Thinking about it, he admits, only makes his free throws more unpredictable. So the wrist can pop loose when he dunks, or when he falls on his hands, or when he tries to make the perfect free throw. “I spent one summer going to two or three specialists,” Wallace says, “but they all said the same thing: that I pretty much have to get the wrist reconstructed surgery, pins inserted. The surgery, however, cut into some ligaments near his right wrist, he says, thus leaving him with a hand that is sort of like a half-screwed-on bottle cap. He says he would “come out and shoot five shots and then my hand would go dead.” In Orlando, more than a few years back, he says, he needed surgery for carpal tunnel issues. As we enter playoff season, Wallace, the team captain and free agent-to-be, could be looking at his second championship, or his last weeks with this franchise. It is all part of a maturation of Ben Wallace – as a man, a player, a Piston and an NBA star. He shakes his big shoulders and looks at the floor. I’ll come out.’ But they didn’t catch that.” … I mean, two or three games before that, Rasheed (Wallace) was having a good night and Flip was … gonna put (Antonio) McDyess in for him and I go up and tell him, Man, (Rasheed’s) rolling … let him go. “It’s the kind of stuff that happens … but this time, a couple of writers were sitting a little closer to our bench and they caught whiff of it and decided to make a story out of it. He claims he had gone to Saunders earlier in the game, complaining that the team was lapsing into one-on-one basketball. “What I was saying was, Look, if we’re not gonna play to win the game there’s no need to put us out there,’ ” Ben says now. Coming from the ultimate lunch bucket player, the actions stunned fans. This, after Wallace had screamed some unprintables at his coach. He ignored two requests by Flip Saunders, who had taken him out a few minutes earlier. Or the incident a few weeks ago, when he refused to go back into a game in the fourth quarter. Or the fact that he wishes he could apologize to family members he recently lost. Like the fact that he wants to sign back with Detroit after the playoffs, which start this weekend, but retiring here “would be kind of tough.” Pistons fans’ favorite cartoon action hero says almost everything with a deep, laconic voice, but the things he says can jolt you. He shrugs, the way a mechanic shrugs if he needs a new wrench. “And you have to fix it,” I ask, “right there on the free-throw line?” “That’s what happens when I’m shooting free throws,” he says, flopping the right hand now – the one that has been injured for years. The wrist shifts, making a soft cracking noise that sends a shiver down an observer’s spine. Ben Wallace takes his left wrist in his right hand and squeezes.
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