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The good guys finally are wearing black.

The Bulls Thursday with Game 3 of the first round playoff series are going back to all the players honoring team tradition and wearing black sneakers after they couldn’t get everyone on board in Cleveland.

The reason for the 0-2 start? We’ll see.

As Bulls fans know, wearing black sneakers became a team playoff tradition in the first round of the playoffs in 1989 when the Bulls were big underdogs to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Bulls had finished the season 10 games behind the 57-win Cavs and were swept 6-0 by the Cavs that season. Reserve Brad Sellers came up with the unity idea of wearing black sneakers, which were hi-tops in that era.

No wonder there were so many fewer sprained ankles, but I digress.

Everyone went along and the Bulls prevailed in a classic five-game series with Michael Jordan’s game winning shot to win Game 5 and the series in Cleveland.

Through the six championship seasons and in every playoff series since the Bulls players wore black sneakers.

Last season after a one-year playoff hiatus, the Bulls didn’t have the black sneaker unity for Game 1 in Boston. The Bulls did win in overtime. Kirk Hinrich gathered the team and pushed for the return to black sneakers, and the Bulls went on to lose in Game 7 in what’s been considered one of the great playoff series in league history because of the overtimes.

But this season in the first two games in Cleveland, several players wore white sneakers.

Equipment manager John Ligmanowski said he provided black sneakers for all the players, but some demurred.

Flip Murray has difficulty with some of the sneakers he gets from Nike, so he’ll often buy different pairs at the Nike store on Michigan Avenue. Murray wore white in Cleveland, but said before the game he’d wear black at home.

“They were on me all day,” admitted James Johnson, about teammates joking with his and urging him to wear black sneakers for Game 3. Johnson also wore white sneakers in Cleveland.

Johnson said he was wearing his white sneakers because of his issues with plantar fasciitis and the importance of wearing the correct shoes.

Though there are many theories about the causes of plantar fasciitis, there’s considerable consensus that the biggest issue may be the soft shoes so many of the players tend to wear in this era.

The team has been pushing the players into stiffer shoes, though it’s a sensitive issue because players have shoe contracts and some companies don’t make sneakers firm enough.

Johnson borrowed a pair of black sneakers from Rob Kurz, who was to be on the inactive list, to wear for Game 3.

“You gotta go with tradition,” said Johnson.