Detroit Pistons NBA Champions 2004

In the summer of 2004 the mighty Los Angeles Lakers, starring Hall of Famers Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone and Gary Payton, lost the NBA Finals and thus the NBA Championship 2004 to the tough, scrappy, blue-collar Detroit Pistons. It was one of the greatest upsets in the history of the NBA, but when everything was said and done, it was obvious that the better team won. Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace, Ben Wallace, Richard "Rip" Hamilton and Chauncey Billups could not follow their title with another one, neither as a team nor individually after they split up and went to other teams.

I would not provide further details on the whole story, there is enough material on it spread through the Internet. As a LA Lakers fan at the time, the loss hurt as hell, but I have always thought the Pistons deserved this one, hands down. As a tribute, I created this wallpaper to celebrate their win and I still hold it for one of my best works ever. I spent a total of 30 hours on it, but it was worth it.

All images are taken from the official NBA site which you can visit by clicking this [link] . I spent some time removing a player behind Chauncey Billups in order to have only the Detroit players themselves in the images. It was my first photo manipulation of this sort and I am pleased with the result.

The basketballs and the name tags are taken from the great site GUIStuff which you can visit by clicking this [link] . Their GUIs are amazing and they also have some helpful tutorials for design and programming in various languages.

You can also see my other 2004-2007 works by clicking this [link] .