Bulls honor former wing Luol Deng during Wednesday’s game with Detroit

It wasn’t a short stroll down memory lane for Luol Deng on Wednesday.

Fifteen years seldom is.

But the former Bulls forward seemed to be at complete peace with all of them. Yeah, he admittedly still felt empty with what could have been in both the 2011 and 2012 playoff runs, but he also understood that it was a heck of a journey.

Deng, who came back and retired a Bull last month, was honored throughout the game with the Pistons with not only a video tribute, but a handful of former players in attendance to pay their respect to the two-time All-Star.

Aaron Gray, John Lucas III, Nazr Mohammed, Ben Gordon and Joakim Noah headlined the list, and because Detroit was in town that also meant Derrick Rose was also able to play spectator.

A night that meant a lot for the former first-round pick out of Duke.

“It’s what makes sense,’’ Deng said of the decision to sign a one-day contract and retire a Bull. “Chicago means a lot to me. When you look back, just my career as a basketball player, coming here as a young kid, a young man I should say, 19, it’s a lot of history here and I wanted it to end the right way and the best way to do it is with familiar faces and with people who know me very well.’’

Deng went through many of them, but did say his fondest memory was making his first All-Star game, and thanked the person he felt was the most responsible for that in former coach Tom Thibodeau.

“For me it was making first year All-Star,’’ Deng said. “You know for a lot of players making that All Star is something that at the time –it’s crazy because when it happened for me it was like, ‘OK, I’m an All Star, I’m going to the All-Star.’ I felt great about it, I loved it – but you look back and you’re like, just that time with of your career, you were nominated to be an All Star. It means a lot when you look back.

“I think with all the, with people saying Thibs playing guys a lot of minutes, for me, I think when Thibs came to Chicago it changed my career. As well as I’ve done in the past, I think it gave me almost like a label where people started believing in how hard I played. And because we were winning everything I was doing was highlighted a lot more than it would be when we were losing.

“So I appreciated that, and those teams under Thibs, when I go back, all those minutes that I played I’m so thankful for. Because not only did I play better and perform well under it, but it also, for the city, people appreciate night in and night out how hard I was playing with all those minutes.’’

Otto repair

The Bulls announced Wednesday afternoon that a second MRI on the left foot of Otto Porter showed bone bruising that didn’t appear in the original MRI, which now clears up a cloudy timetable. Sort of.

Porter will continue his current treatment, and then the organization will reassess where he’s at with the injury in two weeks. That doesn’t mean a return is imminent anytime soon.

Porter last played on Nov. 6, and was averaging 11.2 points per game for the Bulls. Second-year forward Chandler Hutchison had been starting in his place, but was hampered by shin soreness, so also missed the game against Detroit.

That meant Shaquille Harrison got the start.