Ben Wallace made minor history Tuesday night, becoming just the 17th player in NBA history to record 2,000 blocks in his career.

He's in rare company, though he has been for awhile -- he didn't actually climb any spots on the all-time leaderboard but merely put more distance between himself and Theo Ratliff, who ranks 18th in league history with 1,918 rejections.

Even so, pretty round numbers are easy milestones to recognize, and at 35 years old (and two seasons after most had given up on him), it's as good a time as any to heap praise on Wallace for his consistent dominance on defense.

Undrafted and ignored out of college, Wallace has carved out a niche among the all-time greats by relentlessly committing to doing the dirty work. While other players on the league's all-time rejections list have relied upon unworldly height, Wallace, generously listed at 6-foot-9, simply outworked the competition: no one above him on the leaderboard stands shorter than 6-10. You know the phrase "he's a giant among men?" Wallace is just a man among giants, but he gets the job done like few others.

As luck would have it, on the same night that Wallace became the shortest player in history to tally 2,000 blocks, 24-year-old Josh Smith became the youngest in history to block 1,000. Like Wallace, Smith is also listed at 6-9, and at his current pace has an excellent chance someday not merely to replace Wallace as the shortest of the best but to etch his name near the very top without any qualifiers.

Sound presumptuous? It shouldn't. When Wallace was Smith's age, he hadn't even tallied 100 blocks for his career, let alone 1,000. After five and a half seasons, Smith already ranks 77th all-time in blocked shots. Barring injury, he could play another decade, if not longer, and when you consider he's averaged more blocks per game in his career (2.36) than the likes of Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal and Bill Walton, it's suddenly not so far-fetched to imagine we may be watching a future Hall of Famer at work -- even if he's not (yet) an All-Star.

First, it was Ben Wallace.

Then it was Chauncey Billups.

Then it was Rasheed Wallace.

Next, it looks like Richard Hamilton.

Key players from Detroit's glory years of the past decade slowly have been departing (OK, so Ben Wallace did return this season with less hair and less game). It certainly is showing as Billups calls it "sad'' when he looks at the standings, which show the Pistons through Wednesday at 15-29.

Look for Hamilton to be the next to go. A source close to the situation told FanHouse the Pistons are committed to trading the three-time All-Star guard by next summer. He could be moved by the Feb. 18 trade deadline, but if no suitable deal surfaces it would be a priority during the offseason.

There's only one month left in this season's NBA trade derby. With the biggest summer of free agency since 2000 coming up, there could either be tons of high-level activity ... or small moves only. Time will tell.

In the meantime, let's take a look at 10 players that, due to their contracts, health and/or quality, will be quite difficult to move at the deadline, no matter how badly their teams want to lose them.

You'll note there aren't any 2011 expiring contracts on the list. It's becoming clear at least a handful of teams will sit out Destination 2010 in hopes of taking advantage of a new collective bargaining agreement in 2011, so immediate cap space isn't as much of a concern as it was once thought to be. So Eddy Curry? Jared Jeffries? Dan Gadzuric? Count your blessings.

In 1988, Ossie Schectman, then a mere 68, picked up the phone at his Florida home. On the line was somebody from the NBA.

Schectman wondered what the call was about. He had played one season for the New York Knickerbockers in 1946-47 in the Basketball Association of America, which would become the NBA. But it wasn't as if league officials had put in many calls since then to the man who recently had retired from being a fabric salesman.

Ricky Green of Utah had scored on Jan. 25, 1988 the five millionth point in NBA history, so league officials had set out to find out who scored the initial points. What they learned brought them to Schectman.

"They had started researching and looking back at old newspapers,''Schectman said in a phone interview. "So they said 'You scored the first basket in NBA history.' I was surprised. I never had any idea.''

The Pistons are available! And I'm not talking about Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton. Well, I suppose I am, because I assume you get Tayshaun and Rip for free if you buy the Pistons franchise. Karen Davidson, who took over the Pistons when her husband, longtime owner Bill Davidson, died last year, told reporters during halftime of Detroit's home win over Boston Wednesday that she is in fact looking for bidders for the franchise.

