Hittin' the Links: Ignoring Ben Wallace's Defensive Presence; Looming Labor Trouble Prolonging Sale of Pistons; Bill Laimbeer in Philly; and More

I recently finished my second year of law school, so I should now have time to chime in on a more regular basis.  In honor of the offseason connoting golfing season,  I'm going to start hittin' the interwebs' links on a daily basis, hopefully providing you with enough content to keep your Z-keys active during the dull moments of summer.

• It is hard to believe Ben Wallace, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, didn't receive a single vote for the 2009-2010 NBA All-Defensive Teams.  Even more surprising, though, is that Tayshaun Prince collected one vote, amongst some others who probably didn't deserve a vote over Ben Wallace.  In the end a single vote doesn't mean CV's defense crap, but it would have been nice to see coaches around the league take notice of the Benaissance and at the very least, not give undue credit to another Piston.
• Some of the Pistons voices shared their thoughts on his passing of legendary Tigers' broadcaster, Ernie Harwell (and I appreciate BBF posting this in the FPs).  It's only fitting that the Pistons own legendary play-by-play man, George Blaha, put it most beautifully:

  "Ernie Harwell is really one of the treasures of our state. When you think about the Mackinac Bridge, some of our beautiful lakes in Northern Michigan and some of our great cities, somewhere on that list – and closer to the top than you might think – would be Ernie Harwell."

• Chris Iott of MLIVE doesn't think the sale of the Pistons will happen any time soon due to the looming NBA labor trouble.  It makes sense - who in their right mind would drop $400 million before knowing exactly what kind of labor agreement they're dealing with? Iott says we'll be wondering how long it will be until the Pistons are sold through September 2011.
• There was a lot of griping during this past season, mostly from John Kuester, about Rodney Stuckey not getting enough respect from officials.  Dan Feldman at Piston Powered puts those arguments to rest by doing the research and finding that Stuckey isn't disadvantaged when he takes the rock to the rack.  
• Speaking of Stuckey, MF Mike Payne has done an amazing job putting together the two part series on "The Changing of the Guards."  If you haven't checked out part 1 and part 2 by now, then you my friend are a fool -- a damn fool!  Do it.  
• Bill Laimbeer reportedly interviewed yesterday for the 76ers head coaching vacancy.  It's hard to gauge exactly what their interest is, but I do know that one Hornets blogger would like to see Laimbeer in New Orleans next year, for similar reasons I would have liked to see the former Bad Boy get a shot at the Pistons' gig:

The concern with Bill is that he butts heads with just about everybody he meets. Call me crazy, but I wouldn't mind a coach willing to get into players faces when they don't play with the passion that reflects their pay. His hard-nosed approach to the game is something not seen too often in modern NBA.