Pistons' Rasheed Wallace bought 47 WWE Championship belts after 2004 title
Championship belts making their way into celebrations in leagues like the NFL and NBA are nothing uncommon, but Rasheed Wallace of the Detroit Pistons -- in typical 'Sheed fashion -- took it to the next level in 2004.
Joining the "Pistons Talk" podcast (NSFW) to discuss Detroit's 2004 championship team, Wallace explained that he didn't just buy one championship belt to celebrate the organization's first Larry O'Brien trophy since 1990.
He bought everybody he could a fake WWE title belt.
"I ordered these probably about two weeks after we won the title. They came about a month and a half later. I ordered one for everybody, like our GM, assistant GM, trainers, a couple of the media guys, and, of course, the team. All in all, it was about 47 belts. They came throughout the summer and I just sat on them," Wallace said, setting up the story.
The four-time All-Star went on to explain that he enlisted stadium security to help him sneak boxes of belts into Detroit's locker room on the opening night of the following season -- when the championship banner was to be hung.
After team warmups and a message from head coach Larry Brown, 'Sheed revealed his gift.
The team then hid the belts under their warmup jerseys before revealing them during the layup line before the game.
"You should have seen the jubilation on everyone's face in that locker room. It was awesome," Wallace remembered.
That gift from Wallace led to this iconic picture:
The Pistons haven't won a championship since 2004 and they've barely sniffed the playoffs since, but there was a time when Detroit was one of the dominant franchises in the NBA's Eastern Conference.
The Pistons went to six straight Eastern Conference Finals from 2002-08. Wallace's 2004 championship team is widely considered one of the greatest teams assembled of all time. They didn't have the individual talent of the Los Angeles Lakers squad they beat 4-1 in the Finals, but Wallace, Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Richard "Rip" Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince were lauded for their ability to play all-around team basketball in an era that was starting to become dominated by individual stats and superstars.
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