DETROIT -- The “Bad Boy” Detroit Pistons had recently won back-to-back NBA championships in 1989 and 1990.
Civil Rights advocate Nelson Mandela was not far removed from a historic visit to Detroit after spending nearly three decades in prison.
A teenaged Jalen Rose -- on the heels of leading Detroit Southwestern High School to back-to-back Class A state championships -- had just arrived on the University of Michigan’s campus to help birth college basketball’s famed Fab Five.