15 stars you forgot played for the Detroit Pistons

10. Sean Elliott

Sean Elliott is basically a San Antonio Spurs lifer, from the time the franchise drafted him in 1989 to his post-playing career as a broadcaster for the team in recent years.

Elliott is as much a part of the Spurs’ institutional fabric as Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Manu Ginobili and Gregg Popovich — which is why his one-year stint with the Pistons sticks out like a bright red blemish. It’s like that one C-plus on a valedictorian’s near-perfect transcript.

Elliott was coming off his first All-Star nod in 1993 when the Spurs dealt him to the Pistons as part of the Dennis Rodman trade.

The 1993-94 season was the one in which the foundation of the “Bad Boys” era in Detroit really fell apart. Head coach Chuck Daly was already gone. Rodman was gone. Bill Laimbeer retired early into that season, and Isiah Thomas suffered a torn Achilles’ tendon that ended his career. With Joe Dumars trying to hold things together as the last man standing from the championship days, the Pistons went 20-62.

Meanwhile, Elliott’s numbers dropped significantly — he went from averaging 17.2 points per game with the Spurs to 12.1 points with the Pistons.

Midway through the season, Detroit agreed to send the struggling Elliott to the Houston Rockets, but the trade was voided when he failed a physical exam. Elliott revealed publicly that he had a kidney ailment. After that season, the Pistons traded Elliott back to the Spurs.

Elliott returned to All-Star form in 1995-96, when he averaged a career-high 20.0 points per game. He helped the Spurs win their first NBA championship in 1999. A couple of months later, with his kidney condition worsening, he received a new kidney from his brother Noel.

After playing two more years, Elliott retired in 2001. The Spurs retired his No. 32 jersey, and that whole trade thing and the time he spent in Detroit were treated almost like bad dreams that no one wants to talk about.