Quote:Rodney Stuckey gets to keep his No. 3. John Kuester figures to be a coach that players find easy to approach. And Ben Gordon shares more than a first name with Ben Wallace.

If the Pistons aren’t getting back the same player, they’re getting back the same no-nonsense Big Ben.

The second Ben to sign with the Pistons as a free agent this summer was much more comfortable talking about things unrelated to his decision to leave the Pistons three years ago for Chicago and his state of mind in the interim as he met the media upon officially re-upping on Wednesday with the franchise that propelled him to NBA success and reaped the rewards of his boundless competitiveness.

If the numerous reports of Wallace feeling adrift and unfulfilled in his time with Chicago and Cleveland since leaving the Pistons as a free agent in July 2006 for the Bulls’ four-year, $60 million offer are credible, you’d never have guessed by what he said on Wednesday.

While acknowledging how much he loved Detroit the first time around, he wouldn’t come close to expressing regret for leaving. “Not at all. These last couple of years were a great experience for me. I had an opportunity to play with some different guys, some different systems. (I) got to learn my way around a couple of different cities. It was a great experience.”

But Ben Wallace was always defined by actions, not words, and leaving $4 million on the table to be free of Phoenix – viewed as one of the league’s most desirable destinations among NBA players – for the chance to return to Detroit speaks loudly.

“This is the best fit for a 35-year-old Ben Wallace,” he said. “I had it great here, let’s not kid ourselves. It was a great place for me. The fans were great, the organization was great, teammates were great. It was just one of those things – I felt like it was time for change. And coming back here – looking at the league, looking at different rosters – it just seemed like the best place for me, the best opportunity for me.”

He cracked the door with the “I had it great here” line, so somebody pushed it open a little further, asking if he perhaps learned just how good he had it by being elsewhere these past three seasons. Still no biting.

“I always appreciated (the Pistons),” he said. “I had it good other places. But I always appreciated what the organization and what the fans did for me.”

Ben Wallace hasn’t ever been terribly comfortable talking about himself, which fits with his Southern rural roots and the image he came to symbolize of a franchise that was rooted in blue-collar work ethic. What he seemed to warm to in the media give and take was the idea of getting back to work and helping the Pistons resume their station among the NBA elite that Wallace and his sidekicks, Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton representing the holdovers, established.

“I’m excited to have this opportunity to come back here,” he said. “My career really took a turn for the best when I came here and now, to have an opportunity to come back here, is an exciting feeling.”

Wallace deflected suggestions he was coming back to a different role than the one filled over six years that included four Defensive Player of the Year awards by, in effect, saying the only role he’s ever filled is someone who gives whatever he has for however long he’s out there.

Ben Wallace is returning to the Pistons after three years away.
Jeff Reinking (NBAE/Getty)
“My role is never going to change – I’m always going to go out and do what I can do to help this team. Any way I can help this team, I’m willing to do that. That was my approach to the game when I first came here. Whatever I can do to help this team win, I was willing to do it. Same thing now. My hair may not be as long” – indeed, there is no ’fro to fear any longer, Wallace’s hair cropped within a quarter-inch of his scalp – “or as dark as it was when I first got here, but still the same role.”

Wallace is returning to a team that could be at a stage of development like the one the Pistons found themselves in his third season of the first go-around, the 2002-03 Pistons that experienced a similar roster overhaul. That was the summer Joe Dumars signed Chauncey Billups as a free agent, traded for Rip Hamilton and drafted Tayshaun Prince. Of one thing Wallace is certain: There is no parallel to this Pistons team and the one he joined in 2000-01.

“This team now and where it was … I think it’s night and day. I definitely think this is still a playoff team. … But it really doesn’t add up until you get out there and play the games. We can talk about where we’re at and where we were, none of that matters until you get out on the court and show what type of team you’re going to be when you step out there on the floor.”

He wondered, as last season ended after enduring a broken leg and back pain, if he had the same desire to keep stepping out there. He came “very close” to retiring he said, but while he was examining the issue from all sides, he continued to get in his work in the gym so that the decision wouldn’t be made for him. When Wallace took the buyout from Phoenix, Prince beat Hamilton to the punch as both made their recruiting pitches for him to bring his career full circle.

He’ll acknowledge, grudgingly, that he isn’t likely to have the same consistently dynamic impact on games these days, but neither is he concerned that Pistons fans who recall only that player will be disappointed by what they’re getting this time around.

“The respect I had when I was here was great. The cheers I had when I was here was great. The boos I had when I wasn’t here, it still was great – it lets you know that people do miss you. Whether people want me to come out and be the type of player I was when I left, that’s not going to change. For every minute I’m on the floor, I’m still going to give everything I’ve got. People’s perceptions, that really doesn’t bother me at all.”

As for Wallace’s perceptions, here’s a few:

- On what number he’ll wear: “I might just add up the front and the back and take whatever is left.” Not sure what that means. No. 6, perhaps – three plus three? Flip Murray was the last Pistons player to wear No. 6. Terry Mills was the most accomplished to wear it to date. Asked if he was going to pester Rodney Stuckey to give up No. 3 – it’s not clear if the league would allow him to switch numbers this late in the summer – Wallace grinned and said, “Nah.”

- On John Kuester, who was an assistant with the Pistons in the 2003-04 championship season and who was on Cleveland’s staff during Wallace’s recent run with the Cavs: “John Kuester is one of those guys who is not a big screamer, not going to yell and get in guys’ faces, but is going to talk to players and talk his way through whatever situation presents itself. He’s very consistent at what he does … a guy you can always go out and talk to, whether you’re having a problem with him or whatever. He makes it easy for a player to approach him and that’s good, especially in this league.”

- On Ben Gordon, his teammate for 1½ seasons with the Bulls: “Ben Gordon works on his game 24/7. He’s one of those guys where you leave and go home and come back and you have to pry him out of the gym. The work he puts in on his game is unbelievable. When I had the opportunity to see that, even as a young player, you really don’t see that a lot in this league. He’s one of those guys that will go at it all day, every day, if you let him.”