Not this year, not ever

No history will be made this season. The Defensive Player of the Year Award will go to Marcus Camby. Ben Wallace had the opportunity to be the first player to ever win the award five times but it looks like he’s going to have to up his game in order to do that. Until then, he will have to settle being tied with Dikembe Mutombo for four. Ben Wallace is having his worst statistical season since joining Detroit with just six points a game, ten rebounds, a steal, and a couple blocks this season. In the last three seasons we have seen Ben’s stats go from superstar (9.7 ppg, 12.2 rpg, and 2.4 bpg in 2005) to the solid yet unspectacular stat line that the Chicago Bulls have paid $60 million for this year. If this trend continues, then Chicago is going to start spending big bucks for a role player who’s ability to perform that role is steadily declining. That’s what made Ben Wallace such an impossible situation for the management of Detroit. He was the face of the franchise, giving everything he had to help build the Detroit Pistons into the Eastern Conference powerhouse it is today and has been for the past four years. Detroit could have used him another season as a starter and in future seasons coming off the bench. But it was not meant to be. Big Ben wanted big money and a bigger offensive role despite having no offensive game. Joe Dumars decided that the franchise couldn’t afford it and offered him a still lucrative $50 million contract, but Ben wanted none of it. Did Ben deserve a maxed-out superstar contract? Yes, five years ago. If they decided to resign Wallace, Detroit would soon be faced with the same dilemma that will eventually face Chicago: lots of money going to an old timer who cannot produce anywhere near his paycheck. Retiring players, particularly superstars, is no easy task. Often the ego supersedes reality, and that’s the type of thing that ruins teams. Look at the Celtics at the end of the Larry Bird era. Nobody in Detroit wanted that.