Several Pistons skip practice as friction with Kuester boils over

PHILADELPHIA — Word of a player protest was news to Tracy McGrady when reached by phone this afternoon.

McGrady, Tayshaun Prince, Rip Hamilton and Chris Wilcox were among the Pistons who missed this morning’s shootaround. Only six players were full participants for the entire shootaround. Team sources termed the absences a type of player protest because of dissatisfaction with coach John Kuester.

But McGrady said a headache had bothered him for the last three days. The team said Arnie Kander, the strength and conditioning coach, on Thursday night treated Prince for an upset stomach and McGrady.

“If it was some kind of protest, everybody would know about it, right?” McGrady told the Free Press.

The organization downplayed the absences. The team said that Wilcox overslept and that Rodney Stuckey and Austin Daye missed the team bus. Stuckey and Daye arrived toward the end of the media session following the shootaround. No reason was given for why they missed the bus or why Hamilton wasn’t around.

Ben Wallace also missed the shootaround. Spokesman Cletus Lewis said Wallace was dealing with a family matter. Wallace has missed games and practices over the past month because of the issue.

The healthy players practicing at the Wells Fargo Arena were Greg Monroe, Will Bynum, Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva, Jason Maxiell and DaJuan Summers.

And despite the explanations for the absences, the sources indicated that the discontent was directed at Kuester, who has clashed with players repeatedly this season.

One source, who asked not to be identified, said he didn’t know what the next step would be, and didn’t say who organized the absences. But he said it was an organized protest and discussed among the players. Some players, though, decided it was best to show up.

Kuester said he would go with who was available in tonight’s game against the 76ers. It was uncertain whether the players who missed practice would be allowed or available to play.

“We’ll go with the group that was here,” said Kuester, who deflected direct questions about why so many players were absent. “We got a number of guys that have a bug, but these guys went through shootaround the way it was supposed to.

“We have some things, some excuses, not excuses, but absences because of headache and stuff like that."

Kuester was ejected from tonight’s game late in the second quarter when received two technical fouls arguing a non-call.

The six Pistons who attended the entire shootaround were the only ones to play in the first half.

Contact Vince Ellis at 313-222-6479 or vellis@freepress.com