Josh Smith looks back on getting waived by Pistons

Josh Smith quickly realized that his time with the Detroit Pistons would be over once the organization hired Stan Van Gundy as head coach and president of basketball operations less than a year after signing for four years, $54 million.

(via Knuckleheads with Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles):

“What people don’t understand is when I got waived from Detroit, Joe Dumars was the GM I got signed with. He had got let go. And then, they let go Mo Cheeks. When I first got there, they let go of him like halfway through the season. So when they signed Stan Van Gundy, they gave Stan Van Gundy like everything. He was like the president, GM, and the coach. So I knew.. Like what people don’t understand about the business: if you’re not a person’s guy, they gonna get you up out of there. So he ended up firing like everybody in the front office and all kind of people, so I knew he was going to start messing with the team next. So, that’s just the name of the game. He was like trying to get outrageous trades for me instead of just doing the right thing. He was like trying to get LeBron James and that stuff.”