Empty the Bench

Shattered goal fills his soul with a ruthless cry,
Stranger now, are his eyes, to this mystery
He hears the silence so loud!
Crack of dawn, all is gone except the will to be
Now they will see what will be,
Blinded eyes to see
Time marches on, for whom the bell tolls
- Metallica, For Whom The Bell Tolls

Paul Pierce glides by him on the baseline, gently finger-rolling the ball into the hoop and drawing the foul. Ray Allen drives to the elbow, stops, and shoots right over him. Another swish. Rajon Rondo snatches an offensive rebound out of his hands, then P.J. Brown squares up on the baseline and knocks down an effortless jumper in his face.

Back in the day (and when I say that I mean like four years ago), such disregard for Big Ben Wallace’s defensive presence over the course of an entire game was practically unheard of. Nevermind that all of that—along with 0 points (including a missed dunk), 2 rebounds, and 1 steal—happened in the first half alone of Monday’s night pivotal Game 4 win by the Cleveland Cavaliers over the Boston Celtics.

Ben Wallace and Kevin Garnett Photo Credit: Icon SMI

We’ve all seen Wallace’s steady decline these past few seasons, but the hope was that a move to Cleveland playing alongside LeBron James would prove rejuvenating. He never clicked in Chicago with its management, its players, or its fans, but this seemed like a golden opportunity for Wallace to rediscover his basketball self and perhaps turn it back up a little. At 33 years old, nobody expects the Big Ben of his heydey, but surely he hadn’t fall off this much, that fast.

Aside from a few one-offs here and there, however, it really just hasn’t happened.

For someone who grew accustomed to a Ben Wallace who could absolutely dominate in stretches—especially during the playoffs—while he was making a name for himself with the Detroit Pistons, it’s somewhat shocking to hear TNT’s Kevin Harlan say that Wallace “played really well” in Game 3, a game in which he finished with 9 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 28 minutes. He’s averaging just 22:30 minutes/per thus far in the postseason, the lowest of his career.

Not even two years after signing that infamous four-year, $60 million deal with Chicago as an unrestricted free agent, the NBA’s four-time Defensive Player of the Year is now just another guy. A role player. Six fouls. The gongs that used to mark a momentum-changing blocked shot, a thunderous put-back dunk, or an offensive charge taken by Wallace have all but ceased.

And it’s really sad, even a little depressing, to see.

More on Ben Wallace and his stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers after the jump…

The second half began similarly to the first for Big Ben, but this time it was Kevin Garnett nailing a 15-foot baseline jumper in his face. To his credit, Wallace looked a little like his old self in the third, snatching 6 rebounds and finally converting a field goal attempt. But when coach Brown sat Wallace with about 6 minutes to go in the third, that was essentially it. He logged just 7 minutes or so, total, over the final two quarters and posted a pedestrian boxscore of 2 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 steals. With the big-man tandem of backups Joe Smith and Anderson Varejao performing so well together, there was simply no need to roll the dice on the former All-Star.

Of course, there’s (sort of) a happy ending to this little story. Well, happy if you’re a Cleveland Cavaliers fan.

I mean, the Cleveland Cavaliers won—big—so it does, admittedly, feel a little incongrous to write about Wallace in such a light the night his team evened up the series 2-2. (One which by the way is looking more and more like last year’s Eastern Conference Finals between these Cavaliers and the Detroit Pistons. You remember the one. Not saying that’s what’s definitely going to happen here… just saying.)

What does it matter how well Ben Wallace played when his team won?

Well, for one thing I started writing this during the second quarter, so I simply couldn’t turn back. And with this series now reduced to a best of three, Wallace is somebody the Cavs were hoping to count on in such situations when they acquired him back in February. But based on most of his games so far in this 2008 postseason (3.4 points, 7 rebounds, 1.4 blocks, 1 steal), I’m not so sure Mike Brown isn’t tempted to reduce his minutes even further in Game 5. And, ya know, it’s just sort of weird seeing Ben Wallace in a Cleveland Cavaliers uniform.

Watching Ben Wallace—the only player in NBA history to record 1,000 rebounds, 100 blocks, and 100 steals in four consecutive seasons—be a non-factor for most of the playoffs… that’s really weird too.

Tags: Ben Wallace, Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics