DETROIT (FOX 2) – The winter blast rocking Metro Detroit is wreaking havoc on seniors in one apartment complex on Detroit’s east side.

Elonda Gist is one of a number of residents living with no heat at the Sheridan Apartments on Jefferson across from Belle Isle.

Big picture view:

FOX 2: “How long has it been with no heat?”

“Since Friday,” she said. “I use the oven, I turn my oven on, I had to do it this morning.”

And this morning, Elonda got out of cold bed with extra blankets, felt the cold air, and got hot water by boiling it on the stove.

Keith “Twin” Blanks is another resident who says he doesn’t have any heat either.

“I called emergency services last night and they still haven’t showed up,” said Blanks.

Blanks, who wants to be president of the complex, called maintenance again.    

FOX 2: “This is management?”

“Yeah this is a voicemail and it’s gonna play out and then go – boop,” Blanks said.

But while FOX 2 was there, a message was heard over the loudspeaker.

“We do have heat and we do have hot water thank you,” a man said overhead.

FOX 2: “Do you believe that?”

“No, come on,” Blanks said.

FOX 2: “Why do you think you made that announcement?”

“Because y’all are here,” said Blanks.

We need to get to the bottom of this. FOX 2 caught up with the maintenance supervisor.

“The heat was never off,” he said. “We have four boilers and we had three running, and we turned on the extra boiler for the colder weather.”

FOX 2: “But they said they had no heat and no hot water?”

“Absolutely not,” he said.

FOX 2: “Twin, come back. He said the heat is back on.”

“It’s not back on. It wasn’t on. He know that,” Blanks said.

“He hasn’t been here all night like you said,” Gist said.

Well, even if the heat wasn’t on – the heat should be on now – especially with the extra boiler.  
    
But not everyone was convinced.
    
“I’m freezing,” said another resident.

Throughout the first half of the 2024-2025 NBA season, the Detroit Pistons have looked much more improved. They are currently on their best run of the Cade Cunningham era.

While the Pistons are in the NBA Playoff picture, they could clearly use some upgrades to give them a better shot at cracking a position in postseason play.

In recent years, the Pistons entered the NBA trade deadline playing the role of a seller. They would be a team that’s willing to take on half-season rentals to get compensated with future picks, helping them with their rebuild.

This year, the Pistons are reportedly considering a switch with their stance.

It seems there is a real chance the Pistons have more of a buyers mindset this time around. However, a recent report suggests the Pistons aren’t believed to be in the market for a big swing.

“The Pistons are considering the concept of becoming trade deadline buyers, according to league sources. Yet these appear to be more preliminary and evaluative conversations — how any methodical and pragmatic front office would look at all the avenues that the market presents,” Jake Fischer of The Stein Line writes.

”The Pistons have also left rival teams with the impression they aren’t weighing any truly massive moves, such as a swing for New Orleans’ Brandon Ingram, who would need some of Cunningham’s touches.”

When you think of the big names of the trade market this year, Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram and Heat All-Star Jimmy Butler are the names that immediately come to mind.

Both players could end up being a rental for the remainder of the season. Acquiring them without an extension in place would be a massive gamble.

The Pistons should consider buying, but they don’t have to go for another All-Star-caliber player at this time. With Cade Cunningham improving his stance as a desirable guard to work with and plenty of cap space to spend in the future, the Pistons could make a smaller move this year and look for bigger swings in the free agency market over the summer.

Detroit and the rest of the NBA have until February 6 to figure out their trade plans before the cap goes on.

More Pistons on SI

Former NBA Champion’s Two-Word Cade Cunningham Statement

Detroit Pistons’ Ausar Thompson First to Post Statline in NBA History

Pistons Guard’s Blunt Statement on Anthony Edwards’ Career-High

Detroit Pistons Making Series of Roster Moves Before Blazers Matchup

Dear Football Gods, 

We, the people of Detroit, come before you with a simple question: 

Why us?  

What have we done? How have we angered you? What awful sin have we committed that makes you dangle a season of magnificent, gritty football promise in front of us, then yank it away like a fly on a fishing line? 

Why would you abandon our Detroit Lions so quickly — and so cruelly? What is our crime? Out of the playoffs? No more games? What are we supposed to do with all these T-shirts? 

Whatever our trespass, it must have been a whopper. Because your punishment just won’t stop. First you torture us with defeat and ineptitude, like 32 years without a playoff win, like an 0-16 season, like Matt Millen, Marty Mornhinweg, and wasted first-round draft picks such as Andre Ware and the Rogers and Rogers twins, Reggie and Charles. 

