Q 01/05

The Pistons began as the company team of a piston foundry in which Midwestern city?

A) Fort Wayne, Indiana

B) Flint, Michigan

C) Toledo, Ohio

D) Dayton, Ohio

Answer · why

A) Fort Wayne, Indiana

Fort Wayne, Indiana, was where Fred Zollner's foundry made pistons for car and truck engines. The city proved too small to support an NBA team, so he ...

Q 02/05

Where, according to legend, did Fred Zollner broker the 1949 merger that created the NBA?

A) In a Chicago hotel bar

B) At his kitchen table

C) On a train to New York

D) In the Pistons' locker room

Answer · why

B) At his kitchen table

At his kitchen table, the story goes, Zollner got the rival BAA and NBL to agree to merge into the NBA. In 1952 he also bought a DC-3 airliner to fly ...

Q 03/05

Why did the Pistons keep their name after moving to Michigan in 1957?

A) Fans voted to keep it

B) A sponsor insisted on it

C) It suited the Motor City

D) The league required it

Answer · why

C) It suited the Motor City

It suited the Motor City: a name born in Fred Zollner's piston factory fitted the home of the American car industry. Detroit had gone a decade without...

Q 04/05

Which Piston was the first NBA player to score 2,000 points in a season, in the team's first Detroit year?

A) Bailey Howell

B) Gene Shue

C) Dave DeBusschere

D) George Yardley

Answer · why

D) George Yardley

George Yardley scored 2,001 points in 1957–58, breaking George Mikan's record of 1,932. A Stanford engineering graduate, he had put off turning pro in...

Q 05/05

Which team beat the Pistons by one point in Game 7 of the 1955 NBA Finals?

A) Philadelphia Warriors

B) Syracuse Nationals

C) Minneapolis Lakers

D) Boston Celtics

Answer · why

B) Syracuse Nationals

The Syracuse Nationals trailed by 17 points in the second quarter of Game 7, then rallied to win 92–91 on a late George King free throw.