To be fair, the answer to the above question is "right now".  If you tune into "NBA Fastbreak" on ESPN, or click on the NBA beat right here on Foxsports.com, you'll read and hear nothing but praise for the reincarnation of the Motor City Bad Boys.  But the fact remains, it took nothing short of a 13-2 start and a dominating brand of basketball to garner that respect.  And the other fact remains, it took far too long for these Pistons to get the props they have so richly deserved from the national media.

All you have to do is examine recent history in the NBA to see what I mean.  Let's take a look, shall we?

Going into the 2004 NBA Finals, the Detroit Pistons were pegged as the sacrificial lambs for Kobe, Shaq and the rest of the All-Star laden Los Angeles Lakers.  No one outside of Detroit gave the Pistons even so much as a glimmer of hope, let alone praise for prevailing in the East.  Many experts predicted the Lakers would sweep unequivocally, while others simply forecasted that the Detroit-ers would be extremely lucky to salvage one game.  But when the dust settled on the hot Palace floor, the only luck involved in the entire series was the Lakers improbable Game 2 victory.  Yet, it wasn't until the decisive Game 5 was out of reach for the Lakers that the analysts came to the conclusion that many Piston fans had reached after the first game... the Detroit Pistons were the superior team!

Fast forward to last season...

The Pistons came out of the gate sluggish and with Larry Brown's health status in limbo, the fallout from the dreadful Palace brawl, and Shaq and Wade quickly gelling in Miami, the defending champions were once again cast aside as an after-thought.

Detroit, however, managed to turn around their season in the second half and were once again riding a wave of confidence heading into the postseason, ready to stave off would-be contenders to their coveted crown.  Yet despite overcoming so many seemingly insurmountable obstacles in route to defending their World Title, the national media seemed more concerned with anointing Miami and San Antonio as their respective Conference Champions than recognizing the Pistons as legitimate threats to win the title again.  Well, one out of two ain't bad!

Of course, the Pistons eventually lost the NBA Championship to San Antonio in a hard-fought and emotional seven-game series.  But the resiliency the Pistons displayed throughout the series (and the playoffs as a whole) proved that this team truly possessed the heart of a champion and would have to be reckoned with for seasons to come. 

But you'd never know that by watching and listening to all the off season discussions on national media outlets across the country, would you?

Nope, instead you heard about how the return of Ron Artest made the Pacers once again front-runners to return to NBA prominence.  You were inundated with proclamations that the additions of Jason Williams, James Posey and Antoine Walker to the Miami Heat would push them immediately to the top of the Eastern Conference hierarchy.  And you were bombarded with prognostications of the impact Larry Brown would have on a hapless New York Knicks squad.  In fact, the only discussions about the Pistons centered on how they would adapt without L.B. on the sidelines and that they would be "in the mix" as far as the Eastern Conference is concerned.  Not exactly a ringing endorsement for a two-time defending Eastern Conference Champion is it?

Now believe me when I say that I fully understand why the Pistons are often overlooked by the so-called NBA experts.  Their games aren't pleasing to the eye of the casual fan (i.e. ... they don't bring in ratings).  They don't play in New York, L.A. or Chicago.  And they don't have a "superstar" that the league can market to the masses.  Well, let me address the first and last points if I may.

I'll be the first to admit that many of the Piston playoff games over the last three years haven't exactly been offensive masterpieces.  Heck, you could even argue that the offense was ... well, offensive.  But because of Larry Brown's slow-down, everyone-touches-the-ball-before-a-shot-goes-up philosophy, as well as their unrelenting commitment to team defense from start to finish, it was only natural for the final scores to be in the 80's, at best.  If you didn't like it, you shouldn't have watched it... it's that simple.  Although I have to say, if watching two teams slug it out in a defensive battle where each team is competing at the highest possible level on both ends of the floor just to get a win isn't your cup of tea, maybe you should find another sport to watch.  I hear professional bowling scores are ALWAYS in triple figures.

This season, with Larry Brown out of the picture and offensive juggernaut Flip Saunders in, the Pistons are suddenly one of the most fluid offensive teams in the league, in addition to being continually suffocating on the defensive end.  They currently rank sixth in the league in scoring at 98.9 points per game and seventh in field goal percentage (.459), while still holding their opponents to a miniscule 90.7 ppg and a .438 shooting percentage .

As for the Pistons not possessing any marketable "superstars", that may be a valid point.  After all, they don't have a Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, or  Dwyane Wade to bring immediate notoriety to the rest of the team.  But what they do have is a starting five that is matched only by the defending champion Spurs collectively and when you break down each of the five players, an argument could be made that all of them could be standout stars on a lesser team and with a more individualistic attitude.  But thankfully for this Piston fan, that is not the case.

The great thing about all this is that whether ESPN, FOX or SI are prematurely crowning the Pistons as NBA Champions of '05-'06, or they are completely ignoring them altogether, the ballers from Detroit could care less.  They know what their ultimate goal is and more importantly, they understand what it takes to get there.  If anything, they actually thrive on the lack of attention.

Therefore, to the public naysayers who are suddenly jumping on the bandwagon after all this time, I say forget about the Pistons.  After all, the defending champions are doing extremely well in the West and Shaq will return soon enough to spearhead the Heat back to the top of Eastern food chain......... right?