kinda funny how some nba teams try to address uniformality, but it's kinda lopsided; i repeat; what's wrong with wearing headbands and rubber bands and tights, but ok about wearing wristbands pulled up to your upper arms or elbows? it's not like you're letting players wear jewelry out there. and these things are supposed to help; i used to wear headbands just because i thought it was cool, until i tried playing on a hot summer day without it, and found it slightly aggrevating how sweat kept coming down my face and almost into my eyes.

(of course a lot of this curiousity of mine stems from why utah has something against that, and the recent ben wallace incident with skiles)

i WANT to say more on the subject about how by taking away these things, you are not allowing ben wallace to play with the swagger that defines him, that attitude that allows his defensive game to be so awesome, but i really don't know how i'd go about it, and would probably just sound like a fool(i mean, yea i guess to some degree, but it's still a piece of cloth). but i'll try.

i guess to make things "short", the reason why i loved ben wallace so much (at least, when he was a piston), is that yes, he does block shots, rebound, occasionally come up with steals and such, but that's not why he's one of my favorite players in the game; marcus camby comes up with similar stats, there's players which average more blocks per night, etc. it's the combination of that and his swagger that just seemed to exude from him. you know that weird aura that seems to come off ray lewis whenever the ravens' defense takes the field? ben wallace is like that. it was the afro, the swagger, the bell, the way he carried himself in the locker room, his giant hops, everything. it's sorta like his whole body is saying "i'm going to shut you down, and there's nothing you can do about it." ben wallace played off of this type of feeling, and if you didn't like him, you would've just thought he's another Bad Boy in the wrong timeframe. but i believe those that really like him don't just like his shotblocking and rebounding ability; they like that swagger that comes off of him. take away that feeling that he has(i recently learned that while he does have a bad right wrist, it's not that reason why he misses so many free throws; he's honestly THAT amped up during the game; that's how intense he feels on defense), he's probably not going to play with that same fire. and the same intensity.

edit: forgot to write that why ben wallace feels negative against pregame music is that he used to keep an ipod chock full of hardcore hip-hop songs to play hooked up to a loudspeaker in the pistons' locker room before a game to amp everybody up. INTENSE.

edit2: oh crap; biedrins had SIX BLOCKS!!!!?!?!? i remembered watching the kings at warriors game and biedrins went for a LOT of swat attempts. maybe he'll become a good shot blocker real soon.