Detroit Pistons complete six-year plan to renovate 60 basketball courts
The Detroit Pistons unveiled a renovated basketball court at Howarth Park on the city’s east side Wednesday — completing the final phase of a years-long project to improve dozens of parks in the city.
As part of the team's move from Auburn Hills in 2017 that featured the construction of a new practice facility in Midtown, the team committed to a six-year, $2.5 million investment to refurbish 60 courts in 44 parks. The new courts are all Pistons-themed, providing upgraded basketball facilities for Detroit youth. The new court at Howarth Park, located at 6869 East Nevada (a few miles north of Hamtramck), was the last of eight courts the team renovated this summer as part of the sixth and final phase.
Mayor Mike Duggan was in attendance at the ribbon-cutting on Wednesday, along with Pistons vice chairman Arn Tellem, players Jaden Ivey and Ausar Thompson, city councilmember Scott Benson and students from nearby Cornerstone Jefferson-Douglass Academy. The event took place nearly five years after the team unveiled two of its first courts, at Littlefield Park on the city’s west side in October 2018.
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Tellem credited Duggan for the court renovation idea, but noted that the team wanted to make an impact outside the walls of Little Caesars Arena.
“In talking to Mayor Duggan, we both realized it wasn’t just playing basketball games,” Tellem said. “It was about making Detroit our home. And with that, we built our practice facility and, going to Tom Gores’ vision, it was about making an impact not just in the business district where we were going to play our games, but in the neighborhoods.
“Our mission, of course, is to win games. With Jaden and Ausar, I think we’re well on our way to accomplishing that. But these courts and our court project really goes to the heart of that, is to improve the lives of young people in Detroit.”
The Pistons’ lengthy renovation project was part of a 10-point community benefits agreement agreed to in exchange for the city financing basketball-specific renovations at LCA and the construction of the team's practice facility. In addition to Howarth, the team also renovated parks at Optimist-Parkgrove, Syracuse-Hildale, Hawthorne, Glenfield-Lannett, Schultz, Wingle and Lafayette-St. Aubin this summer.
The team also started the Pistons Neighbors Program in 2019, which utilizes 16 of the parks for free summer activities including yoga, live music and sports in an effort to get more people outdoors.
“You know where the Pistons used to play? It was called Auburn Hills,” Duggan said to the crowd of students. “You had to drive an hour and then you got to that parking lot after the game ended, you were stuck in the parking lot for an hour. And then you had to drive an hour back. Detroit wasn’t connected with the Pistons up in Auburn Hills at all.
“When the Pistons said they wanted to come down and be part of the city, they brought the jobs here and then they said, ‘How can we be in the neighborhoods?’” Duggan added. “A lot of folks haven’t heard of Howarth Park, but it’s a big deal for the people who live around here. And we were fixing it up, and now this park and 60 others are a lot nicer because of the Pistons’ courts.”
The Pistons have other community projects forthcoming, including a $20 million commitment from Gores to build a new community center and renovate the Brennan pool house in Rouge Park, and a partnership with Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University to build a $2.5 billion mixed-use building in New Center that will include housing and retail, along with a medical research center.
“It’s an incredible feeling because I remember our initial discussions with the mayor when we first started talking about moving downtown,” Tellem said. “When he mentioned 60 courts, it was like a huge number. I never thought it would be possible, but we did it. Promises made, promises kept.”
Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @omarisankofa.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons finish renovation of 60 local basketball courts
