A proper tribute to Ben Wallace’s arm flair
Chauncey Billups (1), of the Detroit Pistons, and teammate Ben Wallace (3),
joke while coming onto the court after a timeout Tuesday during game 2 of an NBA
Eastern Conference semi-final game at The Palace of Auburn Hills. MLive File Photo
Updated: May. 18, 2021, 12:04 p.m.
|Published: May. 18, 2021, 12:04 p.m.
Ben Wallace made wristbands look like superhero accessories, and it elevated his profile from great role player to beloved iconic bruiser of NBA lore.
Not even joking. Not even a little bit. The rebounding and the defense made him a difference maker, but the unique look Wallace crafted for himself made us remember and fall in love.
Read plenty of words this week on Wallace after his induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, but not nearly enough about his arm flair. With the Fro and the bands, Wallace was like the Ultimate Warrior of the NBA. It was such a power combination. No one wanted anything to do with those pipes.
Wristbands, by nature, are so un-cool, but on Wallace they were stylish pieces of basketball swag during the regrettable baggy shorts era of the NBA. God bless Lowndes County, Alabama, which raised Wallace country strong, and then put him on the path to basketball fashion history.
Wallace hiked the bands up his massive arms so they framed his enormous biceps against his hulking shoulders. They were like warning signals of rebounding savagery. They were flagged off property lines for the paint.
Oh, don’t even try it because you already know. You can see these wristbands, right?
Ron Artest backed down to those biceps because he knew. Don’t ever forget that about the Malice at the Palace. Like a chump, always-ready Artest fouled Big Ben from behind, and then, after getting pushed backwards halfway to Detroit, Artest ran into the crowd and fought a fan instead of going back in on Wallace. And who among us mortals can blame Artest for avoiding Wallace? He literally looked like he could have been a cheat-code character in “Street Fighter II.”
Wallace was so fierce on the court. His place in history is now secured, but everyone too young to remember Wallace going for 18 and 22 against Shaquille O’Neal to close out the Lakers needs to recognize it wasn’t just the workmanlike game. It was the style, too. Ben Wallace was so cool I watched Pistons games just to see him bang.
Don’t lie, LeBron. You stood in the mirror like everyone else in 2004 after Wallace bossed Shaq in Game 5. Slipped a wristband up your arm just to see if it made you look cool. It didn’t. History only allows for one man to be that vigorously virile on the court. That man was Ben Wallace of Central High School in Hayneville, Alabama. Go Lions.
So the tale goes, Wallace once gave Charles Oakley a bloody nose in a game of one-on-one in Sumter County, Alabama. It’s the wildest story. Oak was in his prime with the Knicks. Wallace was a junior … in high school.
One of the greatest bits of folklore in NBA tough-guy history, that story came out of a summer basketball camp hosted by Oakley in his mom’s hometown of York. Wallace attended the camp, and learned how to body people the Oakley Way right then and there.
Straight out of White Hall, Wallace is the first undrafted player in NBA history to be inducted into the Hall. He is among the all-time greatest grinders and glue guys and energy freaks in basketball history.
Arguably the greatest defender of his era and any other era, Wallace only averaged 5.4 points per game for his career. His defense was god-like, but did Wallace’s wristband game actually get him inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame?
Let’s not get crazy, but yes.
A case can and should be made for Wallace’s arm fashion putting him in the Hall.
Because here’s the thing. Name another Hall of Famer who made wristbands look like overstretched rubber bands above their biceps? There is no one else. They listed Wallace as 6-9 in the game notes, but everyone always said he was much shorter. Who cares about his height? Just look at those guns.
Do y’all even know how hard it is to have a strong wristband game? Wristbands are the things dorks wore on the racquetball court back in 1983. Pete Sampras wore wristbands, OK? The guy who fought Josh Baskin on the paddle ball court in the movie “Big” was a wristband guy. Rafael Nadal couldn’t even make wristbands cool, and Nadal has so much swag he made capri pants on dudes a legitimate thing.
A guy once tried to wear wristbands like Ben Wallace to a Saturday morning pick-up game, and they banned him from the gym forever.
Repeat: there is nothing cool about a wristband. They even looked kinda silly on Jeter and Jordan.
Not on Ben Wallace, though. They were glorious. Know why? Allen Iverson does. Iverson went first in the historically loaded 1996 NBA Draft, and scored in double figures in 186 consecutive games. Then he scored five wincing points against Wallace and the Pistons on March 20, 2003. Wallace blocked Iverson four times that game.
Could someone explain to me how Erick Dampier went 10th overall in 1996 and Wallace went to Italy after being cut by the Celtics?
Wallace returned and then broke everyone. He even broke up the Lakers.
That’s an alternative form of NBA history because we all know that the Lakers were a mess during the 2004 NBA Finals, but it’s not completely untrue either. Wallace out-rebounded Shaquille O’Neal in the series (by a wide margin), and after it was over Lakers coach Phil Jackson effectively refused to coach Kobe Bryant anymore by asking for a salary jump from $6 million per year to $12 million.
Jackson called Bryant “uncoachable” in a book after that series. It wasn’t that. Mamba just had more respect for Wallace’s beflagged reach than Jackson’s ability to teach.
Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group.
He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.
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