In Mr. D’s Footsteps

“I’d like another ring on my own,” she said. “That would be great. You guys know women. Don’t they always want another ring?”

She has a little greater control over matching Mr. D’s track record in another area: stepping up to fund charitable causes, particularly in education.

So there she was Wednesday afternoon at the Auburn Hills Costco store, alongside returned Pistons star Ben Wallace, team mascot Hooper and members of Automotion, loading merchandise onto flatbed carts in a frenzy along aisles 102 and 103 that will flood area schools in need with $16,000 in classroom supplies ranging from pens and paper to hand sanitizer and shredders.

The money was raised during a “Two-Day Ticket Blitz” the Pistons and Palace staged that donated $1 of every ticket sold to a majority of their summer events and concert schedules, augmented by support from Coke. Costco pitched in, too, by donating a large quantity of backpacks to the cause.

“A lot of teachers pay out of their own pockets for their classrooms and a lot of them are now single earners in the household,” Davidson said. “It’s really tough. Coca-Cola stepped up and added to the pool. We all have a big debt to teachers, or some teacher in our life, and the teachers all need something. This was a way to help them.”

Wallace, continuing his record of community outreach established during his first go-around with the Pistons from 2000-06, said it was good to be back in Detroit and good to be able to help out in the area’s time of critical need.

“Just having the opportunity to come out here and do something positive for the community, you can never do enough of that,” he said. “I’m back in Detroit – this is my first opportunity to give back to this community, so I want to make the most of it.

“They definitely need it. I did something like this in Virginia and Alabama and it went well. Hopefully, we can do the same thing here. The kids need it. Some of the teachers need it. This is an opportunity to help out.”