Former Pistons Wallace, Billups Reportedly To Have Numbers Retired
By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby
According to the Detroit Free Press, former Pistons Ben Wallace and Chauncey Billups will have their jersey numbers retired this season.
Both players were on the Pistons' 2004 NBA championship team, the last time Detroit won an NBA title.
In his eight seasons with the Pistons, Billups (who wore No. 1) averaged 16.5 points, 6.2 assists and 3.2 rebounds while shooting 42 percent. He made the All-Star game the last three seasons he spent in Detroit, although his last with the Pistons was cut short when the team traded him to Denver.
Wallace, whose No. 3 will be retired, won the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006 (all with the Pistons). He averaged 11.1 rebounds, 6.6 points and 2.3 blocks in his nine seasons with the Pistons (from 2000-06 and again from 2009-12). He was an All-Star four times in a row from 2003 to 2006.
The Pistons began their slow decline as a franchise nearly as soon as Billups' and Wallace's 2004 championship team got home from the parade. The team lost in the Finals the next year, lost in the Eastern Conference Finals each of the next two years, lost in the first round in 2008, and missed the playoffs the six seasons after that.
After Billups was traded (in 2008), the Pistons have won more than 30 games in a season twice (finishing 39-43 in 2009 and 32-50 last year).
According to the Free Press story, both Billups and Wallace have already been informed of the organization's intentions to retire their numbers, and that the ceremonies will be at separate games.