Hours before a pregame ceremony in their honor last Tuesday, 10 members of the Pistons All-Time Team boarded buses and went to Oakman Elementary/Orthopedic School in Detroit.

Hall of Famers Dave Bing and Bob Lanier, Bad Boys James Edwards and John Salley and old-school stars Gene Shue and Bailey Howell made the trip, as did ’70s and ‘80s standouts Chris Ford, John Long, Kelly Tripucka and Terry Tyler.

All-Time Team member Ray Scott came to represent the club that he both played and coached for, along with brothers Ray and Gary Orgill, who were there on behalf of late friend and business partner George Yardley, the first great Detroit Piston.

These living legends - who span the team’s 50-year history in Detroit - were the ideal guests to open the Pistons’ 19th Reading & Learning Center. After all, this center bridged the team’s history of renovating school libraries with its newest initiative, the Pistons Cares Telethon Benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan.

And it all came together for Bruce Tribble.

Bruce is one of 60 “Wish kids” who had his wish granted by the Pistons Cares Telethon. The 10-year-old did not attend the Mar. 14 fundraiser at The Palace because he was recovering from surgery. He wished for a bicycle that would make the therapy, which will help him walk without a walker, a little more fun. He beamed Tuesday when talking about his new bike, which has streamers on the handlebars and baskets in the front and the back.

Happy ending, right? Not yet. Then the Pistons announced Bruce’s school, which serves grades K-5 in addition to physically and health impaired students from Northwest Detroit, would be the site of their next “Read to Achieve” renovation project. The party was just getting started.

On Tuesday, 300 Oakman students, staff, parents, Pistons greats and Read to Achieve sponsors filed into the school’s auditorium for the opening ceremonies, which included a “Who’s That Legend?” game show - hosted by the legends themselves. They used the forum to have fun with the students and each other, like when Gene Shue teased trivia answer Dave Bing.

“This player scored a franchise-record 54 points,” said Shue, who looked directly at Bing and added, “That’s a lot of shots.” Both men broke into laughter, and it quickly spread throughout the room.

“I was having a lot of fun. I really enjoy doing things like that,” said the 76-year-old Shue, who is now a scout with the Philadelphia 76ers. “If you can have an influence on a young person’s life, you should always do it. The Detroit Pistons, they do such an incredible job with their community relations. I’ve been very impressed.”

Trying to be difference makers

The day’s events were unique even for Lanier, who spearheaded the NBA’s “Stay in School” program in the early 1990s and continues to be one of league’s greatest ambassadors for reading and computer literacy initiatives. He has participated in many assemblies similar to Tuesday’s - but not one exactly like it.

“The really good thing that I really enjoyed is to see players both current and legend players together emphasizing those points,” he said. “The Pistons historically have done a really good job of going back into the community, even in the days before me. It’s a rich, rich history of trying to be difference makers.”

That history was front and center in Oakman’s new reading and learning center, the first of the Pistons’ league-leading 19 centers to be decorated in a “legends” theme. The room had window shades of both current and past Pistons and a 50th season timeline stretched across one wall, which caught Lanier’s eye. “That was pretty phenomenal because it showed not only the documentation of the history but chronicled the players that were involved in it. I hope they give us one of those because I’d like to hang one in my office,” he said. “It’s beautiful.”

The center was stocked with 1,000 donated books and had wireless Internet for 11 laptop computers, which also have access to Accelerated Reader books and quizzes. Oakman principal Cheryl Price said it’s the most profound change she’s seen in her 18 years at the school.

“[The excitement] has already started, as they were working on it, the students were coming past and saying ‘Oh, I want to get into the library. When can we get into the library?’” she said. “We know it’s going to be an inspiring and motivating event. It should kick off our effort to get more books into children’s hands to do more reading.”

After the ribbon-cutting festivities, Bruce rolled his wheelchair up to one of the new red tables. “The coolest part of this is these laptops,” he said quietly, moving his finger across the touchpad. He says when he can spend more time in the center, “I’m looking up things about fossils and dinosaurs.”

Bruce had surgery to alleviate complications of cerebral palsy. He also faces challenges from hydrocephalus, once known as “water on the brain.” Bruce’s medical issues have shuffled him between school, home and the hospital. Principal Price said Bruce is beloved by his peers, who cheered wildly when Team Tribble won the “Who’s that Legend?” contest. She sounds hopeful that the new media center can give students a fresh start, especially her Wish kid.

“We’re proud, we’re real proud,” Price said. “I think Bruce is an example of one of the students who can do well when he has the help and support. This Pistons project has really helped to jump a lot of kids into, ‘I’m going to read.’”

Now that’s a happy … beginning.