worth, during and following their presidency. Donald Trump is taking it to a new level.

We have seen him promoting Tesla’s on the White House lawn. We know about his crypto coins that he and Melania have sold. We know that his has been unwilling to put his assets in a blind trust while president.

In his second term he has taken off any guardrails that existed in his first term. He proudly posted on social media that “now was a good time to buy” hours before he delayed implementation of the tariffs. His pay to play is upfront and in our face and he is challenging anyone to do something about it.

From Heather Cox Richardson. Last night a new club opened in the wealthy Georgetown neighborhood in Washington, D.C. It’s called “Executive Branch,” and it’s an invitation-only club backed by Donald Trump Jr. and megadonor Omeed Malik. Dasha Burns of Politico reported that it costs more than half a million dollars to join. The exclusive club is designed to allow top business executives to talk privately with Trump advisors and cabinet members. Burns reports that the club already has a waiting list.

Last Sunday a new filing with the Federal Election Commission revealed that donors delivered an astounding $239 million for Trump’s inauguration. Theodore Schleifer of the New York Times notes that Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee raised $107 million. The $346 million raised by Trump’s two inaugural committees is more than the monies raised by all other inaugural committees since Richard Nixon’s committee raised $4 million in 1973. While Trump’s allies have said the money that wasn’t spent on festivities will go to other projects Trump is behind, including his presidential library, there is no oversight on how Trump uses that money. (Think funds for “primarying” any Republican who steps out of line.)

Those investments in a Trump administration are paying off. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is withdrawing a Biden-era rule requiring poultry companies to keep the levels of salmonella bacteria below a certain level in their meats to prevent illnesses commonly known as food poisoning.

Last month, Rick Claypool of the consumer rights organization Public Citizen noted that the Trump administration has dropped federal investigations and lawsuits against 89 corporations, many of whose leaders donated heavily to Trump’s inaugural fund.

Zach Everson of Forbes has been following the story of the Trump family’s involvement in artificial intelligence company Dominari Holdings, Inc. In February, Everson reported that just weeks after Trump announced the administration's push to loosen regulations and expand infrastructure for AI, his sons Donald Jr. and Eric invested in Dominari and joined its brand new advisory board, for which they received 750,000 shares each in the company although they had no official duties. The company then launched another company, American Data Center, Inc., in which the Trumps also invested. That company focused on the “high-performance computing infrastructure” to support AI, cloud computing, and cryptocurrency.

According to Amber Jackson of the U.K.’s Data Centre Magazine, Dominari stock leaped more than 1,000% after the Trump sons joined the advisory board. On Friday, Everson reported on a Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealing that Dominari has applied for conditions that would enable the shareholders, including Don and Eric Trump, to sell their stocks earlier than a normal timeline would allow. Each Trump brother now controls 1.2 million shares of Dominari, each holding now worth $5.8 million.

On Wednesday, Trump made the pay-to-play nature of his administration explicit when he announced that the top 220 holders of his $TRUMP cryptocurrency token would be invited to a dinner with Trump at his private club and that they would be offered a “VIP White House Tour” the next day. MacKenzie Sigalos and Kevin Collier of CNBC reported the meme coin jumped more than 50% on the news, netting Trump and his allies nearly $900,000 in trading fees.

There is no shame. Speak up and Speak out.

Please call your members of Congress today. The U.S. Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. Tell the operator where you’re from and the operator will connect you to your representatives and senators. I tested this out today. It is very simple. They will ask for the congress member you want to contact. They will then switch you to that office.

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Quote of the Day: "During live play, it was judged that Josh Hart made a legal defensive play. After the postgame review, we observed that Hart makes body contact that is more than marginal to Hardaway Jr., and a foul should have been called." David Guthrie, crew chief of the NBA officiating crew following the Pistons game on Sunday.

Orchid of the Day: Logan Evans, of Saline, won his MLB debut and the Seattle Mariners beat the Miami Marlins 7-6 on Sunday.

In June of 2019, Logan was pitching for Saline High School in the first game of the MHSAA districts in a game Saline won 1-0 in eight innings on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning. Logan pitched seven innings of no-hit ball on the day, but did not get credit or a no hitter, because one inning was played a day prior when the game was washed out by heavy rains. The opponents had a hit in that one inning, so Logan did not get credit for a no hitter. I happened to be the plate umpire for the final seven innings in which Logan pitched hitless ball. I will always remember the game because of the intensity of the game, and because it was the last state tournament game in which I was the plate umpire. The game took on extra meaning to me with Logan’s first major league appearance and victory on Sunday.

Onion of the Day: Jax Ulbrich-See above story.

Lyrics of the Day: Now here you go again, you say you want your freedom. Well, who am I to keep you down?
It's only right that you should play the way you feel it
But listen carefully to the sound of your loneliness

Like a heartbeat drives you mad In the stillness of remembering what you had. And what you lost. And what you had. And what you lost.

If you think you know the answer, feel free to send me your answer in the comments section of the blog.

Answer to Lyrics of the Day for April 24, 2025: Carry on my Wayward Son, Kansas

Question of the Day: Can the Pistons rebound and win Tuesday night in New York?

Video of the Day: Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road/Badlands (Newark, 1/31/16)

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