Yzerman retires. OK, saw that coming. But now my all-time favorite Detroit athlete is leaving for Chicago.

Ben Wallace was the heart and soul of the team. He was the key part of the rebuilding of the Pistons. He represented the hard-working overachieving attitude of the city. Now he's gone.

Enjoy, Alex. Chicago's starting to look like a contender. Big Ben is a great player to have on the team.

This...is because Detroit sucks.

*DING* *resonation* *resonation* *resonation*

*DING* *resonation* *resonation* *resonation*

*DING* *resonation* *resonation* *resonation*

The man... in the middle... from Virgin Union... 6'9"... Big Ben Wallace.

GO BULLS! GO BULLS!

Detroit is making me really happy lately, but we all know the Tigers are choke in the playoffs when the Sox stomp 'em and the failures of the Pistons and Red Wings will be outweighed by having to endure another Sox championship.

You guys aren't in that bad of shape. Sheed played Center in college and a lot of minutes there in Portland because Sabonis was propped up on a stick half the time. With McDyess, if you guys make the Al Harrington signing, you guys are still a powerhouse. He'll cost some money. I'm not sure about how the Pistons are with the salary cap, but they can't be too bad. A sign and trade with the Hawks and tweaking the signing bonus could eradicate any cap issues. Losing Wallace and getting Harrington would be an upgrade, but "would Harrington go Detroit?" is the big question. Him next to Lebron would be down right nasty.

I have confidence in Joe Dumars. He will make the Pistons better one way or another. Ben was just my favorite player. You really have to watch him every week to understand how much he brings to the table. The NBA is shifting to a faster pace, score from anyone/anywhere type game and Ben was a leak as far as that style goes.

We'll see about the Tigers. If the pitching holds up, they can do some damage. Just making the playoffs would exceed all expectations here. They have a very young nucleous of players that should be fun to watch for a while.

The Red Wings will compete every year.

Lions have been a work in progress for half a century.

Moment of silence for the great Stevey Y. (This means shut up alex).

A toast......

Just because I have unbridled hatred for AJ doesn't mean I blindly hate everyone who plays for a rival. If Sergei Federov were never a Wing, he probably would've been my second favorite player growing up. The Y would still be amazing if he played this year and when the league in is the tank 5 years from now, hopefull he makes a return and gets his foot in the coaching door and learns those ropes.

I said in another thread that if I'm a Red Wing fan, I'm not very worried. They didn't hire Babcock to retire Yzerman, Shanahan, Chelios, and Lidstrom to rebuild. That's an aggressive organization as are the Pistons. It sucks where your favorite goes away, though. Jordan's retirement was expected all year in '98, but Pippen to Portland was a shot in the dark.

Dumars is a very aggressive GM that understood after losing to the Spurs a year ago that this team needed a face lift and they need to free up money to become a team that can run the floor better.

The Pistons think-tank has put the most ridiculous spin on this, too. That Ben's skills have diminished and the Bulls overpaid. HELLO!!!! The Bulls have a TON of money and Ben Wallace at 40 is better than Tyson Chandler in the middle. I love Chandler. He works really hard and is one of the nicest athletes I've ever met, but he was soooo out of position last year and we were in desperate need of a center. If I were a Piston fan, I'd rather the team just admit that they need speed and scoring. The Bulls need bigs and toughs.

Originally Posted by HSM

I'm no Basketball expert, but I do know that Wallace isn't worth $60 million

When you're a center away from being a championship contender, just drafted the most talented player in the draft, and you're $25M under the salary cap, Wallace is worth $15M a year. That's the sports market for you. What you're talking about does a good job of taking up space on sports talk radio and that's about it.

If Brian Cardinal can get $35M or whatever from Memphis, I think Ben at $60M is ok.

Duuuuuuuude, the NBA is weak.