I started watching Detriot Pistons when they beat the Lakers in 2004 NBA finals. I liked the players and their coach Larry Brown. At that time Detroit team was good but no one was selected as NBA all star (this year 4 of them, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Rich Hamilton and Chauncy Billups, were selected). Besides a good coach, overall skills of the players, they won the championship because they play as a team. Nobody is super star; everyone listened to the coach and play for one goal.

Not any more. Did you noticed Ben Wallace publicly criticized the current coach Flip Sanders, and Rashsheed Wallace did not want to listen to the coach in the time out and did not even clap the hand with the coach. Even the soft-spoken Tashaun Prince second guessed coach’s substitution arrangement. Fortunately Chauncy Billups, their team leader, did the right thing: he said he still believed in coach.

Detriot is current 1:3 behind the Miami heat, with Wade and Shaq on the fire, and more importantly the factors I mentioned above, I don’t think they can come back this time.

It’s easy to win as a team, be it a game or a project. We all know how to celebrate. On the other hand, it’s not so easy to lose as a team. You can be as graceful as you want, as cool as you want, but when people (the fans, the reporter, the boss, the customers) ask for accountability, you know what will happen: the blame game, find a scape goat. I did not make mistakes. It’s somebody else made the stupid mistake. Is our ego really that important, compared to our eventual goal? We already lost the game, or the project. If we play the blame game, thing will only get worse. On the other hand, if we admit we were stupid, work together, we may have a second chance. Or start from scratch.

The bottom line is, a true leader will not blame others for the failure. He/she will find the reason from inside and try to learn from it.