Ben Wallace

Ben Wallace

Ben Wallace in a 2009 game vs the Washington Wizards
No. 6    Detroit Pistons
Center
Personal information
Date of birth	September 10, 1974 (1974-09-10) (age 36)
Place of birth
Nationality	United States
Listed height	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Listed weight	240 lb (109 kg)
Career information
College	Virginia Union
Pro career	1996–present
Career history
Washington Bullets/Wizards (1996–1999) Orlando Magic (1999–2000) Detroit Pistons (2000–2006) Chicago Bulls (2006–2008) Cleveland Cavaliers (2008–2009) Detroit Pistons (2009–present)
Career highlights and awards
NBA Champion (2004) 4× NBA Defensive Player of the Year (2002–2003, 2005–2006) 4× NBA All-Star (2003–2006) 3× All-NBA Second Team (2003–2004, 2006) 2× All-NBA Third Team (2002, 2005) 5× All-Defensive First Team (2002–2006) All-Defensive Second Team (2007)
Ben Wallace at NBA.com

Ben Camey Wallace (born September 10, 1974) is an American basketball player for the Detroit Pistons. Nicknamed "Big Ben",^[1] he plays the center and power forward positions, and is listed at 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) and 240 lb (110 kg). He has won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award four times, a record he shares with Dikembe Mutombo. Wallace was a member of the Detroit Pistons team that won the NBA championship in 2004.

Early life

Ben Wallace was born in , a small town in Lowndes County, and is the tenth of eleven children. He later attended Central High School in Hayneville where he received all-state honors in basketball, baseball, and American football (as a linebacker). Former basketball player Charles Oakley is Wallace's mentor, having discovered Wallace at a 1991 basketball camp, and later recommended Wallace to his previous college, Virginia Union.

College career

Wallace first played college basketball on the junior college level at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland for two years. There, staples of Wallace's defensive prowess were shown as he averaged 17.0 rebounds and 6.9 blocks per game. He then transferred to Virginia Union, a Division II school, where he studied criminal justice. Wallace averaged 13.4 points per game and 10.0 rebounds per game as a member of the Virginia Union Panthers, whom he led to the Division II Final Four and a 28–3 record.^[2] As a senior, Wallace was named to the First-Team All CIAA and was selected as a First Team All-American (Div. II) by the NABC. Wallace was a letterman in football, baseball, basketball and track. He won All-State honors in all but track.

NBA career

Early career

As an undrafted player, he was signed as a rookie free agent by the Washington Bullets on October 2, 1996 after playing in Italy. In 1999, Wallace was traded to the Orlando Magic along with Tim Legler, Terry Davis, and Jeff McInnis for Ike Austin.

Detroit Pistons

On August 3, 2000, he was traded along with Chucky Atkins to the Detroit Pistons for Grant Hill, in what was at the time considered a one-sided trade; Hill had planned to sign with Orlando as an unrestricted free agent, but the sign and trade deal allowed Hill to receive a slightly more lucrative contract while Detroit received at least some compensation for losing its marquee player. Since the trade, he has won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05, and 2005–06 seasons, and was selected to six All-Defensive teams. In the 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons, he led the league in both rebounds and blocked shots, the first to do so since Hakeem Olajuwon. In 2003, he was voted by fans to the first of his four NBA All-Star Game appearances as a center for the Eastern Conference.

Near the end of a November 2004 game against the Indiana Pacers, Wallace responded to a foul by Indiana's Ron Artest by shoving Artest, which eventually led to the Pacers–Pistons brawl, involving both players and spectators. Wallace was suspended for six games, and his brother David Wallace, received a year of probation and community service for punching Indiana players in the stands.^[3]

Wallace during his tenure with the Bulls

The Pistons began a tradition of sounding a deep chime whenever "Big Ben" scored or recorded a block on Detroit's home court, the Palace of Auburn Hills – an allusion to the original Big Ben in London. (The Bulls and Cavaliers continued the gimmick during his respective tenures with Chicago and Cleveland).

Chicago Bulls

On July 3, 2006, Wallace agreed to a four-year, $60 million deal with the Chicago Bulls. During his two-year run in Chicago, Wallace battled with various knee injuries and averaged 5.7 points, 9.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 2.0 blocks per game.

