One of the greatest defensive players the NBA has ever seen, yet one who isn’t talked about nearly as much as he should be. Ben Wallace took an unlikely route to the NBA through junior college and division II Virgina Union University, and wouldn’t have done that without the help of his mentor and New York Knicks great, Charles Oakley. Wallace went undrafted and worked his way into a spot with the Washington Bullets and Wizards during their Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Rod Strickland era. Once Webber was gone, Wallace got a bigger role and showed glimpses of the impact he could have on games. He got his first real chance with the Orlando Magic under Doc Rivers after the trade of Penny Hardaway. A year in Orlando saw him traded to the Detroit Pistons as part of a package for Grant Hill and the next 6 years would be nothing short of dominant. During his time with the Detroit Pistons featuring Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace, Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince; Ben Wallace was routinely the league’s top defensive force, always at the top of the rebounding, block and steal leaderboards and during his time in Detroit he would win 4 Defensive Player of the Year awards, which is still tied with Dikembe Mutombo for the most all time. Wallace was the defensive anchor that helped Detroit win the 2004 NBA championship, but clashes with a new coach in Flip Saunders would lead to him leaving for the Chicago Bulls, unfortunately, he was never the same player after this as he would spend time with the Bulls, then the LeBron James led Cavs and then back to Detroit to end his career. But throughout his 16 years, Wallace defied the odds as an undersized center who could do everything on the defensive end while outworking everyone on the offensive glass to get his points. It’s not so much that Big Ben is forgotten, as he is just very underappreciated. He got his long overdue call to the NBA Hall of Fame in 2021, but was surprisingly left off of the NBA’s top 75 list. But, that doesn’t take away from just how dominant Ben Wallace was in throughout the majority of the 2000s.
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3 ноя 2023
