""Welcome back, my dude," Charlie Villanueva said as he playfully punched Walker Russell Jr. in the shoulder Friday night in the Pistons' locker room.

Russell Jr. might have been in the mood to punch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

Just 24 hours earlier he was in Sioux Falls, S.D., with the Ft. Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Developmental League when he got a call from the team general manager that the Pistons needed him in Detroit the next night for the game against the Grizzlies.

So after playing in foreign countries and bumping around the D-League, Walker finally realized his NBA dream at age 29.

Making the night even more exciting was he was playing for the Pistons, a team he watched growing up in nearby Rochester, where he starred in high school. And it didn't matter that his opportunity came because of injuries to point guards Rodney Stuckey (groin) and Will Bynum (ankle) and he could be released any day. (Villanueva also missed Friday's game with an ankle injury.)

"It's a blessing," Russell Jr. said. "I grew up a Pistons fan. That's all I really know was Bad Boys.

"For me, it's a great opportunity for me to show a guy from the city that can represent the Pistons.""