Cleveland Cavaliers

On February 21, 2008, he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers as part of a three-team deal that included the Seattle SuperSonics and the Chicago Bulls.^[4] The deal moved Wallace to the power forward position with Zydrunas Ilgauskas as the starting center. Following the trade, Wallace played in 22 regular season games (all starts). In 26.3 minutes, he averaged 4.2 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game. In 72 total regular season games Wallace averaged 4.8 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game.^[5] Wallace had a Cavalier regular season high of 12 points on February 24, 2008 against the Memphis Grizzlies, and had regular season Cavalier highs of 15 rebounds against the Charlotte Bobcats and four blocks against the Orlando Magic.^[6] In the 2008 playoffs, Wallace played in 13 games (all starts) and averaged 3.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game.^[5] He had his playoff high of 12 rebounds in Game 4 win against the Washington Wizards in the first round of the NBA playoffs.^[6] On November 25, 2008, Wallace grabbed his 9,000th career rebound and blocked his 1,900th career shot.

Phoenix Suns

On June 25, 2009, Wallace was traded to the Phoenix Suns with Sasha Pavlović, a second round draft pick and $500k for Shaquille O'Neal.^[7]

On July 13, 2009, the Suns bought out Wallace's $14 million contract, saving $8 million in the process. Wallace actually received $10 million but Phoenix was in luxury tax so the savings were effectively doubled.

Return to Pistons

On August 7, 2009, Wallace agreed to re-sign with the Pistons as a free agent to a one year deal. He formerly wore #3 with the Pistons, but changed his jersey to #6 upon his return, allowing Rodney Stuckey to keep that number. On July 11, 2010, Wallace agreed to a two year deal with the Pistons.

Player profile

Ben Wallace plays the center position and has been lauded as a prime defensive presence in his career.^[8] He has been voted as the NBA Defensive Player of the Year four times. He is somewhat undersized for a center, being listed at 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m), 240 lb., a frame statistically resembling more of a forward; he himself admits his actual height is 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m).^[8] His scoring is typically well below average for an NBA starter. Perhaps most problematic area is his free throw shooting. Much like fellow center Shaquille O'Neal his free throw shooting is typically in the low to mid 40% range. This has often led teams to foul him much like the Hack-A-Shaq defense.^[9] His career free throw percentage is just 41.8% and has never had a season with more than 49% made.^[10] Wallace has, at times had good offensive games with points in the 20s although this has been rare. He has also on 5 separate occasions hit a 3 point shot, though these are usually desperation attempts before the clock expires. His 3pt percentage is just 5/43 for 11.6%. For his career Wallace has averaged 6.2 points per game, with some seasons being in the high 9's.

Personal life

Wallace is married to Chanda and is the father of two sons, Ben Jr. and Bryce, and one daughter, Baile, and currently lives in Moreland Hills, Ohio.^[11] Wallace appeared on the cover of ESPN NBA 2K5. An inflatable basketball training aid of Wallace's likeness, called the Inflatable Defender, is manufactured by PlayAir Systems. His sneaker, the Big Ben was released November 5, 2007 under Stephon Marbury's Starbury label and sold for $14.98 at Steve & Barry's stores.^[12] Wallace gained great notoriety in the Detroit area and nationwide as fans often arrived at his games sporting wigs in honor of his trademark afro hairstyle. However, he usually only had the afro for home games; for away games, he had his hair styled into cornrows. He said he was heckled at away games for his hairstyles.

Accolades

Wallace is honored with the Pistons at the White House for the team's victory in the 2004 NBA Finals.

• NBA Champion: 2004
• 4× NBA All-Star: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006
• 4× NBA Defensive Player of the Year: 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006
• 6× All-NBA Defensive Team:

• First Team: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006
• Second Team: 2007

• 5× All-NBA:

• Second Team: 2003, 2004, 2006
• Third Team: 2002, 2005

• 2× NBA regular-season leader, rebounds per game: 2002 (13.0), 2003 (15.4)
• NBA regular-season leader, blocks per game: 2002 (3.5)
• 2× NBA regular-season leader, total rebounds: 2001 (1052), 2003 (1026)
• NBA regular-season leader, total defensive rebounds: 2001 (749)
• 2× NBA regular-season leader, total offensive rebounds: 2003 (293), 2006 (301)
• NBA regular-season leader, total blocks: 2002 (278)

NBA career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

See also

• List of National Basketball Association players with 10 or more blocks in a game

References

External links

• Ben Wallace Info Page at NBA.com
• Ben Wallace NBA & ABA Statistics at Basketball-Reference.com