How Sad Is Ben Wallace Today, Really?

It was a nice little hope for a while, some sort of jolt of life into a lagging, pallid Eastern Conference playoffs, but now that the Pistons have advanced past the Bulls and set up a presumably smooth trip past whatever "team" collapses forward enough to win the Cavs-Nets series, we're back to our regularly scheduled boredom. And you have to wonder how Ben Wallace is feeling right now.

No matter how sympathetic you may still be toward Ben Wallace, it's unavoidable to face the Bulls in a playoff series without wondering if his $60 million contract was really money well spent. He spent the entire series hobnobbing with his former buds before and after games even as his current teammates were getting obliterated on the court. And then, before two of the three most important games of the year, he was 15 minutes late to the arena. I don't care how bad traffic might have been, taken as a whole these weren't the acts of a true leader.

Seriously, Chicago traffic isn't THAT bad. If these were the old Bulls, they would hire Jack Haley to escort him to the arena. We understand that he is available.

That Wasn't So Hard, Was It? [Detroit Bad Boys]