Owner behind Piston change.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Mitch Albom

The man who got rid of Rick Carlisle woke up this morning in his pajamas and had his breakfast. His hair is white and he stands slightly stooped and he moves around as well as an 80-year-old man can. Perhaps he read the newspapers. Perhaps he didn't bother. He is the richest person in this state, richer than anyone named Ford or Fisher or Ilitch _ at least if you believe the Forbes 400 list _ and while the whole city is buzzing about the firing of his basketball coach, he ambles quietly to lord over his multibillion-dollar empire _ and no one asks him a thing. Bill Davidson can shrug at all the fuss, because he knows something that everyone else forgets.

It's his ball.

He can take it whenever he wants.

Rick Carlisle will be working for someone new this summer for the same reason Jerry Stackhouse was working for someone new last summer. The owner didn't want him. Plain and simple. The buck doesn't stop with the team president. It stops with the guy who signs the checks. Bill Davidson signs the checks. Bill Davidson had enough of Rick Carlisle.

Mr. Carlisle is history.

"I'll take the arrows," Joe Dumars said during the weekend, when reporters grilled him on the firing of last season's NBA coach of the year. How could this happen? Didn't Carlisle do a great job? Didn't the Pistons make the conference finals? Dumars was clearly uncomfortable, not because he had to fire somebody, but because he couldn't be completely honest. "I'll take the arrows." It means the arrows could have hit someone else.