They're trying to bring back the Bad Boys image in Detroit. It's not a campaign to reprise some of the more questionable characters from that time and place -- need we even bother with names? -- but an attempt to make this Pistons team a clone of its championship-driven ancestor in terms of determination, dedication and drive.

So far, the campaign has yielded promising results. The Pistons are one of the most under publicized success stories in the league this season. They may win their first division title since 1990 -- and all of us who saw that coming this year can stand in line. (What line?) They have a Coach of the Year candidate in Rick Carlisle, an Executive of the Year Candidate in Joe Dumars and a Defensive Player of the Year-in-waiting in Ben Wallace.

	Detroit's Ben Wallace (3) has his eye on the league's rebounding and shot-blocking titles.

If anyone embodies this Detroit team, it's the chiseled, glass-eating, lane-intimidating, relentlessly driven Wallace. He could become the fourth player in NBA history to lead the league in blocked shots and rebounds in the same season, joining the select company of Bill Walton, Hakeem Olajuwon and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Unlike those lads, however, he was not the No. 1 pick in his draft class. Or the second. Or even the first pick in the second round. Fifty-eight names were called out on that late June night in 1996, and not one of them was Ben Wallace.

That's fine with Wallace because it's ancient history and he has moved on. He did the Summer Camp Thing and the End of the Bench Thing and the Wait Until It's Your Turn Thing. Agent Steve Kauffman, who represents Wallace, figures the NBA really figured out this guy some four years after the 1996 draft, when, on July 1, 2000, he received more than a dozen calls from teams offering to sign Wallace, right away, for six years out of the mid-level exception.

"I have never had that happen to any of my players," Kauffman said.

Wallace has evolved into one of the more envied commodities in this or any league -- a guy who came from nowhere, works his tail off, doesn't care about offense and lives for the dirty work. Orlando coach Doc Rivers, who had Wallace with the Magic, likens him to a power forward version of Jason Kidd. Celtics center Tony Battie called him "a 2000 Rodman" and marveled that Wallace could be such a force at only 6-foot-8. Carlisle calls him, simply, "a man's man," adding he can think of no higher compliment. What's clear now is that Wallace epitomizes the new Bad Boys as a combination of three of the old ones: Dennis Rodman's rebounding and tireless work ethic, John Salley's shot-blocking and the toughness and grit of Dumars.

Wallace had what Dumars called a "coming-out party" last Sunday on national television against the Celtics, when he inhaled 28 rebounds, the most by anyone in the league this season. He also blocked six shots in the Detroit victory, which kept the Pistons firmly in control of first place in the Central Division. Jerry Stackhouse and Cliff Robinson combined for 52 points in that game, but there was only one Piston anyone was talking about in the Celtics' locker room afterward.

"He doesn't get enough credit for what he does for that team," Paul Pierce said of Wallace. "He attacks the glass. He chases the ball. He's strong. He can defend. He plays his role. He gets offensive rebounds. He really gives them a lot of energy."

Wallace had suggested to Kauffman that he had a big rebound game coming soon. The two chatted 48 hours before the Celtics-Pistons game, and Wallace noted he was only four percentage points behind Tim Duncan for the league rebounding lead. He told Kauffman he'd get a big haul soon, probably that night against the Lakers. Alas, he had "only" 11. He had more than that in one quarter (12 in the third) against the Celtics on Sunday.

You cannot find anyone in the league who doesn't like Wallace or appreciate his story. You want to see guys like him succeed because nothing was bestowed upon him until he went out and earned it. He finally got a big payday when Detroit wrangled him from Orlando in the sign-and-trade deal for Grant Hill, but, even at $5 million to $6 million a year (depending on bonuses), he seems a bargain in this day and age. And while he's the poster child for players who fell through the cracks, he doesn't dwell on it.

	“	I don't want to send the wrong message that just because you were drafted, you're going to make it. Or just because you weren't, and you put in a little work, that you will make it. You just have to continue to work hard, whether you were or weren't drafted. ”
		— Ben Wallace

"I try not to send a message about making it," Wallace said. "What I tell people is that, if given the opportunity, you just go out and work hard. That way, anything is possible. I don't want to send the wrong message that just because you were drafted, you're going to make it. Or just because you weren't, and you put in a little work, that you will make it. You just have to continue to work hard, whether you were or weren't drafted."

That's never going to be a problem for Wallace. And it doesn't look like it's going to be a problem for his team, either. Two other non-drafted players, Chucky Atkins and Michael Curry, start for this team. Another undrafted player, Damon Jones, is part of a powerful bench brigade called "The Alternatorz." Stackhouse has rounded out his game, and the fans of Detroit are slowly but surely beginning to embrace this club, which is much more reflective of the city's personality than previous Pistons teams.

Some of those teams, the ones led by Hill and coached by Doug Collins, were pretty good teams, too. They always made the playoffs. They never got out of the first round. To this day, fair or unfair, that remains Hill's legacy in Detroit.

This team is, like so many others in the East, unpredictable to the point of danger. It lost 11 straight road games in December and January and then won 13 of 15 on the road in January, February and March. The Pistons are for real. As Dumars noted, "You can get by with smoke and mirrors for 25 games. You can't get by with smoke and mirrors for 65 games. We're the real deal."

They are. So, too, is Wallace. You couldn't ask for a better fit. He used to watch the Bad Boys in high school. Now, he's clearly carrying on for them, a more-than-worthy caretaker of a tradition that speaks to his very essence.

Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.