It’s the sort of nostalgia that any avid sports fan - like me - needs.

Detroit Pistons president Joe Dumars announced Monday that the burgundy and teal uniforms the Pistons have sported for the last five seasons will be replaced with the comforting red, white and blue of Piston championships past.

The Pistons’ new uniforms are reminiscent of those worn by the back-to-back NBA Championship teams in 1989 and 1990. The new threads have only two differences and only one of them is distinct - the horse and basketball logo, born in the mid-1990s, will be tweaked and appear on the bottom left leg of the shorts.

Also, the semi-futuristic lettering across the front - which will say “Pistons” on home jerseys and “Detroit” on road uniforms - are more acceptable by modern standards than the 1980s Pistons garb.

In an era of outrageous colors and cartoon logos, I’ve seen the NBA turn into a circus that’s only concerned with shoe contracts, money (we all know you only need $1 million if you invest properly), scoring points and extravagant dunks.

I remember a better time, back when basketball was played with the will to win foremost in mind, and the Pistons of old were the league’s best ambassadors of this theory on a nightly basis.

Although we have yet to see the Pistons tip off the 2001-02 season at The Palace of Auburn Hills, it’s my hope that the change in dress will bring something back to Detroit.

Granted, we won’t see Isiah Thomas running around in his Daisy Duke-cut shorts, displaying another gutsy performance. Or Dumars launching up another rainbow three-pointer followed by the famous announcement of “Joe Duuuuuu-mars ... for three!” And I’m sure Bill Laimbeer won’t lace ’em up again to play another game of hard-nosed basketball, followed by an on-court brawl. But these are all fun memories, and I hope the Pistons’ new look will, in some way, bring back a piece of their history.

At Monday’s press conference, Dumars restored the hope in my heart when he said the colors red and blue were synonymous with the greatness of the Pistons organization and the great teams of the past.

But does that mean great basketball will return to a city that has suffered through a 10-year drought?

It’s obvious that restoring the old colors alone will not recapture Piston glory. It’ll take intelligent front-office moves as well as a good unit of players who are willing to sacrifice SportsCenter air-time for wins.

NBA teams almost always need two offensive-minded stars, which the Pistons don’t have right now.

Take, for example, the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, the Los Angeles Lakers with ex-Spartan Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or even James Worthy and, of course, the Pistons with Thomas and Dumars. With a similar combination, plus a solid group of role players like Dennis Rodman and Laimbeer, they could pave a route down the championship trail.

If you’re a part of the NBA, you certainly understand what it meant to be a “Bad Boy” in the 1980s. If the Pistons’ new uniforms have anything to do with recapturing the essence of the championship years, there’s an exciting future in Detroit.

Players in the league who are familiar with the Bad Boy tradition might want to rekindle that winning flame in Detroit. I hope for all of these things, and I see Dumars sharing this vision.

I won’t try to predict the future, but what Dumars is doing, slowly but surely, could fill The Palace once again with those searching for a piece of the good ol’ days.

But I have to tell you, once I caught word of the news that the Pistons were going to look like the Pistons again - the Pistons I fell in love with - I again became an avid fan of a team I haven’t seen play on a regular basis in about seven years, and a team that has yet to play a game in its new uniforms.

Monday’s news restored something missing in my mind - a time when it was good to be a Bad Boy.

Paul Day, State News sports general assignment reporter, thinks he’s the baddest of them all. Tell him how soft he is at daypaul@msu.edu.