<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>I know you guys know this but its an intersting read.Ben Wallace is many things ? proud, tough, unyielding. But he?s not stupid. It might have been coincidence that he decided to challenge Scott Skiles? authority in Madison Square Garden ? the mecca of basketball, in the heart of the world?s media center ? but there?s no getting around the fact that it was an act of defiance.A few hours after Big Ben put his name to the four-year, $60 million contract that delivered him from Detroit to Chicago this summer, he went to dinner with Skiles and Bulls GM John Paxson. Skiles leaned over to Wallace and told him then that he should leave his headbands back in Detroit.As Wallace told that story to a member of the Pistons organization, he listened and responded like this: ?Ben, for $60 million, you can probably learn to live without the headbands.? To which Wallace replied, ?I know. I just wonder what else they haven?t told me.?That?s a lousy way to start a very serious relationship. What else they didn?t tell him was that he couldn?t blare his music in the locker room and that he would have to tape his ankles for every game and practice, which he didn?t do with the Pistons because he said it caused pain and limited movement.Chauncey Billups talks to his former teammate and Pistons co-captain on almost a daily basis. He?s seen this coming for a long time.?It?s tough,? Billups said after Monday?s Pistons practice. ?I feel for him. I talk to him all the time and I know he?s frustrated. I know he?s highly frustrated. I know how Ben is. When he?s frustrated, things like (the headband incident) are going to happen. But for the most part, he don?t bother nobody. He do what he do, just mosey along, don?t say nothing. But when he finally does say something, then you know he?s got to the boiling point.?I asked if he believed what Wallace did was done to bring the situation to a head and force a confrontation.?I don?t know, man,? Billups said behind a sheepish smile. ?You?ve got to ask him. I know, but I ain?t saying. You?ve got to ask him.?Ben Wallace built himself into a commodity valuable enough that at least one NBA team thought he was worth $15 million a year. That he managed to do so despite being a legitimate 6-foot-7 with no discernible ball skills speaks to the incredible fire that burns within him. He is completely and wholly a self-made basketball player.Which is where the trouble starts. It?s compounded by the fact that he?s incredibly sensitive. With Big Ben, things that don?t even rise to the level of constructive criticism are taken as great affront. Everything is viewed as a threat to the manhood of an incredibly proud man who believes all the hard work he put in to make himself the four-time Defensive Player of the Year, an All-Star and an NBA champion ought to translate into unchallenged acceptance of his beliefs on basketball and beyond.But he didn?t accomplish any of those things on the Bulls? dime, so he?s got no equity in Chicago. And they?re killing him in the papers and on talk radio. Saturday?s win at New York snapped a six-game losing streak for the 4-9 Bulls, whose team defense has been significantly weaker than a year ago.The night before the Wallace insurrection, the Bulls were hammered at Philadelphia. Skiles yanked Wallace less than three minutes into a game in which he would play not quite 20 minutes and finish with a triple-zero ? points, rebounds and blocked shots. When Skiles noticed the headband two minutes into Saturday?s game, he yanked him again. A series of assistant coaches walked to the end of the bench to get Wallace to relent on wearing his headband, which he finally did. But when he put it on again before the Bulls took the court for the third quarter, Skiles immediately sent Malik Allen into the game for Wallace. Skiles then closed the locker room doors for 25 minutes after the game, 10 longer than allowed under NBA rules.?The Bulls at least need to fine Wallace, if not suspend him, for an egregious act that is way beyond a simple stunt of dissent or petulance,? Chicago Tribune NBA columnist Sam Smith wrote. ?Some who know Wallace say he has gotten caught up in his image, the hairstyle and the Big Ben thing, and Skiles is taking that away from him with the sweatband issue and other team rules. So if Ben can?t be Ben, he?s not going to play like Ben. That will show them! We love to make excuses for the 19-year-olds, but he?s 32.?And Skiles is 42, but every bit as stubborn ? and every bit as much a self-made basketball player ? as Ben Wallace. A few weeks after the Bulls hired him, Skiles made a defiant pronouncement of his own when he found a recalcitrant player on his roster, Eddie Robinson. ?I?ve never lost a battle of wills in my life,? he said, ?and I don?t plan on doing it now.?Is there much chance of a compromised resolution between two men whose success has always been grounded in uncompromising adherence to their own beliefs? Wallace is signed through 2010, Skiles through 2009. If the Bulls decide they have to swallow one contract, guess who wins?Wrote Smith, ?Pistons players say Wallace has burned up the cell-phone satellites in recent weeks complaining about the Bulls, Skiles and signing in Chicago. My guess is the Bulls would gladly take the money and send him back.?The Bulls all but admitted they overspent on Wallace back in July, but chose to emphasize the fact that adding a dominant player to a team that gave Miami a scare in last spring?s playoffs called for a bold move. Around the league, the sentiment seemed to be similar. It was acknowledged that there would come a point over his four-year contract when the Bulls would want to shed themselves of the burden. No one ever guessed it would happen this soon.</div>
well I didnt real it all.. But why wouldnt he keep talkin to them. those are like his best friends... But I also do think Paxson and skiles should of told him about the rules.. Maybe they thought he wouldnt want to come here if they told him. But if rules such as those are going to keep players away then change the rules.. The taping of the ankels.. Thats ok... They dont want to risk players getting hurt which is ok. Thats not a big problem
I don't see why Chicago would have to tell a free agent simple clubhouse rules...When your negotiating a major contract and it looks like the guy wants to sign...going over a headband policy to me doesn't seem like a big deal...For Ben to say, 'I don't know what else they aren't telling me' is just immature and stupid. Your getting $60 million dollars and you were a HUGE move for the team...they are just simple rules...move on...this guy is showing no leadership at all. Ben Wallace didn't wear a headband at Virginia Union or in Orlando...big deal.