Earlier this week, the Detroit News reported that Davidson has recently asked commissioner David Stern for advice on attracting potential buyers. One rumor is that the Ilitch family, owners of the Red Wings, who desperately need a new arena, could be interested in buying the Pistons and building an NBA/NHL arena in Detroit. The Pistons currently play in the Palace of Auburn Hills, a two-decade old gym an hour out of town renowned for its amenities but aging quickly.

Karen Davidson, who took over ownership of the Pistons when her husband Bill Davidson died last year, has discussed selling the team and the Palace of Auburn Hills with commissioner David Stern and Detroit area shakers, according to a report by Chris McCosky of the Detroit News.

The Palace is aging, and McCosky reports the team will be looking for a new arena soon. That, combined with Davidson's apparent desire to sell, could leave Detroit fans panicked. The owners of the NHL Red Wings are reportedly interested in the Palace as a short-term stand-in for Joe Louis Arena. But the family is not interested in the NBA, McCosky reports.

For the greater part of the last decade, the Detroit Pistons consistently ranked among the NBA's elite. Unfortunately, the team took a monumental step back last season, going from Eastern Conference finalists in 2008 to barely sneaking into the playoffs before being swept out of the first round in 2009.

The team stumbled out of the gate this season, but that was largely chalked up to injury after Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince both went down with injury within the first three games. On Dec. 12, riding the momentum of a five-game winning streak, the team looked like it had weathered the storm, sitting just a single game under .500 (11-12) and primed to make a run up the standings.

Instead, the team has yet to win a single game since. On Monday, the Pistons lost their 13th game in a row -- a 33-point blowout in Chicago -- dropping their record to 11-25 on the season.

Marvin "Bad News" Barnes once played for a team he said was nicknamed the "Detroit Hoodlums'' due to Pistons players regularly bringing guns into the locker room.

But that was three decades ago. That's why Barnes, a former NBA forward, was stunned to hear about Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, who has been suspended indefinitely by the NBA for bringing guns last month into the Wizards' locker room.

"I am really surprised,'' Barnes said in an interview Wednesday with FanHouse. "I didn't know they were still doing that in the NBA. That's why I'm in shock.''

Barnes said it was a common occurrence for Pistons players to bring their guns, which he said were used for protection, into the locker room when he played for them in 1976-77 and during the first part of 1977-78.

"We used to hang our guns up in the locker room,'' said Barnes, who said at least three other Detroit players brought guns to games. "It was common knowledge.''

Think of this as kind of a time capsule, for us to look back on in four months when the playoffs begin, in a year when everything settles, or in future decades when our descendants have cloned Tim Duncan and spliced him with Dane Cook to create the ultimate weapon of both rote efficiency and annoying doom.

Here's where every team in the Eastern Conference stands on January 1st, 2010.

Atlanta Hawks: On pace for their best season since 1997, including their best offensive season ever (Offensive rating of 112.9 according to Basketball Reference) and their best defensive squad since 2001. The Hawks are threatening to make the Eastern Conference a "Big Four" though back to back losses to the suddenly red-hot Cavs have tempered that somewhat. Josh Smith is putting forth a strong effort for most-improved player, defensive player of the year, and the All-Star game.

It's almost mercifully that the Darko Milicic era in the NBA is coming to a close.

It was often too painful to watch.

Milicic, now a seldom-used reserve center for the New York Knicks, came into the league with Detroit as the No. 2 pick of the 2003 Draft, a wide-eyed, 18-year-old youngster from Serbia-Montenegro.

Selected immediately after LeBron James, and ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, Milicic was relatively unknown but supposedly filled with incredible promise as a diamond in the rough.

The roughness never left. The promise never was fulfilled. The desire to play never arrived.

After seven seasons with four teams, all marked by disappointment and criticism for his lack of passion, Milicic will leave quietly without fanfare when this season ends.