Ben Wallace
Teams
Washington Bullets/Wizards - 1996-99
Orlando Magic - 1999-00
Detroit Pistons - 2000-06, 2009-12
Chicago Bulls - 2006-08
Cleveland Cavaliers - 2008-09
Playoffs
Appearances - 8 (2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009)
Conference Finals - 5 (2003,2004,2005,2006,2009)
NBA Finals - 2 (2004,2005)
Championships - 1 (2004)
Awards and Honors
All-NBA Second Team - 3 (2003,2004,2006)
All-NBA Third Team - 2 (2002,2003,2005,2006)
Defensive Player of the Year - 4 (2002,2003,2005,2006)
Finals MVP - 0 (2004)
Hall of Fame - 2021
*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)
All-Time Ranks
Total Blocks - #16
Blocks Per Game - #25
Total Rebounds - #37
Total Steals - #65
Rebounds Per Game - #75
League Leads
Total Rebounds (#1-2001,2003, #2-2002,2004, #3-2005, #4-2006)
Rebounds Per Game (#1-2002,2003, #3-2001,2005, #3-2004, #4-2006)
Total Blocks (#1-2002, #2-2004,2005, #3-2003, #5-2006)
Blocks Per Game (#1-2002, #2-2003,2004, #5-2005)
Ben Wallace played two seasons of college basketball at a junior college, then transferred to Virginia Union, a Division II school, where he averaged 13.4 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 3.7 blocks per game, and helped his team reach the Division II Final Four, but he was not drafted by any NBA team in the 1996 Draft.
Wallace was able to sign as a free agent with the Washington Bullets, where he hardly played during his first two seasons, but in his third year he averaged 6.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks per game off the bench, and he started to be recognized as a defensive threat.
After 3 years in Washington, he was traded to Orlando, where he would get his first opportunity to be a full-time starter, though he was still only on the court for 24 minutes per game. After the season, Orlando traded him as part of a package to Detroit for Grant Hill, a trade that turned out better for the Pistons than the Magic, surprisingly.
In his first season in Detroit, he led the league in total rebounds, and the next year, he led the league in rebounding with 13 per game, blocks with 3.5 per game, and won the Defensive Player of the Year award. He also got to play in the playoffs for the first time in his career, helping the Pistons to the second round, where they fell to the Celtics.
2002-03 was Wallace's best regular season of his career. He still wasn't a big scorer, with only 6.9 points per game, but he led the league with 15.4 rebounds per game, and blocked 3.2 shots per game, which earned him his second straight DPOY. In the playoffs, the Pistons went one step further than the year before, reaching the Conference Finals before falling to the Nets, even with Wallace averaging 16.3 rebounds per game in the playoffs.
The next year, Wallace increased his scoring to 9.5 per game, and still grabbed 12.4 boards per game, and the Pistons were able to fight their way through the Eastern Conference playoffs to reach their first NBA Finals in 14 years, where they faced the heavily-favored Lakers. The Pistons would go on to surprise everyone by winning the championship in 5 games, with Wallace putting up 18 points and 22 rebounds in the deciding game. Chauncey Billups was named the Finals MVP, but Wallace probably should have won it, especially after his dominant Game 5 performance against Shaq.
Wallace followed up the championship season with another of his best, setting his career high with 9.7 points per game, to go along with 12.2 rebounds and 2.4 blocks, which earned him his third DPOY award. The Pistons again made it through the Eastern Conference playoffs, this time to face the San Antonio Spurs in the Finals, but Tim Duncan was too much, and the Pistons lost in 7 games.
Wallace again took home the DPOY award in 2006, becoming only the second player to win it 4 times, joining Dikembe Mutombo, and the Pistons made it to the Conference Finals for the 4th year in a row, but this time they weren't able to reach the NBA Finals, falling instead to the Miami Heat, with Wallace sitting out the 4th quarter of the deciding game after an altercation with his coach.
The relationship was not able to be fixed, and Wallace left Detroit after the season to sign with Chicago as a free agent. Wallace played nearly 2 seasons with the Bulls, but saw his numbers drop due to knee issues, though he didn't miss many games. He was trade to Cleveland late in 2008, and he was able to reach one more Conference Final series with them, though he was not the star he had been in Detroit.
After a year and a half with Cleveland, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns for Shaq, and was immediately released. He went back to Detroit to finish out his career, playing 3 more seasons with the Pistons, though at a much lower level than in his previous stint with the team.
Wallace is a very unique player. He is the only player on this list to never average 10 points per game in a single season, and the only player on this list who was never drafted by an NBA team since the draft began. He won 4 DPOY awards, the most of any player ever, and led the league in blocks and rebounds in the same season, one of only 5 players to ever do that. Add in a championship where he was probably the best player, and 3 other deep playoff runs during his prime, and you have a player who belong on the list of the greatest players of all time.
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