Tom Gores, Pistons Owner, Has Been Very Involved With His Players

Tom Gores, owner of the Detroit Pistons, has made many efforts to get to know his players this offseason in helping build team camaraderie.

The Detroit Pistons have been one of the quieter teams this offseason. They only made a few moves to bolster their lineup, but make no mistake about it, the additions the management made have all been solid with their goal of competing and making waves in the Eastern Conference the number one priority.

After singing franchise player Andre Drummond to an extension, the Motor City team added Boban Marjanovic, Jon Leuer and Ish Smith to their lineup. With the roster set, the team then focused on building relationships with one another, including their team owner, Tom Gores.

The 52-year-old has been very instrumental in building the team's current lineup and has spent a lot of time with the players. Proof of this was a video uploaded by Drummond to his Instagram account, where he and his teammates can be seen taking on the 22 pushup challenge together with Gores.

#22pushupchallenge I challenge all of my fans! Make a video with friends and hashtag #andredrummond and I'll repost and like your clips @detroitpistons

A video posted by Andre Drummond (@andredrummondd) on Aug 16, 2016 at 1:32pm PDT

Starting point guard Reggie Jackson was also vocal about how much he was impressed with the addition of key players to their team. Per detroitpistons.com, the Boston College product also talked about spending time with their team owner and how that has positively impacted him and his teammates:

“He wanted to be around us and see us, so we got to be around him and I think it was good for guys to get to see him and see how enthusiastic he is and how invested he is in our success, everybody got to get a little more extensive time with Tom. Everybody got to see how fiery he is, the passion he has – a big reason why we had success last year and hopefully why we continue to have success.”

It is not a norm to see a billionaire team owner spending a lot of time with his players, but Gores has broken the mold and showed his support to them by doing so. Now that Drummond, Jackson and company have seen the passion their boss has, this may help them be motivated to perform better this coming season.

Now that the owner has done his part, once the 2016-17 season starts, it will be up to the players to respond. Their fans and the whole of Detroit are hoping to see even more wins this year.