Former Detroit Pistons defensive anchor Ben Wallace was not a man who people could trifle with. Undersized for his spot, he was grit and grind before it was cool. Just ask Los Angeles Lakers legends Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal.
When NBA fans think of the most overlooked players of all time, many immediately go to the stars who were drafted in the late rounds. Manu Ginobili is a popular pick. Draymond Green as well. Isaiah Thomas has the heartwarming story of being the last pick and the shortest player of the draft, and still finding success. Nikola Jokic is still building his case for the top spot.
All fun, neat and endearing stories. They, however, pale in comparison to a different talent who went completely undrafted, then went on to being one of the best defenders of his era who ended the Kobe-Shaq dynasty.
The one guy who might take the cake when it comes to being overlooked (he’s even occasionally passed up in some of these polls!) is Ben Wallace. The burly center went undrafted in 1996, which usually means a future working at an office or blue collar job, and at absolute best, an insanely short professional career. But Wallace worked his tail off and will go down in the history books as an NBA champion, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, and one of the best rebounders of all time.
Here’s the story of how a dude who admittedly stood 6-foot-7 in socks became a shot blocking, board grabbing, and overall dominant center.
Let’s start from the beginning. Ben Wallace was born on September 10th, 1974, in Whitehall, Alabama. By the time he came in to this world, he already had nine siblings, and eight of them were boys.
For those of you that have older brothers out there, you already know what it’s like to try to play sports with them. And most of you probably have one or two, maybe three. Imagine having eight.
Wallace used to claim that he’d have to hustle and dive for every ball if he even wanted a touch on the playground growing up. Being older brothers, the elder Wallace boys would never pass to young Ben. So he was transformed into a scrapper, and that mentality never changed.
Essentially, we can thank the Wallace clan for being volume-shooting ball hogs for Ben developing the style of play that made him famous, rich, and gave him a cool story.
Ben Wallace wasn’t just a scrapper on the court. He knew to achieve his dream of reaching the NBA, he would have to do whatever jobs he could to make enough money to attend camps and train. One time, he actually ended up briefly being a barber in order to pay a 50-dollar camp fee.
Yeah. This guy right here:
Wallace would end up at the, cough, cough, famed Cuyahoga Community College after high school. There, it became obvious he was too good for community college ball, averaging 24 points, 17 rebounds, and 7 blocks.
That’s right, SEVEN BLEEPING BLOCKS PER GAME. I don’t care if that was at a community college. Heck, I wouldn’t care if that came against my boss’ four-year-old niece, seven blocks a game is a lot.
Big Ben moved on to Virginia Union, a Division II school. Aside for being a D2 First Team All American, Wallace got little attention from scouts.
When the draft came around, Wallace was not on any teams’ draft boards. They were concerned with his size at the center position (listed at 6’9), as behemoth 7-footers dominated the league.
Remember, this was well before the small ball era in the NBA, as teams would go out of their way to purposely draft bad basketball prospects simply because they were tall…added points if their resting face was set to brooding. Oh, hey Darko!
Ben Wallace was forced to take a free agent deal with the Washington Wizards, and began to grow his name. After coming dangerously close to being cut in training camp, he squeaked out a roster spot.
Soon, Wizards fans began to appreciate this underdog with a mean streak in him. Wallace might have been short for his position, but he never played like it.
And yet, the legend of Wallace didn’t yet grow into a meaningful thing. He had a journey still needing traveling.
After one more stop in Orlando, Wallace was traded to the Detroit Pistons, where he would blossom into the player we know today.
In his first two years in the Motor City, Wallace really began to turn heads. Between 2000-2002, he averaged 13.1 rebounds and just under 3 blocks. With little to no offensive output (7.2 points a game) Wallace became a key contributor on a playoff contender.
But even though he won his first DPOY in 2002, the Pistons had failed to make much noise in the playoffs, failing to traverse past the conference semifinals.
In 2002-03, both Wallace and the team took a step forward. Ben led the league in rebounding with 15.4 a game and won his second consecutive DPOY award. The Pistons made it to the Conference Finals before being dispatched by the Nets.
Even after the loss, however, the world knew the Pistons and Ben Wallace would be a threat for years to come.
Wallace focused on scoring in 2003-04. He upped his average to 9.5 points a game, which set a career-high at that point. Unfortunately, Ron Artest broke his streak of DPOY awards. Perhaps Ben took it personally, because these two were not exactly friends during their careers.
Anyway, this year Wallace helped the Pistons to the Finals, where the biggest spotlight, and matchup, awaited.
Shaquille O’Neal, who had 4 inches and 50 pounds on Wallace, and was easily the most dominant big man in the game, was Ben’s matchup.
This wasn’t so much David vs Goliath as it was David vs Godzilla on roids and icey-hot.
Shaq had been unstoppable in the Lakers’ past three finals appearances. He had destroyed every defender that had been thrown at him.
Shaq put up 38 a game against Rick Smits, a guy who was 7’4.
Dikembe Mutumbo stood no chance of stopping Shaq from averaging 33 per game. VIDEO show Shaq wagging finger at Mutumbo
But The Big Diesel had never faced a defender like Ben Wallace.
Wallace gave Shaq trouble all series, and held him to his lowest Finals PPG average in a Laker uniform. The rest, as historians like to say, was history, as The Pistons upset the Lakers, and Wallace completed the long road from undrafted player to NBA champion.
By the end of his career, Wallace was a four-time All-Star, led the league in rebounding twice and blocks once, and made the NBA All-Defensive Teams a whopping 7 times.
So when you tell your friend you got a shot at playing in the league and they laugh, just show them this story.
If Ben Wallace can lock up Shaq and beat 7 footers to rebounds, anything is possible.
Follow Us
Subscribe