15 stars you forgot played for the Detroit Pistons

5. Walt Bellamy

Whenever naive or ignorant fans fix their lips to argue that Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain didn’t play against anyone who was big or talented enough to hang with them — a common tactic used to downplay Russell and Chamberlain’s respective dominance — the late Walt Bellamy should help end that discussion.

Listed at 6’11” and 225 pounds, Bellamy was bigger than Russell and could certainly hold his own against Chamberlain. During his Hall of Fame career, Bellamy went head-to-head with Chamberlain 100 times, faced Russell 75 times, and many of those games were epic battles.

On Jan. 24, 1962, for example, Bellamy posted 47 points and 26 rebounds in a game against Chamberlain, who went for 55 points and 32 boards. A couple of weeks later, on Feb. 5, Bellamy had 34 points and 25 rebounds against Russell, who had 22 points and 22 rebounds in that game.

And by the way, Bellamy was a rookie at the time.

Bellamy began his career with the Chicago Packers (now the Washington Wizards) and made all four of his All-Star Game appearances with that franchise. He was traded to the New York Knicks in 1965, then traded to the Pistons in 1968.

In parts of two seasons for the Pistons — 109 games with no playoff appearances — Bellamy continued to put up double-double averages (14.3 points and 10.2 rebounds per game). After the Pistons traded him to the Atlanta Hawks in 1970, his production stayed at a high level.

Bellamy is mostly associated with the Wizards, Knicks and Hawks. His brief run with the Pistons wasn’t bad; it just doesn’t stand out and is often overlooked, even among the fans who haven’t forgotten about him entirely.