NEW YORK — Already staggered by the deaths this year of Larry Miller, Red Kerr and Norm Van Lier, as well as the life-threatening illness of ex-Pistons maestro Chuck Daly, the NBA took another giant hit Friday when Pistons owner Bill Davidson died at 86; enshrined into the Hall of Fame last September, he had been ailing for well over a year.

Winner of three league championships, Davidson was the hands-on Godfather of the two-time-winning Bad Boys . . . as tough in the trenches as Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer, Mark Aguirre, Dennis Rodman, Vinnie Johnson, Ricky Mahorn, John Salley and James Edwards.

Davidson also was lavishly loyal (a legendary philanthropist) and excessively compassionate . . . as long as you didn't cross him; a double-cross got you deleted from the franchise and cut out of his will.