This article is presented by Antonio’s Italian Cucina

We’ve all heard Detroit vs. Everyone forever. But to see it so painfully obvious in real life is somewhat crazy. Over the last six months, Detroit has seen this first hand across three of our four major sports franchises. 

JB comes in second to Kenny Atkinson for Coach of the Year AND Trajan Langdon loses out to Sam Presti for Executive of the Year

This award release sparked the writing of this article. JB Bickerstaff takes a 14 win team, triples their win total becoming the first team in NBA history to do so, and then doesn’t win coach of the year. Instead, Kenny Atkinson’s Cavaliers, JB’s previous team, won. The Cavs are were a great team. But they were a great team last year who underperformed. JB was phenomenal for Detroit this year so his second place feels shallow. 

Trajan’s loss to Sam Presti, on the other hand, feels down right wrong. Trajan took over a franchise coming off the worst season in NBA history, on a short offseason, made the exact roster acquisitions needed, and put together a team that could have (should have) advanced to the second round of the playoffs. Presti is great, and has been great (especially at acquiring draft assets). But Langdon made water out of wine, while Presti made wine into slightly better wine. 

Notice how I struck out ‘are’. The Cavs are currently being handled by the Pacers in the playoffs. It’s almost like Bickerstaff was scapegoated for saying they hadn’t arrived yet even though the players believed they had.. 

Dan Campbell comes in second to Kevin O’Connell for Coach of the Year

Rewind even further to the NFL In-Season Awards and Detroit was screwed again when Dan Campbell lost out to Kevin O’Connell for CotY. The Lions obviously went 15-2 and while they fell short of our overall goal, they were slaughtered by injuries and still had a record season. Dan had complete control of that locker room throughout the entire season, and deserved to be rewarded. 

The irony here is that Kevin O’Connell did a great job with a Vikings team that was supposed to be bottom of the barrel. They were expected land at the bottom of the standings, yet thanks to KOC, the Sam Darnold led Viks made some real noise and surprised everyone. The reasoning for Dan not winning was that we were already a good team, and so our success was expected. Sound familiar from the NBA? 

AJ Hinch comes in third in AL Manager of the Year

Not to be lost in the recent success of the Lions and Pistons, AJ Hinch made absolute magic with the Tigers last season. If you recall, they had just a .2% chance to make the playoffs towards the end of the season. They then went on an insane run, powered by Hinch’s masterful managing skills, made the playoffs, upset the Astros, and came just short of the ALCS. It was beautiful chaos and AJ deserved recognition. Yet, he fell short, coming in third for AL Manager of the year. 

This isn’t even mentioning Cade Cunningham losing out on Most Improved Player of the Year the one year they decide to crack down on the criteria of an already good player winning it. Or Malik Beasley breaking NBA records coming off the bench, but still losing to Peyton Prichard for Sixth Man of the Year. 

Whatever, though. In-Season awards mean nothing. Let’s just focus on the bigger prizes like the Lombardi, the Larry O’Brien, and the Commissioner’s Trophy.