Kwame's 'Welcome to the Pistons' moment

Rasheed Wallace showed up at Michael Curry’s introductory press conference in June, tacit confirmation that Joe Dumars’ hire had his full approval. In case anyone missed the implication, Wallace took every opportunity at media day to give Curry his vote of confidence.

Curry reciprocated Tuesday after a lively practice that featured vintage Rasheed. From his refusal to let go an official’s call that he’d kicked a ball defensively, aborting a possession in which Wallace’s defense was about to force a shot-clock violation, to his relentless verbal assault on Kwame Brown as they battled each other in scrimmage.

“No way on God’s green Earth can you lock me up,” Wallace baited Brown. “I go hard; you lollygag.” On it went. Wallace told Brown he couldn’t hang with him through all his NBA stops and told him he was lucky he didn’t go up against him in high school. When Wallace’s unit sat and Brown’s continued to scrimmage against another five, the harangue continued.

Brown, playing more and more aggressively, scored a basket.

“One basket in 3½ hours!” Wallace blared. Brown scored again. “Two baskets in 3½ hours!” came the cry. Brown scooped up a loose ball at half-court, charged to the rim and practically carried poor Cheikh Samb through the rim for another basket. “Three baskets in 3½ hours!” echoed throughout the Pistons’ practice gym.

His teammates carried on as if nothing was happening. They’ve all gotten the Rasheed treatment somewhere along the line. But they were paying attention. So was Michael Curry. They were looking to see how Brown responded. Because if Rasheed was going to rattle him in an October practice, they’d start to wonder what use their new big man would be to them in, say, Boston or Cleveland, come May or June.

“He’s testing him,” Curry said – and then he said something telling, recalling a conversation he had with Jud Buechler, his Pistons teammate during the 1999-2000 season.

“It’s funny, because when Rasheed does it, some people take it as he’s getting on guys too hard. I never played with the Bulls, but I sat here with Jud Buechler who talked about how Michael Jordan messed with Steve Kerr every single day in practice. Whether he hit him coming off picks or yelled at him or jumped at him for every shot he got ready to take, he was testing his guys and when he needed him most, he turned to him and he helped him knock down the shot to win a championship.

“But Michael was being a great leader.”

And Rasheed, as Curry left unsaid, is viewed through a different prism.

“The reality is that all great players find in their own way to challenge their teammates to see if they can handle it and if it’s someone they can depend on come game time,” Curry continued. “Sheed has challenged Amir (Johnson) the last few years and Amir has finally grown to the point where he doesn’t see the need to do it as much because he knows he can depend on Amir and the things he brings to the table. He’s done the same things with (Jason Maxiell). And if you watch Rip (Hamilton), he does the same things with his young guys that are competing against him.”

Brown has let everyone know this turn with the Pistons is a new lease on life for him. He took the full dose of Rasheed in the spirit of its intent.

“He’s loving it,” Chauncey Billups grinned. “They’re competing every single day. … Kwame is used to it. Coming into this league as the No. 1 pick and having his struggles, he’s had a lot of people talking down on him. … But one thing he knows is that we do that out there, but once we get over to that other building” – The Palace – “everybody’s on the same page and anybody on that other team that talks, we’ve got his back.”

“It was fun,” Brown said. “Sheed is going to make me better by challenging me in practice and going hard. It’s just how you perceive it. It actually fires you up instead of doing the opposite. Sheed is unique. He was jawing all day at practice. I told him he was in the trunk – I’m locking him up. And he did not score, but he didn’t want to talk about that. Just because you’re the loudest, that doesn’t mean anything.”

Before Brown came back out on the floor to talk to reporters, Wallace had already pulled him aside in the locker room – just in case there was any misunderstanding – to let him know what he was up to.

“We just talked about it in the back,” he said. “He was just making sure I was good, just take it in stride as a veteran trying to help a young guy out.”

Steve Kerr’s probably still waiting for Michael Jordan to make sure his psyche wasn’t bruised too badly.

• Walter Herrmann sat out the last hour of practice with sore ribs, a minor injury incurred at the open practice at Oakland University last Thursday. Curry didn’t rule him out for Wednesday’s home preseason opener against Milwaukee.



• Cheikh Samb, who did not play in Sunday’s game at Miami after taking a hard shot to the jaw in Saturday’s practice, was a full participant in Tuesday’s practice.



• Former NBA official Jess Kersey visited Pistons camp Tuesday and spent about 30 minutes after practice talking about this year’s points of emphasis. Curry said one of them is making sure defenders don’t get up under jump shooters, but give them enough room to come down without risking injury.



• We’ll have more tomorrow with Chauncey Billups talking about his summer and why he came to camp lighter and leaner.

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