Vince Ellis

Detroit Free Press

DALLAS -- As an assistant coach at the University of Vermont in the early 1980s, Stan Van Gundy was very much aware of the city's 39-year-old mayor, whose son was an active participant in the Catamounts' summer basketball camps.

That mayor of Burlington was Bernie Sanders, who's now a contender for the presidency.

“I didn’t know him know him, but I knew who he was,” the Detroit Pistons' coach and president said Wednesday at American Airlines Center. “He wouldn’t remember me now, but obviously, I remember him. He was around a lot. A big basketball fan."

Van Gundy made his comments the day after Sanders upset Hillary Clinton in Michigan’s Democratic Party primary.

Van Gundy was an assistant at Vermont in 1981-83. He said that Sanders was a regular at games.

On Wednesday, Van Gundy wondered aloud about looking up Sanders’ son, Levi.

Maybe Van Gundy could angle for a cabinet post if Sanders beats the odds and wins the election in November.

Detroit Pistons' Van Gundy doesn't want an 'entertainer' as president

Opponents hate Hack-A-Dre: After yet another game that saw Pistons center Andre Drummond sent to the free throw line by an opposing coach trying to take advantage of his poor foul shooting, he was asked what opposing players tell him during games.

“They all say it: They don't want to do this (expletive),” Drummond said after the Pistons' 102-96 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. “It makes the game boring. But it is what it is. Everybody wants to come up with their different schemes to stop our team when we've got it going.”

Drummond was dominant with 25 points and 17 rebounds Wednesday but struggled through a 5-for-14 night at the line. On the four second-quarter instances Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle used the strategy, Drummond went 4-for-8 on free throws.

The approach has become so prevalent that NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said the league will examine the issue in the off-season.

"Coming from me, I really don't care,” Drummond said. “I mean, I don't mind shooting the free throws. It's something I work on all the time. Like I tell you guys all the time, it's a process for me.”

Contact Vince Ellis at vellis@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @vincent_ellis56.