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Behind the Detroit Pistons: The Detroit Spirits


Detroit Spirits' Marvin Barnes

Credit: NASL Jerseys


From 1982-1986, the Detroit Spirits would be one of the better teams in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA). Unfortunately, the Spirits were overshadowed by the better, more popular Detroit-based team, the Detroit Pistons. Even now, there's barely any information about the Detroit Spirits. To be fair, the team ended operations in 1996 and was in a minor basketball league.


Regardless, the team still seems to be of interest as the search term, 'Detroit Spirits,' still gets searched up 2,400 times per month! With that being said, let's look at the Spirit's front office.

 

Table of Contents:

The Front Office

The Detroit Spirits' Coaches

Sam Washington

Bob Weinhauer

1982-83 Detroit Spirits

1983-84

1984-85

1985-86

 

The Front Office

The owner of the Detroit Spirits was Reginald Henderson. The only fact about Henderson, besides the fact that he owned the Spirits, was that he was also the owner of 'Quality Clinical Laboratories,' a blood testing laboratory. Later down the line, according to the Savannah Spirit's head coach, Charley Rosen, Henderson was ARRESTED for defrauding the federal government!


To be honest, that isn't that surprising. In the 1984 CBA season, Henderson said that he had lost $700,000 due to the Spirits. Henderson needed 3,000 fans per game to break even, but the team could barely get 1,000 fans per game.


Next to Henderson was Vice President and General Manager Robb Larson. Larson was one of the youngest GMs in the CBA and was even named one of the 'Outstanding Young Men in America.'


After his time with the Detroit Spirits, Larson would work with the Detroit Pistons as the Director of Sales and Assistant Director of Marketing. Nowadays, he works at the Osceola Heritage Park as the Director of Marketing. Larson was nowhere near as controversial as Henderson.



The Detroit Spirits' Coaches

Finally, there were the head coaches. Within the Spirits&#