Motown is not going back to Detroit but the Pistons are. This recent news, capping a standup year of N.B.A. social activism and outspokenness, was soul-cleansing music to Dave Bing’s ears.
“The return of the franchise with the moniker of Detroit that wasn’t in Detroit,” said Bing, who spent nine years of his 12-season, Hall of Fame career with the Pistons — when they were part of the city — before becoming a business leader there and eventually the mayor.
When Bing, a 6-foot-3 guard, was launching feathery jumpers for the Pistons in the old Cobo Arena on Washington and Jefferson Avenues, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, Detroit was as much a celebrity magnet as more renowned league sites in Los Angeles and New York.