The '''Detroit Pistons''' are a National Basketball Association (NBA) team based in the Detroit metropolitan area. They play their home games in the The Palace of Auburn Hills.
Home arenas
:North Side High School Gym (1948-1952)
:War Memorial Coliseum (1952-1957)
:Olympia Stadium (1957-1961)
:Cobo Arena (1961-1978)
:Pontiac Silverdome (1978-1988)
:The Palace of Auburn Hills (1988-present)
*Note: On March 12, 1960, the Pistons hosted a playoff game against Minneapolis at Grosse Pointe High School when no other facility was available. On April 27, 1984, the Pistons played Game 5 of their playoff series against New York in Joe Louis Arena due to a scheduling conflict. During the 1984-85 season, the Silverdome's roof collapsed, causing the team to temporarily relocate back to Joe Louis Arena (for 15 home games) and Cobo Arena (for one game).
Franchise history
From Fort Wayne to Detroit
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The franchise was founded as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, a National Basketball League (NBL) team, playing in the gym of North Side High School. Owner Fred Zollner's Zollner Corporation was a foundry, manufacturing pistons primarily for car, truck and locomotive engines. In 1948, the team became the Fort Wayne Pistons, competing in the Basketball Association of America. In 1949, Fred Zollner brokered the formation of the National Basketball Association from the BAA and the NBL at his kitchen table. From that point on, the Fort Wayne Pistons competed in the NBA. Led by star forward George Yardley, the Fort Wayne Pistons were a very popular franchise and appeared in the NBA Finals in 1954 and 1955, losing both times.
Though the Pistons enjoyed a solid local following, their city's small size made it difficult for them to be profitable. In 1957, Zollner moved the team to Detroit, a much larger city which hadn't seen professional basketball in a decade. In 1947, they had lost the Detroit Gems of the NBL, who moved to become the Minneapolis Lakers (now the Los Angeles Lakers), and the Detroit Falcons of the BAA, who folded. The new Detroit Pistons played in Olympia Stadium (home of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings at the time) for their first four seasons, then moved to Cobo Arena. The franchise was a consistent disappointment, struggling both on the court and at the box office.
In 1974, Zollner sold the team to Bill Davidson, who remains the team's principal owner. Displeased with the team's location in downtown Detroit, Davidson moved them to the suburb of Pontiac in 1978, where they played in the mammoth Silverdome, a structure built for professional football (and the home of the Detroit Lions at
