Ben Wallace (basketball)

Ben Camey Wallace (born September 10, 1974) is an American basketball executive and former professional player who played most of his career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Detroit Pistons.

He is regarded by many to be the greatest undrafted player in NBA history, and was known for his shot-blocking, rebounding, and overall defensive play.

A native of Alabama, Wallace attended Cuyahoga Community College and Virginia Union University.

In his NBA career, he also played with the Washington Bullets/Wizards, Orlando Magic, Chicago Bulls, and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Wallace won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award four times, a record he shares with Dikembe Mutombo.

Ben Camey Wallace was born on September 10, 1974, in White Hall, Alabama, a small town in Lowndes County.

He is the tenth of eleven children.

He attended Central High School in Hayneville where he received all-state honors in basketball, baseball, and football (as a linebacker).

Former NBA player Charles Oakley was Wallace's mentor, having discovered Wallace at a 1991 basketball camp, and later recommended Wallace to his previous college, Virginia Union.

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, an NCAA 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.

As a senior, Wallace was named by the head coaches of Virginia Union's conference, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, to the All-CIAA first team, and was also selected as a first-team Division II All-American by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

After leaving Virginia Union and going undrafted, he travelled to Italy for a tryout with the Italian team Viola Reggio Calabria, where he played only a game in the 1996–97 Italian Basketball Cup against Faber Fabriano on 29 August 1996.

Wallace appeared in only 34 games for Washington in the 1996–97 season and did not play many minutes.

The following year, he appeared in 67 games and started in 16, but did not average many points (3.1) or rebounds (4.8).

He did manage to average 1.1 blocks throughout the season, however, and his defensive play solidified his identity and his minutes increased significantly in the lockout-shortened 1998–99 season, as he started in 16 of 46 games and averaged 6 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2 blocks per game.

Washington was unable to make the playoffs for three straight years.

On August 11, 1999, Wallace was traded to the Orlando Magic in a multiplayer deal for Isaac Austin.

In the 1999–2000 season, he solidified his role as a starter, starting in all 81 games that he appeared in.

He averaged 4.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.6 blocks for the Magic as they won 41 games.

However, the Magic failed to make the playoffs and following the season, the Magic traded Wallace along with Chucky Atkins to the Detroit Pistons as compensation in a sign-and-trade deal for superstar forward and free agent Grant Hill.

In nine seasons with the Pistons (2000–2006; 2009–2012), Wallace made two NBA Finals appearances (2004 and 2005) and won a championship with the team in 2004.

The trade for Hill was considered one-sided, but in the 2000–01 season, Wallace had his most productive season yet, averaging 6.4 points per game while placing second in rebounds with 13.2 per game and tenth in blocks per game with 2.3, but the Pistons could not make the playoffs.

The 2001–02 season would be even better for Wallace, as he averaged his most points per game for a season yet at 7.6 points, while leading the league in rebounding with 13 per game and shot blocking with 3.5.

His strong defensive play earned him the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award, while also being named to the All-Defensive First Team and the All-NBA Third Team.

The Pistons won 50 games and the Central Division, and would defeat the Toronto Raptors in the first round of the playoffs before falling to the Paul Pierce-led Boston Celtics in the conference semifinals.

Wallace opened the playoffs with a 19-point, 20-rebound effort against Toronto, and he managed to grab 20 or more rebounds two more times in 10 total playoff games, his first experience in the playoffs.

The 2002–03 season would result in another Defensive Player of the Year Award for Wallace, as well as another selection to the All-Defensive team along with being named to the All-NBA Second Team, as he increased his rebounding to 15.4 per game.

The Pistons won 50 games and the Central Division again, and defeated Orlando in a grueling seven-game first-round series that included coming back from a 3–1 deficit.

Detroit would go on to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers in six games, but the Pistons were swept by the defending Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Nets in the Conference Finals.

Wallace increased his rebounding to 16.3 per game in the playoffs, and reached 20 or more rebounds four times.

The 2003–04 season saw Wallace continue to rank among the league leaders in rebounding (12.4 per game) and blocks (3.2 per game).

Despite losing out on a third straight Defensive Player of the Year Award to Ron Artest, Wallace increased his scoring average to 9.5 points per game, and was named again to the All-Defensive First Team and the All-NBA Second Team.

The season also featured new head coach Larry Brown, and he would lead the Pistons to 54 wins for the season, which included a late season acquisition of star power forward Rasheed Wallace to further improve the team's defense and scoring.

In the playoffs, the Pistons handily defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in five games in the first round, before facing New Jersey for the second straight year.

Despite taking a two-game lead to open the series, the Nets would put up a fight against the Pistons to win 3 straight games, and the Pistons responded with an 81–75 road win in New Jersey (in which Wallace grabbed 20 rebounds) before wrapping up the series with a 90–69 game 7 win.

The Pistons retired his jersey No. 3 in 2016; Wallace was also inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in the class of 2021.

Wallace currently is the basketball operations and team engagement advisor for the Pistons.