After all those years of hating Eastern Conference arch-rival Allen Iverson, will Pistons fans embrace him?

Tipsheet guesses they will. A.I. is headed from Denver to Motown in a blockbuster NBA trade. Pistons GM Joe Dumars delivered on his promise for shake up the team.

Here are what experts and pundits are writing:

Bob Wojnowski, Detroit News: “I really like the trade for one major reason: He’s a superstar who hasn’t won an NBA title. If you don’t think hunger matters, you didn’t see Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce drive the Celtics to the championship last season.”

Drew Sharp, Detroit Free-Press: “Dumars promised change, and when the same team returned for the season opener last week, the reaction from the Palace crowd was like watching ‘Gone With the Wind’ for the 50th time. Sure, it’s a classic, but how many times can you watch Atlanta burn without inevitably getting bored seeing it collapse in flames? Dumars had no choice but pull the trigger on this trade.”

J.A. Adande, Los Angeles Times: “In June, Dumars said things were going to change, and now he’s made it happen. The Pistons finally have a big name, although at this point Iverson is big in name only. But at least Iverson has a big salary ($20.8 million) that can come off the team’s salary cap after the season and put the Pistons in the free-agent market for real. Here’s the problem if they’re going to go the big-name route: Who’s going to come to Detroit? It’s not a dream destination. The Pistons can’t offer up Hollywood or South Beach. If LeBron craves a bigger stage than Cleveland, he won’t find it in Detroit.”

Mark Kiszla, Denver Post: “Under the duress of player discontent and basketball budget restrictions, it is nothing short of remarkable Denver was able to trade Allen Iverson and get hometown hero Chauncey Billups in return. Love him or loathe him, A.I. had to go. Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony acknowledged Monday that his partnership with Iverson was no more successful at winning a championship than letting baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez move in with Derek Jeter at the House that Ruth Built.”

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering if we’ll ever see Drew Bennett and Dante Hall in Rams uniform again:

If Kurt Warner signs a two-year extension in Arizona, will the Gridbirds move Matt Leinart and his huge contract?

• Will Daunte Culpepper prove that actually has something left?
• Now that Brady Quinn is the No. 1 quarterback in Cleveland, would the Browns move Derek Anderson and his huge contract?
  
• If Tom Brady’s knee ever heals, will Matt Cassell exit for big dollars and the chance to start elsewhere?
• Is Rams management pondering all these questions with the Rams offense stuck in neutral?

ATTACK OF THE MASCOT

Thanks to Deadspin for bringing this video to our attention:

BACK UP THE MONEY TRUCK

Can the mid-market Brewers win the bidding war for free-agent pitcher C.C. Sabathia? Sure, as long as the club is willing to commit well over $100 million to the beefy hurler.

Not many franchises outside of greater New York and Los Angeles are willing to go there.

“He’s not going to be a guy who has 27 phone calls,” general manager Doug Melvin told MLB.com. “He’s going to get five. Right? If he’s going to demand the money that he’s going to demand, he’ll get a lot fewer phone calls than Ray Durham or some of the other [free agent] players we have. The realistic phone calls will, I think, be a very small number.”

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Norman Chad, syndicated columnist: “As some of you may recall, David Beckham washed up on our shores in 2007 amid great fanfare. He was the Next Big Thing in our culture, Benny Hill with a bicycle kick. He was going to single-handedly — make that ‘single-footedly’ (it’s a word; I looked it up in an unabridged futbol dictionary) — transform soccer into a sold-out spectacle from sea to shining sea. He was going to turn hockey moms on to soccer dads, and then these neo-soccer couples would turn into nouveau-soccer families craving nonstop soccer on TV. In reality, Beckham simply has allowed ESPN2 to maintain the 0.2 to 0.3 rating that is the hallmark of MLS.”

Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel: “Can you believe Daunte Culpepper actually came out of retirement to try out for the Lions? Isn’t that sort of like breaking back into prison?”

Dwight Perry, Seattle Times: “Ex-Colorado coach Gary Barnett labeled Lubbock as the toughest place to play in the Big 12 — and Texas Tech only confirmed it with Saturday’s 39-33 upset of top-ranked Texas. ‘Once, in practice on a Friday, we were walking in and there’s a guy with a puppet — it was a puppet of me, with a noose around its neck,’ recalled Barnett, now an FSN broadcaster. ‘And the guy was a professor at the university.’”

Chris Dufresne, Los Angeles Times: “Alabama is riding high, like Hannibal on his elephant, but here come the Alps, starting with Louisiana State this week in Baton Rouge. Get past that and Alabama still has Auburn, which has won the last six in the series, and then a possible buzz-kill matchup against Florida in the Southeastern Conference title game.”

Dan Daly, Washington Times: “Did you see Wayne Huizenga wants to sell his share of the Dolphins before Obama’s tax plan is implemented? I’m not sure how serious he is, though. Heck, last season, he was saying he wanted to sell his share of the team before Cam Cameron’s next game plan was implemented.”

MEGAPHONE

“Just tell my true fans that I love them. If they give up on me, I’ll understand. But I’ve still got to play golf. I’ve still got to earn a living. I’m not sure I’ll ever be back to where I was, but I’m going to keep trying.”

John Daly, telling his fans to hang with him after his latest alcohol-related incident.