Sports Sunday: Pistons PR nightmare

Image from daylife.com.

If you’re a fan of crime shows, you might have caught the new drama Detroit 1-8-7 a time or two over the past few months. Friday night, there was a different type of mystery on display in Philadelphia — Detroit Less Than Seven. As in the number of players (six) Pistons Coach John Kuester decided to use in his team’s loss to the 76ers after several players missed a shoot around earlier that day in what some have described as a perfect storm of legitimate excuses and others have called a planned mutiny.

No matter which theory you believe, there is no denying the Pistons have handled this poorly from a PR standpoint. Changing stories, silence from leadership, anonymous quotes all lead to once conclusion — somebody’s lying and nobody’s on the same page. And whether its professional sports or corporate America, it becomes the perfect recipe for a perception disaster.

In case you haven’t heard the particulars of the situation, here’s what I’ve been able to piece together — keep in mind, there have been several different stories out there:

• Issues between Kuester and his players have been brewing all year, specifically with Richard (Rip) Hamilton, who was offered a trade to the Cavs but nixed it before the deadline
• Seven players miss the Friday morning shoot around — Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Tracy McGrady, Ben Wallace, Chris Wilcox, Rodney Stuckey and Austin Daye
• Rumors about a player-organized protest of Kuester begin to surface
• Team President Joe Dumars says nothing
• The Pistons offer reasons why their players missed the shoot around
  • Hamilton’s absence was unexcused
  • Prince and McGrady were ill
  • Wallace has been dealing with a family issue, specifically his sick brother (this seems to be the most valid of the reasons for missing, btw)
  • Wilcox overslept, “as he has been known to do”
  • Stuckey and Daye did  not get the memo or the text that the shoot around had been moved up a half hour
• ESPN, the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press all report that this was an organized attempt by the Pistons players to make their disdain for the coach known
• The Pistons lose 110-94 to Philly and only play six guys
• McGrady and the other players who missed the shoot around were reportedly laughing and joking around on the bench throughout the game
• The rumor mill continues to swirl as reporters, bloggers and fans begin turning their perceptions into reality
• Team President Joe Dumars says nothing
• The Pistons beat the Jazz 120-116 Saturday night in Detroit. Stuckey, Wilcox and Daye all play. McGrady, Wallace, Prince and Hamilton do not. McGrady says he could have played
• Detroit Free Press writer Vince Ellis and ESPN.com columnist Stephen A. Smith both reference anonymous quotes from players confirming the skipped shoot around was an organized protest against Kuester
• Team President Joe Dumars says nothing

Ok, let me stop and take a deep breath. I can’t help but laugh a bit at how long it took to compile all that information even though I wasn’t the one doing the actual on-site reporting. Kudos to those like Ellis who have kept it all straight. Anyway, you can see why people are having a hard time believing this was a perfect storm of legit reasons and only Hamilton had an unexcused absence, right?

So what PR lessons can be learned here?

1. Spin is for tops, gyms and washing machines. Maybe we should cut the Pistons a bit of slack here. This all happened really fast and as my friend Lindsay Allen pointed out, last year they got rid of their veteran PR professional, Matt Dobek, who sadly took his own life soon after. But still, the Pistons organization is obviously not on the same page internally. You have public statements about how this was a “perfect storm” of legitimate excuses and anonymous quotes about how this was a planned mutiny by the players, and not the first. You cannot spin a story in today’s 24-hour news cycle, social media world. It is not possible and trying to just creates a second PR problem with which to deal.
2. Perception quickly becomes reality. Even if the story about the acceptable player excuses is true, read through the above again and tell me what your initial reaction was. It sounds fishy…really fishy. My BS meter sure went up when I heard the official word from the Pistons. People are going to think what they’re going to think. But in a situation like this one, a brand can influence what they think by maintaining a consistent story and going above and beyond to explain the circumstances. Also, some humility can work here; saying something like: “I know what I’m telling you sounds sort of crazy, but these issues really did all come to a head at the same time and there was no bigger conspiracy. Guess we need to spend part of next practice on alarm clocks and calendars.”
3. Silence is rarely golden. Throughout this entire weekend, Dumars has said nothing. Not surprising. His reputation on the court was as a silent assassin. And he’s been a quiet front office leader too. But sometimes you have to come out of the office and address an issue like this. Silence makes it look like you’re hiding or that you don’t have anything good to say about the situation, so you’re choosing to say nothing at all. Dumars coming out and backing his organization’s POV that there was no organized mutiny would be a win for the Pistons. Dumars coming out and accosting the players for putting themselves before the team would be a win. Dumars saying absolutely nothing brings two other D’s to mind — dysfunctional and disaster.

So where does Detroit go from here? Well, I still think it might make sense PR-wise for Dumars to address the issue publicly and then say they’re moving on. But the larger job will be getting everyone in the organization on the same page so that a) hopefully an issue like this doesn’t happen again and b) if it does, the Pistons will all be telling the same story publicly.

After all, that’s what happens on those crime shows like Detroit 1-8-7. You know they’ve found the person(s) who did it when the different stories start coming out and nobody’s got the same version of events. Usually ends up in a nightmare scenario, whether on the screen or on the court.

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