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Ben Wallace
| Biography |
Ben Wallace was born September 10, 1974, in White Hall, Alabama. The 10th of 11 children, and the youngest of eight brothers, he spent his early childhood in nearby Benton, which was declared the smallest town in America back in the 1960s. Later, the family moved to White Hall. Ben’s mother, Mama Sadie, was the family matriarch—her word was law, and none of the Wallace boys dared to defy her. She raised food and a small cotton crop near the house, and made all the clothes for her family. Resourcefulness and hard work were a way of life, lessons which Ben took to heart.
There was not a lot of extra cash in the Wallace home (they never had a car and were the last family in the area to get electricity), so all the kids had to pitch in. When Ben and his brothers wanted spending money, they picked pecans or bailed hay for local farmers.
Ben spent a lot of time with his siblings fishing and playing basketball. They had put up a rim on the side of their tiny, three-bedroom house, and with so many kids around, it was easy to get together games of three-on-three and four-on-four. The battles could get mighty fierce. Because he was usually the smallest kid on the court, the only way Ben ever got his hands on the rock was by rebounding it, stealing it, or saving it from going out of bounds. Incredibly, he is still the smallest boy in the family all these years later.
Ben—who would eventually grow to 6-7 and 240 pounds (he’s listed at 6-9, but that’s counting his hair)—was a strong, wiry kid who excelled at baseball, football and basketball. By the time he graduated from Central High School in Hayneville, he would earn All-State honors in each of these sports. He also ran track.
As a teenager, Ben liked to handle the basketball. He fancied himself as a new-age hybrid, blending the skills required by each different position. Sometimes he would take over games and actually play every position, much to the chagrin of his teammates and the annoyance of his coaches. Although Ben liked to boast he could shoot like Isiah, pass like Magic and dunk like Michael, the reality was something short of that.
The skill that turned it all around for Ben was his proficiency as a haircutter. He learned by clipping the ‘do’s of his brothers and sisters, and eventually was good enough to charge $3 a cut to people in the neighborhood. The summer after his sophomore year, Ben saved up enough haircut money to attend a basketball camp in York, Alabama, run by Charles Oakley of the New York Knicks.
Ben was clowning around with his friends when Oakley called him onto the court for a little one-on-one. Certain the teenager wasn’t taking the game seriously enough, the NBA star started hammering Ben on offense and defense, hoping to show him that hoops was a no-nonsense business. To Oakley's amazement, and then his delight, the kid bodied him back every time. Ben’s brother James (who today is probably the world’s tallest preacher) was in the stands ready to step in if things got out of hand, but he could see his little brother was enjoying himself.
Oak split Ben’s lip, Ben bloodied Oak’s nose, Oak bloodied Ben’s nose, and so on and so forth. Later, Oakley explained to Ben that the skills he just displayed might get him to the NBA. Forget about all the Magic Johnson stuff—Ben was a bruiser, and the minute he accepted that fact he could begin thinking about a pro career. Oakley decided to keep tabs on Ben from that point on.
Over the next two years, plenty of scouts traveled to Hayneville, but they were most interested in Ben for his football skills. Tall and fast, he was a stud prospect on defense. But by his senior year, Ben realized he could not give up basketball. When the college recruiters came calling, he told them he would only attend a school that let him “go both ways.” The Auburn University staff gave Ben’s plan a thumbs up, and he signed a letter of intent. But he soon found out that the football coaches meant he could play offense and defense—basketball was completely out of the question. Unwilling to turn his back on hoops, Ben decided that Auburn was not for him.
Isiah Thomas, 1984 Star
Oakley reentered Ben’s life at this point and took him under his wing. When Oak heard about the Auburn mess, he called a friend of his in Cleveland who offered the teenager a spot on the Cuyahoga Community College basketball team. It wasn’t Auburn, but it was a start.
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