The 1977-78 NBA season was the

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at Li ...

' 30th season in the NBA and 21st season in the city of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

. The team played at

Cobo Arena Huntington Place (formerly known as Cobo Hall, Cobo Center, and briefly as TCF Center) is a convention center in Downtown Detroit, owned by the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority (DRCFA) and operated by ASM Global. Located at 1 Washi ...

in Detroit. It was the last season playing in Detroit, until the 2017-18 season when the team returned to the city proper. 1977-78 was the franchise's final season in

, as they moved to the

Pontiac Silverdome The Pontiac Silverdome (also known simply as the Silverdome) was a stadium in Pontiac, Michigan. It opened in 1975 and sat on 199 acres (51 ha) of land. When the stadium opened, it featured a fiberglass fabric roof held up by air pressure, ...

in the Detroit suburbs, also the home of the NFL's

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

, the next season. The Pistons finished with a 38-44 (.463) record, 4th place in the Midwest Division. Tensions lingered from the previous season, especially between coach

Herb Brown Herbert Brown (born March 14, 1936) is an American basketball coach and the brother of Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown. He is the former head coach of the Detroit Pistons (1976–78). Career Brown succeeded Ray Scott when he was promoted from a ...

and point guard Kevin Porter. Before the season began, the two tried to make peace, with Porter stating, "This year when I'm yanked I'll accept it," and Brown replying, "I may have made some mistakes." Team captain Bob Lanier, would add, "You can't change human nature. To be fair they should trade one of them." Porter was traded in November, 8 games into the season, to the

New Jersey Nets New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

and would lead the NBA in assists on the season. Brown was fired a month later. Then, with Brown gone, Porter would return in a trade to Detroit the following season. Forward Marvin "Bad News" Barnes would report to the Adult Correctional Institute in

Cranston, Rhode Island Cranston, once known as Pawtuxet, is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island. The official population of the city in the 2020 United States Census was 82,934, making it the second largest in the state. The center of population of Rhode Island i ...

in the 1977 off-season to serve a 152-day sentence. He had pleaded guilty to a two-year-old charge that he had attacked

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

teammate Larry Ketvirtis with a tire iron. The judge gave him three years of probation. An October 1976 gun incident at the Detroit airport in which Barnes tried to get a weapon through security was a probation violation, causing the judge to require the completion of that initial sentence. Barnes was traded to the

Buffalo Braves The Buffalo Braves were an American professional basketball franchise based in Buffalo, New York. The Braves competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division from 1970 ...

in November, bringing

Gus Gerard Daniel James "Gus" Gerard (born July 27, 1953) is an American former professional basketball player. He played for the Carolina Cougars and Spirits of St. Louis and Denver Nuggets of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the Denver Nugg ...

and

John Shumate John Henry Shumate (born April 6, 1952) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. Shumate grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and played high school basketball at Thomas Jefferson High School. A 6'9" forward/ center from th ...

to Detroit. The team was led by center

Bob Lanier Robert Jerry Lanier Jr. (September 10, 1948 – May 10, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who was a center for the Detroit Pistons and the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Lanier was inducted int ...

(24.5 ppg, 11.3 rpg, NBA All-Star) and guard

Eric Money Eric Money (born February 6, 1955) is a retired American professional basketball player. Amateur career A 6'0" guard out of Kettering High School in Detroit, Michigan, Money played alongside fellow future NBA players Lindsay Hairston and Coni ...

(18.6 ppg, 4.7 apg), out of the playoffs for the first time in 4 seasons.

Draft picks

Roster

Regular season

Season standings

:z – clinched division title :y – clinched division title :x – clinched playoff spot

Record vs. opponents

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1977-78 Detroit Pistons Season Detroit Pistons seasons