“Ben Wallace told me he’d kill me if I ran into him again”: Steve Nash recounts his battles against the Pistons and his ferocious intensity

Steve Nash talks about fighting through screens set by Ben Wallace and how the Pistons DPOY threatened during one of their games. 

Ben Wallace sure made everybody who passed up on him during the 1996 NBA Draft regret their decision as the undrafted senior out of Virginia Union went to have quite the star-studded career. “I was on a mission to let everybody know y’all missed one,” said Wallace about seeing on TV that he didn’t get drafted. 

Seems as though hitting the gym night in and night out, including on the night of the telecast of the 1996 Draft paid off as he soon got his shot in the NBA and didn’t disappoint.

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Many forget that Ben Wallace was a Washington Bullet/Wizard and a part of the Orlando Magic before he ultimately rose to superstardom in Detroit. It would be here, as a Piston, that ‘The Fro’ would establish himself being the premier defensive player in the league. 

He won 4 DPOYs, something only Dikembe Mutombo has ever done. He also joined Kareem, Bill Walton, and Hakeem at the time, as the only players in the NBA history to lead the league in both blocks and rebounds for an entire season. 

Steve Nash on Ben Wallace and his competitiveness. 

Not only did Ben Wallace strike fear into the hearts of players on offense due to his skill, he did so using his competitive vigor as well. ‘Big Ben’ wasn’t to be trifled with on the court as he would most certainly make you pay for it.  

Steve Nash learned this the hard way as he told ‘The Athletic’ about one such run-in with the 4x All-Star. 

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“I was chasing someone off a screen, and he caught me a couple of times. Being a naive competitor, I ran into him as hard as I could the next time. I think he told me that he was going to kill me if I did that again. Sometimes you forget that you’re 6-foot-1-and-a-half and 180 pounds when you’re in the heat of battle.” 

Given that Wallace was 6-foot-9 and 240 pounds of pure muscle, it’s safe to say that getting threatened by him wouldn’t exactly be an ideal scenario. It also speaks to how incredible his screens must’ve been, which Nash gave him props for.