Detroit Pistons centre Ben Wallace still undecided on retirement – NBA Update
Ben Wallace is not the force of nature he once used to be. The veteran centre has been in the NBA for a long time now, and accomplished pretty much all there is to accomplish in this league. Now age has caught up with the player, but his will to continue
still remains.
Wallace has flirted with retirement in the past, and it had been widely perceived that he would call it a day at the end of the current NBA season. As the campaign draws to a close though, the long-time Pistons player remains undecided about retirement.
Wallace is someone who loves the game deeply, and it is his commitment and passion for the game that helped him attain such a high level even though he wasn’t always the most talented player on the court. In fact, Wallace went undrafted and only came to
the league as a free agent.
Such was his passion for the game though that he developed into one of the most impressive centre’s of the last decade. It is thus understandable that Wallace finds the prospect of saying goodbye to the NBA “depressing”.
"Retirement, to me, is depressing. Depressing," he said in an interview posted by the Chicago Tribune. "It's one of those things where it's not something you want to do; nobody wants to retire from basketball. You want to play basketball forever. Retirement
is admitting to yourself and everybody else that, 'I can't do this job anymore.' “
Wallace was a cornerstone of the 2004 Pistons team that won the NBA World Championship under the stewardship of Larry Brown. It was no mean feat either as they faced off in the NBA Finals against the mighty Los Angeles Lakers, Wallace going head to head
with none other than the legendary Shaquille O’Neal.
He did come out on top though, as did the Pistons. Wallace became famed for his ultra defensive style of play and won multiple NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards. For Wallace, his career was a celebration, which is why he says he won’t be making a big
deal of it when he does retire. That would be a time for some quiet reflecting.
“For me, that's not a celebration. It's the end of something great, giving up something I've been doing all my life, something I've been striving for, trying to be the best at. And now you got to say, 'I'm no longer that?' I don't need a party. When I'm
ready to go, just let me go."
Now an elder statesman in the team, Wallace plays second fiddle to talented young centre Greg Monroe. His presence and leadership though, both inside the court and in the locker room, mean that he would be sorely missed if he does retire.
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