Ben Wallace NOT a HOF finalist

[joedumars1]

I'm not sure i'd take Webber or T-Mac over Ben if I had to pick. Ben was our team identity. I remember the years with Stack and watching Ben win us games on the Defensive end. Offense wins games I guess, Defense wins Chips. Don't get me wrong T-mac and Webber were amazing, but with Ben you build that team identity imo

[Han Solo]

Moncrief is long over-due.

[Cowology]

I get the Big Ben love from Piston fans... but looking at it objectively the 2004 team is widely regarded as one of the worst champions in the modern era. The team is also (rightly) recognized for it's balanced starting lineup, which plays directly against individual accolades in a historical sense. You could probably make a MUCH better argument over his 4x DPOY than you could his title or 6x straight ECF appearances.

But IF you were drafting a team how many people outside of Detroit would really take Big Ben over Tmac or CWebb?? I'm guessing not many. You grab your superstar first and then take your defensive C in the 2nd or 3rd round. Ben should make it eventually, but not being a first balloter is probably the right call, and if not it's close enough that I'm not going to take issue with the "snub".

No its not its one of the most impressive NBA Champs ever. They dominated a dynasty level team with no traditional superstar and it was because of Ben Wallace GOAT level defense. Ben Wallace isn't just your everyday defensive C He is top 5 ever in that category. Also Tmac peaked early and was constantly injury he isn't first ballot material either.

Bit of revisionist history here. They did not dominate a "dynasty level team"; they dominate a highly dysfunctional team lead by a feuding Kobe & Shaq with an over the hill Glove, a hobbled Mailman and not much else.

I loved that series and watched it in it's entirety numerous times, but let's not pretend like that Lakers squad was a team of the ages. It was not.

As for the Kings, I'm in the camp of people who believe they got hosed against the Lakers. And yes, the West was brutal during that time. Aside from the stalwarts like LAL & SAS you had teams like the Mavs & Blazers (who would have been 1st in the east). And yes, CWebb was amazing facilitating from the high post, but Vlade & Brad were very good passing big men as well. The number of backdoor cuts that team ran was ridonculous, but watching CWebb throw behind the back bounce passes that hit guys like Doug friggin Christie in stride was pretty damn impressive.

[In SVG We Trust]

Another thing to consider is its the basketball hall of fame not the NBA hall of fame. That being the case, although we're all supposed to forget they ever existed, Webber was the best player on probably the most memorable college team of all time. HOF voters will definitely take that into consideration.

Yeah, T-Mac is a gold medal champion with USA Team, so that has weight into HOF.

[Billl]

Webber isn't getting enuogh respect here. 14 years and averaged a 20/10, and potentially his passing may have been the best part of his game.

McGrady is a tossup due to the injuries. Those orlando years were insane though. He put up 32/6/5 one year. That's right up there with prime seasons from Kobe and Lebron. If he and Grant Hill had been able to stay healthy? Man that would have been a tough team.

[TurboTitan]

people are seriously underrating Chris Webber here smh