That was bad enough. But this? This may be worse. Giving us a team for the ages, then making that “age” last four quarters? One game? That’s our Super Bowl run? A single, depressing, 45-31 drubbing by the upstart Washington Commanders? 

How cruel can you get? Next you’ll be letting Ohio State play for the national championship. 

Wait a minute… 

Which Lions are these? 

Why us, Lords? Why our team? Did you see the dejected faces of the Detroit players Saturday night?  

“I’m just numb,” Alex Anzalone said. 

“(It’ll) eat me alive all offseason,” Jared Goff said. 

“It hurts,” Dan Campbell said.  

And that guy chews nails.  

Look at them, gods. They are broken, shell-shocked, wandering around as if run over by a bus on its way to D.C, wondering what happened and what to do with themselves next.  

Had the Commanders lost, they’d have been OK. They’d have congratulated themselves on a surprisingly great season, their first playoff win in many years, and the promise of their new coach and rookie quarterback. You could have made that happen.  

But no. Instead, you kiss them on the lips and throw a lightning bolt into the local guys. You make Goff, the picture of precision nearly the entire season, suddenly inaccurate, throwing two blinking interceptions at the worst of times. You make Amon-Ra St Brown fall down. You turn Jameson Williams into a quarterback, and then you make that quarterback Garo Yepremian. 

You make the Lions defense, which rose to the occasion so many times, suddenly lead-footed, incapable of tackling, sacking, or stopping fourth down conversions. 

You make the best coach the Lions have ever had somehow overlook 12 men on the field on a critical fourth down. 

“It’s my fault,” Campbell rasped about that mistake, like a man weeping over a lover he drove away. “It’s my fault…” 

Oh, the humanity. 

Also, at the risk of incurring your fury, gods, what’s with all the injuries? You take away Hutch, and Barnes and McNeil and Davis. You give us Amik Robertson’s best game in the regular-season finale, then break his arm minutes into the playoffs?  

You make David Montgomery forgo knee surgery, endure a grueling month-long rehab, just so he can come back and carry the ball seven times before going home? 

You know what? The hell with your fury. What are you going to do to us now? Take away Ben Johnson or Aaron Glenn? 

Wait a minute… 

It’s not that bad …  

Seriously, gods. In the immortal words of Ricky Ricardo, you got some ‘splaining to do. Or in the immortal words of Boy George, do you really want to hurt us?  

Because in the immortal words of Dan Skipper on Saturday night: “This sucks.”  

Fifteen wins, only two losses, the No. 1 seed, the best scoring offense in football — and we’re out? No more football? This is like that episode of “The Honeymooners,” when Ralph Kramden memorizes every obscure song for weeks, then goes on a game show and can’t remember “Suwannee River.” 

One game? A two-touchdown loss? The biggest margin of defeat all year? That’s our playoffs? Do you know how stupid we feel? We canceled vacations for the month of January. We booked trips to New Orleans. Our parking lots tried charging $1,000 per spot! Jeff Daniels recorded an entire song “Say Goodbye to the Curse of Bobby Layne” — and now he’ll have to change the lyrics to “Say Hello.” 

All that for a team that gets bounced in their first game? 

It’s not fair. The whole country was behind us. We were, for once, America’s team, not America’s armpit. Now the nation is shaking its head, and likely believing that we are indeed cursed, fated like the Silver (and Blue) Surfer to ride his board around the universe, but never descend and say, “I’m going to Disneyland!” 

Enough. We’ve had enough. We’ll walk away. We can do it, you know. 

There’s always hockey. Although our team is rebuilding … 

Or basketball. Although our team is rebuilding …  

Or baseball. Although the season is months away … 

OK. You win, gods. Just tell us what we need to do. A sacrifice? A pilgrimage? Do we make the guy at Ford Field sing a different song when the Lions score? Is that what you’re trying to tell us? 

Whatever it is, please, stop this torture. Sports Illustrated picks Detroit to win the Super Bowl. ESPN picks Detroit to win the Super Bowl. Everybody in the state is finishing their sentences with “Go Lions!” — and just like that, it’s Monday morning, it’s freezing cold, football is over and everyone here feels like crying. The gods must be crazy.

Or we are.  

Wait a minute …

More: Mitch Albom: Detroit Lions’ dream ends with an improbable defeat in playoffs

Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchalbom.